Introduction
This paper gives a review of the article “Organizational predictors of women on corporate boards”. It covers the questions raised regarding the non-uniformity in female representation on the supreme levels in different organizations. It encompasses the objectives, the hypothetical studies and the methods which are used to analyze the assumptions made by the author.
Women on the board level in management
At the beginning of the article, the author has highlighted the fact of an increasing number of women in the upper echelons in different firms of US during the time period of 1999-2003. The author has selected those firms which have been dominant in sales during this span of time. The entire study has been carried out on the basis of resource dependence theory and based on statistical data that has been collected during the period mentioned above and knowledge provided by different scholars and experts.
Fundamental issues
The prime issue raised by the author points to the non-uniformity in the representation of women on the board levels in management. Furthermore, it also questioned:
- How do the directors influence the linkages between the firm and the external resources?
- What are the conditions under which there are bright chances for a female to be one of the directors?
- How the gender diversity influences the setup of an organization?
Objectives
One of the objectives of the study was to understand the conditions under which a firm has to have female directors. Since an organization depends on its external resources the board member should benefit the firm with his/her influences with those entities. In this regard, the scholars are of the idea that the skills and network ties are of prime importance rather than the gender of the directors. The author while evaluating the resource dependence theory has focused on the benefits which are related utterly to the female representation on the board level. Besides, the article also focuses on the organizational factors that envisage women as the directors of a particular firm.
Another objective was to show that female representation is necessary for a firm not only at the individual level but also at the organization level.
Yet another objective of the study was to present a link between resource dependence and female representation on the boards. For this purpose, the author has first outlined the benefits of network ties of a director and then highlighted the advantages that are exclusively related to the female representation on the board of directors. From different expert resources, it has been told in the article that the director should trim down the reliance of an organization on the resource-providing entities. Moreover, there are some benefits that are specific to the board linkages that are:
- Advisory council
- Authenticity
- Networking channels
While considering the women on the board levels it has been recognized that females should also be given equal representation in the boards as per their potentials in all the three regards mentioned above. The diversification in gender has been most profound when it comes to communication channels and most firms emphasize female representation in this characteristic. As far as legitimacy and advisory council are concerned, gender diversity has down beating as well as encouraging effects on both of these aspects. At the same time, the conditions in which the female representation on the board level gains utmost importance are the size of an organization, nature of the industry, diversification strategy and channeling effects.
Hypothesis
With the considerations mentioned above certain assumptions have been made which are as follows:
- In order to match the communal prospects, most of the huge and well-known firms appoint women as their directors.
- Industries having a large number of female employees encourage female representation on the board level.
- There is an increased probability of female directors in the firms that are dealing in numerous products.
- In order to have better networking with the competitive and non-competitive firms which may have female directors, an organization may include women on its board of directors.
Method
A systematic procedure has been adopted by the author to study gender diversity. It comprises of sampling of 1000 firms that have female representatives onboard levels. Then these are assessed on the basis of different aspects such as organizational size, employees of the firm, communication networks, diversification strategy and control variables.
After all the assessments have been made, evaluations are deduced on the basis of the probability of women on board level can be predicted.
Conclusion
After the collection of all the statistical data and under the light of the deduced evaluations conclusions have been drawn. According to the results found it has been seen that 3 out of 4 assumptions have been accepted. The results are as follows:
Huge organizations are most likely to appoint a female representative on the board level. The probability of a female director increases if it has large female employment and this prospect has a direct relation with the latter. The results support that for the sake of better networking a firm has to have a female director. The only hypothesis that has been rejected is the one that assumes that female representation is necessary for the firms which have multiple ranges of products available in the market.
Comments
The issue of non-uniformity in gender at the upper echelon levels in an organization has forced the author to study different theories regarding the factors influencing the need for female representation on the board level. The author adopted a resource dependence theory to analyze the linkage benefits of directors generally and female particularly and has made a hypothetical study based on the statistical data provided by 1000 US firms. The conclusions have been drawn on these studies as well as considering the other scholarly knowledge. There is still a space for further search in this regard since there are some other theories e.g. institutional theory (as mentioned by the author) which will clarify the issues rose. As far as the female representation on the board level is concerned it is evident from the studies that there are very few situations in which the inclusion of a female director becomes necessary.
Bibliography
Hillman, Amy J., Shropshire, Christine, Cannella Jr., Albert A. 2007. Organizational predictors of women on corporate boards. Academy of Management Journal, 50 (4): 941-952.