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Women and Employee-Elected Board Members, and Their Contributions to Board Control Tasks

Journal of Business Ethics volume 89, pages 581–597 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

We present results from a study about women and employee-elected board members, and fill some of the gaps in the literature about their contribution to board effectiveness. The empirical data are from a unique data set of Norwegian firms. Board effectiveness is evaluated in relation to board control tasks, including board corporate social responsibility (CSR) involvement. We found that the contributions of women and employee-elected board members varied depending on the board tasks studied. In the article we also explored the effects of the esteem of the women and employee-elected board members, and we used creative discussions in the boardroom as a mediating variable. Previous board research, including research about women and employee-elected directors, questions if the board members contribute to board effectiveness. The main message from this study is that it may be more important to ask how, rather than if, women and employee-elected board members contribute, and we need to open the black box of actual board behavior to explore how they may contribute.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. BI Norwegian School of Management, Oslo, Norway

    Morten Huse

  2. Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy

    Morten Huse

  3. Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Sabina Tacheva Nielsen

  4. FAFO, Oslo, Norway

    Inger Marie Hagen

Authors
  1. Morten Huse
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  2. Sabina Tacheva Nielsen
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  3. Inger Marie Hagen
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Correspondence to Morten Huse.

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Huse, M., Nielsen, S.T. & Hagen, I.M. Women and Employee-Elected Board Members, and Their Contributions to Board Control Tasks. J Bus Ethics 89, 581–597 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-008-0018-4

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Keywords

  • boards of directors
  • corporate social responsibility
  • women directors
  • employee-elected directors
  • board control tasks
  • esteem
  • creative discussions