Shifting Contexts
Empowering the Boardroom - Intriguing Results from Germany: Does Board Gender Diversity Affect Firm Performance?
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sesile Özbek, Jan Hendrik Meier, Carmen Finckh
Prior literature investigating board gender diversity consistently yields ambiguous results. Our study focuses on the specific German setting with a dualistic board structure and analyzes the causal effects of board gender diversity on firm performance by controlling for endogeneity issues. We examine 96 German publicly listed companies over the period from 2012 to 2022 applying two approaches: First, we evaluate if board women’s ratios impact firm performance, using ROA and Tobin’s Q as performance measures. We apply instrumental variable regressions and observe no significant results. Our second analysis, in contrast, does show significant causal effects as we investigate the impact of the recent German quota laws, FüPoG I and FüPoG II, on firm performance. Difference-in-difference analysis is applicable here, since not all German publicly listed companies are subject to the new legislation. The results show a significant negative effect of mandated quotas in the supervisory board on ROA and a respective positive effect in the management board on Tobin’s Q. We present several explanations for the inconclusive findings and provide inspirations for future research. Overall, our study shows that women’s ratios on boards do not harm or boost firm performance in Germany. Yet, the newly introduced gender quota can either lead to negative accounting performance or strengthen firms’ market performance depending on the type of board and its respective responsibilities.
Shifts in Diversity and Inclusion Maturity in Australia: A Comparative Study of Changes in Workplace Practices and Perceptions
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Wendy Lundgaard
Little is known about the progress and subsequent maturity of diversity and inclusion (D&I) practice in Australian organisations beyond annual reporting of workforce profile data tracking women’s advancement in senior roles and gender pay gap. This research critically examines D&I practices and perceptions captured via surveys, mapping results against eleven dimensions within a three-stage D&I maturity model. Results enable comparison between 2023 progress markers against a similar study in 2016. Perceptions on current D&I practices were collected using on-line surveys completed by employees of varying organisation type and size within Australia. Analysis shows significant slippage in D&I practice with organisations at the ‘advanced maturity stage’ (i.e. Stage 3) declining from 24% in 2016 to 10% in 2023. Dimension level changes show specific areas of maturity decline including the strategic appetite of executive leaders to prioritise D&I, and leaders visibly championing D&I. Changes mean Stage 3 maturity will remain elusive without system-wide commitment to workplace culture reform by leaders and by taking greater ownership of D&I strategy. Findings have implications for practitioners in engaging and sustaining leader buy-in to advance D&I maturity, ensuring all talent can thrive, operate at their best and support organisational excellence.
DEI Leadership Informing Practice: A Qualitative Study of DEI Leader Voices
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Stephanie Hamm
DEI professionals are often part of a leadership team and serve as vice presidents or special assistants to presidents, vice presidents, and in university settings, provosts and members of the cabinet. In larger organizations they may be part of the leadership team in smaller units, such as deans’ offices or area managers’ offices. This paper describes the current study, which is a qualitative exploration into the work of DEI leadership using convenience and snowball sampling. The researcher used a researcher-constructed interview questionnaire exploring several areas of DEI work including skills received and needed to be effective. This questionnaire asked specific questions that get to the skills, strengths, challenges, and limitations that, both, enable and prevent DEI workers to be effective. The researcher chose to use the six steps of reflexive thematic analysis established by Braun & Clarke to discover aspects of DEI leadership that will inform social work practitioners. Initial themes included the following with subsequent subthemes: 1. Relationship Building Is Essential 2. DEI Leaders Must Be Intentional 3. Available Resources advance Continued Learning 4. Self-Care Discourages Burn Out 5. Best Practices Move the Work Forward 6. Sources of Authority Impact Practice. We consider what practicing DEI leaders suggest as best practice in the field. Implications include a need for intentional equipping of current and future DEI leaders and practitioners.
