Does board gender diversity reduce workplace sexual harassment?

IF 4.6 3区 管理学 Q1 BUSINESS
Shiu-Yik Au, Andréanne Tremblay, Leyuan You
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

Research Question/Issue

We contrast the predictions of gender socialization theory and “fem-power washing” (deceptively positioning as a firm promoting female empowerment without any tangible actions) to investigate whether promoting female directors on the board of directors associates with a reduction in the prevalence of firm-level workplace sexual harassment (SH).

Research Findings/Insights

We estimate the incidence rate of SH through textual analysis of US employees' job reviews published online during the period 2011–2021. We find that an increase of one female director is associated with a 21.81% decrease in workplace SH and that firms with high board gender diversity synchronize the reduction in SH with improved social policies (e.g., policies to better employee relations, health and safety, or diversity challenges). Our results do not support the fem-power washing theory but rather imply that nominating female directors may have a profound impact on the firm's ethical culture.

Theoretical/Academic Implications

This study validates the ethical dimension of corporate governance: Nominating female directors impacts a firm harassment culture and, by extension, a firm's ethical and corporate culture. This study adds to the governance literature that debates the merits of board gender diversity by highlighting an oft-ignored channel through which board diversity affects firm value: ethics and corporate culture.

Practitioner/Policy Implications

For boards of directors, having more female directors can curb workplace SH, a behavior that is associated with a severe and lasting negative effect on firm value. For practitioners, regulators, and the business community, this study reinforces the merits of aiming towards more gender-balanced boards.

Abstract Image

董事会的性别多样性是否减少了工作场所的性骚扰?
研究问题/议题我们对比了性别社会化理论和“femm -power washing”(虚假地将公司定位为在没有任何实际行动的情况下促进女性赋权)的预测,以调查在董事会中提拔女性董事是否与减少公司层面的工作场所性骚扰(SH)的发生率有关。研究结果/见解我们通过对2011-2021年在线发布的美国员工工作回顾的文本分析来估计SH的发病率。我们发现,增加一名女性董事与工作场所性别差异降低21.81%相关,董事会性别差异高的公司将性别差异降低与改善的社会政策(例如,改善员工关系、健康和安全或多样性挑战的政策)同步。我们的研究结果并不支持女性权力清洗理论,而是暗示提名女性董事可能对公司的道德文化产生深远的影响。本研究验证了公司治理的伦理维度:提名女性董事会影响公司的骚扰文化,进而影响公司的伦理和企业文化。本研究通过强调董事会多样性影响公司价值的一个经常被忽视的渠道:道德和企业文化,为讨论董事会性别多样性优点的治理文献提供了补充。对于董事会来说,增加女性董事数量可以抑制职场女性行为,这种行为会对公司价值产生严重而持久的负面影响。对于从业人员、监管机构和商界来说,这项研究强化了以实现董事会性别更平衡为目标的优点。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
7.00
自引率
11.30%
发文量
79
期刊介绍: The mission of Corporate Governance: An International Review is to publish cutting-edge international business research on the phenomena of comparative corporate governance throughout the global economy. Our ultimate goal is a rigorous and relevant global theory of corporate governance. We define corporate governance broadly as the exercise of power over corporate entities so as to increase the value provided to the organization"s various stakeholders, as well as making those stakeholders accountable for acting responsibly with regard to the protection, generation, and distribution of wealth invested in the firm. Because of this broad conceptualization, a wide variety of academic disciplines can contribute to our understanding.
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