DOI: 10.11118/978-80-7509-820-7-0219

BOARD OF DIRECTORS & TOP MANAGEMENT TEAM GENDER DIVERSITY IN EUROPEAN COMPANIES

Tomáš MICHALIČKA, Drahoslav LANČARIČ, Xénia SZARKOVÁ

Purpose: In recent years, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a strategic issue for many companies, which do not hesitate to invest a lot of their resources into this concept in order to do their businesses alongside with the positive influence on the society they are part of. One of the areas where the legacy of CSR is continuously increasing is also human resources management (HRM). As a result, diversity, and inclusion together with gender and racial equal career opportunities are areas, which are now very often part of official goals especially of international corporations. The focus of our paper is on gender diversity and equal career opportunities as part of CSR activities in HRM. Using data about 247 large European companies we analyse board of directors and top management team gender diversity. In more details, we review gender diversity of positions within top management and identify leadership roles with highest share of women representatives. We also evaluate leadership gender diversity from different aspects like country, industry, ownership structure, year of the establishment and other. Based on the results we propose a hypothetical profile of ideal company, in which the career growth of women and their chances to become member of board of directors or top management team should not be limited by any type of gender discrimination or prejudice.
Design/methodology/approach: Data used in this research were retrieved from TP Catalyst Database. To analyse raw downloaded data, data-mining methods like classification, clustering and summarization were used. To identify leadership gender diversity structure, percentage of male and female representatives within board of directors and top management team was calculated. Results were then sorted, ranked, and compared using selected criteria like country, business activity, ownership structure, year of the establishment and other.
Findings: This study provides valuable information for company and government decision makers about board and top management gender diversity and equal career opportunities from the perspective of CSR activities in HRM within large European companies. Identified are countries, industries, and other company characteristics with the highest share of women representatives within company leadership roles.
Research limitations: This study does not analyse the impact of external factors like legislation, incentives, regulation, etc. on company leadership gender diversity and on CSR activities in HRM, which could be the focus of the future research.
Practical implications: The paper supports the notion that gender diversity is an important  corporate governance issue. If firms wish to provide correct signals regarding board independence and effectiveness, they should also consider some of the qualitative aspects such as gender diversity. The gender diversity might even act as a substitute for board independence.
Social implications: Acknowledging the role of women in corporate governance best practices can potentially increase the effectiveness of independent directors as it decreases the negative signal of an unbalanced gender board. Female directors send a positive signal to the public regarding a firm’s ethical behaviour towards the society they are part of.

Klíčová slova: gender, diversity, company, management, leadership

stránky: 219-228, Publikováno: 2021, online: 2021