This article investigates the complex interrelation between ethnic and gender diversity, process and performance among groups of business students. The article is based on an empirical survey of business students working on a complex assignment in groups of two to five in a small Swedish university. The results indicate that gender diversity leads to positive group outcomes, while ethnic diversity appears to create negative group outcomes. Intervening process variables, such as group communication, conflict and effectiveness in problem solving, were not found to be influenced by diversity, or to influence group outcomes. While the non-influence of intervening variables can probably be explained by methodological difficulties, the negative outcome for ethnic diversity indicates a need to help students better manage ethnic diversity in order to reap its benefits.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between female representation on boards of British FTSE 100 companies and their corporate performance. The theoretical section sets the foundation for the initial hypotheses that there is a positive relationship between the percentage of women on corporate boards and a firm's profitability, measured as ROE and ROIC. The methodological part establishes an analytical framework to test these hypotheses utilizing the so-called 'quartile approach'. The FTSE 100 companies are categorized into quartiles in accordance with their respective percentage of female directors and subsequently, the average values of ROE and ROIC are calculated for each quartile and compared between each other. The research in the practical part of the thesis shows that profitability varies significantly when comparing the least and most gender diverse FTSE 100 boards. The aim of the thesis was reached by proving the positive correlation between the percentage of female board members and profitability, validated by sensitivity and statistical analyses.

There is much debate amongst academics regarding the contribution of women on corporate boards, particularly, the effect on financial performance. There has been a stride post democracy to ensure equality in South Africa. Although there has been progress, the percentage of women on corporate boards is still microscopic. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of board gender diversity on financial performance of publicly listed companies. Similar studies have been conducted in other countries with equivocal results implying that results are country-specific. Quantitative research methodology was employed, where financial ratios ROE, ROA and Tobin's Q, of companies with gender diverse boards were compared to those of companies whose boards are not considered gender diverse. Gender diverse boards are defined in this study as boards with 25 percent or more female representation on boards. Differences in financial performance of companies with gender diverse boards across industries were also examined. ROE and ROA mean scores were higher for the gender diverse group, whereas, mean scores of the market-based ratio Tobin‟s Q were higher in the group whose boards were not gender diverse. Market-based results are subjective and influenced by investors and analysts perceptions. Tobin‟s Q was higher in industries with lower percentages of women on boards; however, these results were not statistically significant. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The present thesis examines the relationship between innovation and gender diversity in the workforce, through the lens of new firms in the Stockholm Tech start-up ecosystem. Taking a point of departure in a knowledge-based understanding of innovation and firm dynamics, the study explores the relationship between gender and innovation at the firm level. First, the theoretical framework is built on relevant literature and empirical research in a multidisciplinary fashion. Then, a qualitative inquiry is designed with the aim of contributing to the growing research corpus in the intersection of gender diversity and firm capacity to innovate. Employing a qualitative interviewing method, data was collected among founders and founding team members of entry-level tech start-ups in Stockholm. The objective was to document how founders and entrepreneurs, in general, approach gender diversity when building their start-up teams. The analysis reveals that gender diversity, albeit acknowledged as an input to innovative performance, is not prioritized over other human capital aspects, such as talent. This is in line with the bulk of literature that studies the diversity in knowledge base and firm performance, hence highlighting the cognitive aspects of innovation process. The thesis findings are of considerable benefit both for broadening the extant approach to innovation process and for understanding gender diversity dynamics in the workforce.

No / FP7

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2016-07-15T17:00:51Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Karina da Silveira Gaspar_.pdf: 1397809 bytes, checksum: e951133892fb230dbb6fb83f83f03c2d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-15T17:00:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Karina da Silveira Gaspar_.pdf: 1397809 bytes, checksum: e951133892fb230dbb6fb83f83f03c2d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-31 / Nenhuma / Este trabalho tem como principal objetivo analisar as condições que viabilizam às mulheres, que compõem a instituição financeira estudada, ocuparem cargos de alta liderança. A investigação foi realizada por meio de pesquisa qualitativa exploratória, através de 21 entrevistas feitas com homens e mulheres em cargos de liderança executiva e intermediária de um sistema de crédito cooperativo brasileiro, composto por 109 empresas. Após feitas as entrevistas, as mesmas foram analisadas com o uso do software NVivo11, além disso, foram feitas reuniões com a profissional responsável pelo tema diversidade na organização, bem como a análise documental, através de averiguação de relatórios. Os resultados da investigação demonstraram que atributos como credibilidade, empoderamento, gestão de pessoas, iniciativa e proatividade, performance, relacionamento e tomada de decisão, são indispensáveis às mulheres que desejam chegar a cargos de alta liderança, mas que essas ainda precisam vencer muitas barreiras impostas tanto na sociedade, como também na organização estudada, pois ainda encontramos situações de preconceito contra a mulher, além do um ambiente estrutura de trabalho não favorecerem a atração e permanência das mulheres em altos cargos de gestão. Os resultados também demonstraram que, devido a ser uma organização cooperativa, sua cultura favorece a inclusão das mulheres, já que traz em sua essência a questão da igualdade, mas alerta que o poder muito disseminado, também característico desse tipo de instituição, pode muitas vezes distorcer a base da cultura organizacional, através da aplicação de viés pessoal do líder. Observou-se que são praticadas ações de desenvolvimento pela organização e que essas são oferecidas de forma igualitária entre homens e mulheres, contudo, devido à necessidade de integração do gênero feminino aos postos de alta liderança, faz-se necessário a criação de medidas mais direcionadas, o que se acredita que o presente trabalho irá colaborar. Por fim, concluiu-se que as perspectivas de futuro para as mulheres que anseiam ocuparem cargos de liderança executiva são muito positivas, já que a organização demonstra o claro desejo de incluir as mulheres nos cargos estratégicos, contudo, é necessário que as mulheres tenham mais atitude, autoconfiança, perseverança e adequada qualificação profissional. / This research has the main objective analyze the conditions that enable women, who make up the studied financial institution, to achieve the top leadership positions. The research was conducted by an exploratory qualitative research through interviews with 21 men and women in executive and middle leadership positions of a Brazilian credit union system, composed of 109 companies. After making the interviews, these are analyzed with the use of NVivo11 software, in addition, meetings were held with the professional responsible for the theme of diversity in the organization, and document analysis through reports of investigation were made. Research results have shown that attributes such as reliability, empowerment, people management, initiative and proactivity, performance, relationships, decision-making, are essential to women who want to get to high leadership positions, but they still need to overcome many barriers imposed both in society and also in the studied organization, because we still find situations of prejudice against women, in addition to a working structure environment does not favor the attraction and retention of women in senior management positions. The results also showed that due to a cooperative organization, its culture promotes the inclusion of women, since it brings in its essence the question of equality, but warns that the very scattered power also characteristic of this type of institution, which can often sometimes distort the basis of organizational culture, through the application of personal leader bias. It was observed that are development actions undertaken by the organization, but that these are offered equitably between men and women, however, due to the need to integrate female to top leadership positions, it is necessary to create actions more directed, which it is believed that this work will contribute. Finally, it was concluded that the future prospects for women who crave occupy executive leadership positions are very positive, as the organization demonstrates a clear desire to include women in strategic positions, however, it is necessary that women have more attitude, confidence, perseverance and appropriate professional qualifications.

Gender diversity within the boardroom is an important theme in the research of corporate governance. The lack of female directors during recent years have raised attention where the prejudice against women have been a central theme. Especially, in a gender egalitarian country as Sweden. The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between female directors and financial performance, but also the presence of the “glass cliff” theory. The study is based on companies listed on Large Cap in Sweden, where data are collected from annual reports and a database. The collected data are analyzed by several statistical methods. The findings show that female directors do have a positive impact on a company’s financial performance, in terms of accounting-based measurements. However, the market-based measurement does not a provide a significant relationship to female directors, indicating that the Swedish stock market does neither positively or negatively react to a more gender diverse board. As no differences in performance are seen preceding the appointments of females compared to males, no evidence for the “glass cliff” is found. The findings suggest that female directors may enhance the performance of a company and disproves the prejudice against women. Further, the findings indicate that the Swedish boards are becoming more diverse, where precarious situations are not the reason for women to be appointed to the board.

The majority of previous research in the field of board diversity was dedicated to the direct link between board gender diversity and firm performance. Grounded in Agency- and Resource dependence theory, this thesis expands on this research and examines the main relationship including the influence of two additional factors: educational level of female directors and mandatory board gender quotas. Analyzing a sample of 454 European firms (3,871 firm-year observations) over the period 2007-2017, a positive relationship between board gender diversity and firm performance is found. Furthermore, the results suggest that educational levels or board gender quotas do not affect this relationship. The effects on firm performance differ depending on whether legislative measures or voluntary initiatives are in place, i.e. in contrast to legislative quotas, voluntary initiatives enhance firm performance.

Banking as a financial institution and a business has gone beyond providing banking servicesand making profits for the proprietors to assume macro positions like involving in activitiesthat propel an entire economy. This has earned the interest of national governments and thesociety as well as the international community as a whole inciting a need for supervision inorder to ensure sustainability.Banks as corporate organizations with the above stipulated stake holders and management arein a constant tog of war with each stakeholder seeking to protect its own kind which hasdegenerated to a vice often known in corporate governance as agency cost or principal-agentconflict. In corporate governance there is a board of directors that is designed to align theshareholders interest and management interest in order to check this agency cost.In our thesis we have expatiated widely on the concept of corporate governance, board ofdirectors and its composition. We have isolated gender diversity, which is one of thecompositions of the board to find out how it contributes to control agency cost by establishingits effect on ROE, which is a firm performance indicator. We introduced control variables tocheck our results.We collected data from the annual reports of Nordea, Swedbank, Handelsbanken and SEB,which are the listed banks in the OMX NASDAQ exchange Stockholm for period 2001 to2010. The board characteristic we used is the proportion of females in the entire board and thefirm performance indicator we chose is ROE. We carried out a longitudinal study for thewhole industry and for individual firms in the industry over the ten-year period.We have variation in the results over the different firms and in the industry but there is nosignificant relationship. We concluded that the proportion of females in the board rooms doesnot necessarily affect firm performance as viewed with the use of ROE but other factorstogether with gender proportion exert a combined effect and these other factors are correlatedand therefore affect the performance of each other either positively or negatively. Thisscenario was therefore not realistic enough to establish a relationship between genderproportion and ROE.

Esta dissertação trata de modos de funcionamento da norma no campo da sexualidade e relações de gênero em um contexto institucional e político-social de educação para diversidade, em que reiterações e transgressões à heteronormatividade são cotidianamente exercidas. Na contemporaneidade observa-se uma acentuada discursividade acerca das diversidades sexuais e de gênero, com valorização do assunto tanto na mídia quanto na agenda de políticas públicas. Nesta conjuntura, como uma das mais legitimadas instituições de nossa época, a escola é tomada como um espaço estratégico de luta e vem sendo convocada a discutir sexualidade e relações de gênero, gerando possibilidades de tensionamentos da temática no campo da educação. Porém, discursos, instituições e práticas são organizadas de forma heteronormativa em nossa sociedade e a atuação da norma pode provocar arranjos inusitados neste contexto de um projeto de educação para diversidade. Sob a égide da inclusão escolar e através de práticas pedagógicas para diversidade, “novas” sexualidades têm se tornado inteligíveis e aceitáveis, proporcionando reconhecimento e acesso a direitos a sujeitos antes marginalizados ou considerados abjetos. Mas, se por um lado a afirmação identitária e a defesa dos direitos humanos promovem o alargamento dos limites do considerado socialmente normal e a convivência de sujeitos outrora segregados com ampliação do nosso regime democrático, por outro lado também facilitam a normalização dos sujeitos, especificando-os e conformando modos de vida. A partir de uma perspectiva pós- estruturalista com aporte principalmente dos estudos foucaultianos, utilizei estratégias etnográficas em uma escola estadual da cidade de Porto Alegre com o objetivo de apreender e analisar o funcionamento de normas de sexualidade e gênero em um contexto eminentemente preocupado com uma educação para diversidade. Discuto como a heteronormatividade atravessa o dispositivo da sexualidade e se reatualiza por meio da pressuposição de heterossexualidade, pela marcação dos sujeitos que dissidem da norma, pela reafirmação de categorizações em padrões binários de sexualidade e gênero e pela domesticação da diversidade. Como a reiteração da norma é um processo nunca idêntico ao anteriormente exercido e nem completamente acabado, a eventual transgressão à norma e emersão do novo é sempre uma possibilidade instaurada nas práticas cotidianas. / This dissertation deals of modes of operartion in the norm field of sexuality and gender relations in an institutional and political-social context of education for diversity, in which reiterations and transgressions to heteronormativity are exercised routinely. In contemporary times there is a sharp discourse about sexual and gender diversity with an appreciation of the subject both in the media and in the public policy agenda. At this juncture, as one of most legitimate institutions of our time, the school is taken as a strategic space of struggle and has been convened to discuss sexuality and gender relations, generating possibilities of the thematic tensions in the field of education. However, discourses, institutions and practices are organized in a heteronormative way in our society and the actions of the standard may cause unusual arrangements in this context of a project of education for diversity. Under the aegis of school inclusion and through pedagogical practices for diversity, "new" sexualities have become intelligible and acceptable, providing recognition and access to rights to subjects previously marginalized or considered abject. But, if on one hand the identity affirmation and defense of human rights promote the expansion of the limits considered socially normal and the coexistence of subjects yore segregated with expansion of our democratic system, on the other hand also facilitate normalization of subjects, specifying and conforming the ways of life. From a poststructuralist perspective with input primarily from Foucault studies, I used ethnographic strategies in a public school in the city of Porto Alegre with the goal of understanding and analyzing the operation of norms of sexuality and gender in a context eminently concerned with education for diversity. I discuss how heteronormativity goes through the device of sexuality and renews through the presupposition of heterosexuality, by the marking of subjects that disagree with the norm, by the reaffirmation of categorizations in binary patterns of sexuality and gender and the domestication of diversity. As the reiteration of the norm is a process never identical to the previously exercised and not quite finished, the eventual transgression of the norm and emergence of the new is always a possibility brought in daily practices.