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Ethics of Care and Employees: The Impact of Female Board Representation and Top Management Leadership on Human Capital Development Policies

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Abstract

While scholarly research on the relationship between female board representation and strategic decision-making has gained momentum, employee policy outcomes have remained relatively understudied. Integrating theory from the ethics of care perspective with research on the glass ceiling and workplace voice, we seek to understand the circumstances under which female directors influence policy changes for firm employees. We argue that firms with increasing female board representation are more likely to enact human capital development policies benefiting firm employees. However, this positive relationship will ultimately diminish as boards accrue an increasing number of female directors. We further predict that the presence of a female leader at the firm (serving in the role of either the CEO or the board chair) will moderate this diminishing effect. Using a sample of S&P 1500 firms, we find support for our hypotheses. The findings from this study provide evidence that while female board representation is positively related to human capital development policies, this effect is nuanced and impacted by the presence of female leadership at the top of organizations. Our paper extends existing research on the nature of female directors’ influence on ethical decisions, emphasizing the impact of these directors on employees.

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  1. All the authors contributed equally and are listed alphabetically.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Managerial Studies, College of Business, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, USA

    Conor Callahan

  2. Department of Management, College of Business and Economics, California State University, Los Angeles, USA

    Arjun Mitra

  3. Department of Management and Leadership, C.T. Bauer College of Business, University of Houston, Houston, USA

    Steve Sauerwald

Authors
  1. Conor Callahan
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  2. Arjun Mitra
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  3. Steve Sauerwald
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Correspondence to Steve Sauerwald.

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Callahan, C., Mitra, A. & Sauerwald, S. Ethics of Care and Employees: The Impact of Female Board Representation and Top Management Leadership on Human Capital Development Policies. J Bus Ethics (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-024-05673-4

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