What are the relations between the characteristics and context of the board and its effectivity in decision-making?

Abstract

The decision-making process in boardrooms has a significant impact on organizational performance. In the last two decades, scientific research on the decision-making process in boardrooms has increased. This resulted in a substantial body of knowledge about boardroom factors and their relation to organizational performance. However, the effectiveness of the decision-making process in boardrooms is still mainly a black box. Amongst other things, scientific findings seem to contradict each other, which could mean additional insights are still missing. This research aims to contribute to a better understanding of this black box. This is done by providing an overview of the existing scientific literature on the relations between these factors, the circumstances, and the effectiveness of the boardroom. The study described in this paper is based on a preliminary literature research and insights from this study will be used to conduct a more in-depth structured meta-literature review. In addition to insights into the factors and characteristics that influence the decision-making process in boards and the mechanisms that influence the boards effectiveness, the most important insights for follow-up research from this study are: findings from earlier research seem contradicting, and the research area cannot be fully understood by observing it from a single- or even double lens (like boardroom characteristics, psychological factors or organizational perspective). Part of the explanations for the effectiveness of decision-making in boardrooms must be sought in variables that are difficult to observe, difficult to measure, under difficult circumstances from multiple scientific lenses and theories.