Yes / Drawing on collective contributions and group performance perspectives, this paper examines the role of board diversity in firms’ R&D investment decisions. Building on a fault-line argument about a team’s demographic attributes, this study also decomposes the impact of demographic and cognitive diversity on R&D spending. The study sample contains UK data of non-financial companies covering the period between 2005 and 2018. We employ panel data analysis techniques and control for potential endogeneity issues through the application of the two-step system Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) estimations. The findings demonstrate a positive and significant relationship between board diversity and level of corporate R&D spending. The findings also show cognitive diversity as significantly positively associated with corporate R&D investments. Demographic diversity, however, has an insignificant relationship with corporate spending on R&D. The results further show that demographic diversity negatively moderates the relationship between cognitive diversity and spending on R&D. Our main findings document that the board’s attributes as a group significantly influence decisions of strategic importance such as, investment in R&D projects. The findings on sub-dimensions of board diversity imply that as compared to demographic diversity, functional/cognitive diversity is more relevant to strategic decisions and related outcomes. The study has practical implications for shareholders in documenting the importance of board diversity, and policy implications for regulators in highlighting the separate roles of behavioural and cognitive diversity in shaping firms’ strategic investment decisions.

Research has been conducted regarding what relationship demographic diversity have to organisational ambidexterity and team resilience; however never at the same time. This research adds a new context, to this field of research since research has never, to our knowledge, been conducted in a school context. The purpose with this thesis is to explain what relationships gender, age, cultural and tenure diversity have on organisational ambidexterity and team resilience. A cross-sectional research design was used, because of the positivist and deductive approach. The method consisted of a quantitative part in the form of a web based self-completion questionnaire mediated by email, to upper secondary schools, in five Counties, with a minimum of three managers. The qualitative part was in the form of three in-depth interviews, two with School Directors and one with a registrar. The findings shows that gender, culture have a negative relationship to organisational ambidexterity, and age have a positive relationship when moderated by shared vision. The limitations are that only schools with a minimum of three top managers were chosen; the results thereby lack generalisability in other contexts. The implications are that shared vision, when applied to an upper secondary school context seem to decrease in importance and suggestibility. The original value of the conducted study is new insights regarding the relationships demographic diversities have on organisational ambidexterity and team resilience; the choice to conduct the test in a school context.

Team psychological safety fosters interpersonal risk-taking and constructive debate. Yet, how psychological safety develops in diverse teams needs to be explained. I apply collective regulatory lenses to shed light on how collective prevention focus (status quo) and collective promotion focus (growth) uniquely affect team psychological safety. I believe promotion focus makes it easier to attain psychological safety, while prevention focus makes it harder. Under a collective promotion lens, teams seek growth. Under a collective prevention lens, teams desire protection and not making things any worse. A pilot study of 76 students in 17 student project teams provided initial support for individual relationships in my model. In Study 2, an experiment, I manipulated team regulatory foci in three tasks (building towers, selling a house, negotiating a salary). I did not find significant mean group differences in psychological safety between promotion (n = 17) and prevention (n = 15) teams; yet, promotion teams experienced greater team viability in the final activity. In Study 3, I employed an experimental vignette method that suggested leadership conditions (e.g., leader humility vs transactional leadership) created differences in regulatory foci and subsequent differences in psychological safety with 343 working professionals in 7 scenarios.

No description available.

During the last years “Accounting for Diversity” has become a trendy concept, around which the research interest of scholars and the reports published by of the top rated accounting firms have been increasingly evolving. In this paper, the term “Accounting for Diversity” has been addressed within the societal context of the stakeholder concept, in attempt to explore how the Swedish listed companies account for and communicate the demographic diversity of their society constituents in their disclosure means. In order to achieve this purpose, a quantitative approach has been conducted using a content analysis of the disclosed pictures, drawings and symbols in the annual reports and websites of the companies listed on the Swedish Stock Exchange (Nasdaq Stockholm). The data collected was then statistically analysed through a two-step cluster analysis. The empirical results show a preference for companies to use pictures in disclosing demographic attributes and diversity rather than symbols and drawings. Moreover, companies were found to prefer using their annual reports in disclosing the demographic diversity than their websites. Furthermore and regarding the companies’ behaviour in disclosing demographic diversity; large companies, belonging to high sensitive industries, were found to disclose higher levels of demographic diversity in their disclosure means, than the other small ones belonging to less sensitive industries. The results also show that companies belonging to different industries tend to mostly follow a convergent behaviour in accounting for diversity. Thus, it has been concluded that; the companies’ size seems to play a significant role in diverging and converging the companies’ behaviour in accounting for the demographic diversity in their disclosure means, while industry was not found to play a significantly salient role in that.

En s'appuyant sur les modèles théoriques de la démographie relationnelle, du leader-member exchange et du leadership transformationnel, cette thèse examine l'impact de la diversité des âges sur la qualité des interactions, les comportements de leadership transformationnel, et sur la satisfaction au travail et l'engagement organisationnel affectif des managers et de leurs collaborateurs, au sein de deux entreprises high-tech françaises, situées dans la région grenobloise. La diversité des âges est ici considérée sous l'angle des différences, des similitudes et des termes d'interaction entre les dimensions chronologique et subjective de l'âge. Cette recherche gravite autour de la notion que la diversité des âges entre les managers et leurs collaborateurs joue un rôle important dans la qualité de leurs échanges quotidiens et pour les comportements de leadership transformationnel, en influant ainsi sur leur satisfaction au travail et leur engagement organisationnel affectif. Nos résultats montrent que l'âge chronologique, l'âge subjectif et leurs termes d'interaction exercent un rôle important dans les perceptions à l'égard de la qualité d'échanges intervenant au travail entre les managers et leurs collaborateurs directs, selon que les managers sont plus âgés ou plus jeunes que les salariés. De plus, cette thèse montre que la diversité des âges est bénéfique pour l'expression du comportement de leadership transformationnel affiché par les managers. D'une part, nos résultats suggèrent que plus il y a de différences importantes d'âge (chronologique et subjectif) entre les managers et leurs collaborateurs plus jeunes qu'eux, plus les managers sont enclins à afficher un comportement de leadership transformationnel. D'autre part, lorsque les managers sont plus jeunes que leurs collaborateurs, les premiers sont moins enclins à afficher un comportement de leadership transformationnel dans leurs échanges au travail avec les salariés. En outre, plus l'écart d'âge entre managers plus jeunes et salariés plus âgés est prononcé, moins les salariés estiment que leur supérieur serait capable d'afficher un comportement de leadership transformationnel. Nos résultats démontrent aussi la présence d'un effet de médiation par la qualité des relations LMX intervenant dans le lien entre la diversité des âges et la satisfaction au travail, dans le cas où les managers sont plus âgés que leurs collaborateurs. Des effets directs positifs émanant des âges des managers et de leurs collaborateurs sur la satisfaction au travail et sur l'engagement organisationnel affectif – selon que les managers sont plus jeunes ou plus âgés que les salariés – ont également été constatés. Cette recherche souligne l'importance de continuer la réflexion sur le rôle et le sens que les individus attribuent à l'âge, d'une part ; et elle souligne aussi le besoin d'approfondir les effets de cet attribut sur les attitudes et les comportements au travail, d'autre part. Sous un angle pratique et managérial, les résultats de cette recherche pourraient servir aux pratiques managériales dans les entreprises dont les équipes de travail se composent de managers plus jeunes que leurs collaborateurs, ou bien de managers plus âgés que leurs collaborateurs – à la fois chronologiquement et subjectivement. Sous un angle de recherche, ce travail met en exergue l'utilité particulière d'examiner les âges des managers et ceux de leurs collaborateurs de manière simultanée, afin de mieux comprendre leurs effets sur les conséquences organisationnelles examinées dans la présente étude. / Drawing on relational demography, leader-member exchange, and transformational leadership, this dissertation examines the impact of age diversity on the quality of manager-employee work interactions, transformational leadership behaviors, job satisfaction, and affective commitment in two high-tech French organizations. Age diversity is herein considered in terms of differences, similarities, and interaction terms between chronological and subjective dimensions of age. This research posits that age diversity between managers and their dyadic collaborators is paramount for the quality of their daily work interactions, for transformational leadership behaviors, impacting as well on their job satisfaction and organizational affective commitment. Our findings show that chronological age, subjective age as well as their interaction terms play an important role in the perceptions about the quality of work exchanges between managers and their direct reports, depending on whether the managers are younger or older than the employees. In addition, this research shows that age diversity may facilitate managers to display transformational leadership behaviors. On the one hand, our findings suggest that the greater the (chronological or subjective) age differences between older managers and their younger reports, the more likely are the managers to display transformational leadership behaviors. On the other hand, when the managers are younger than the employees, they are less likely to display transformational leadership behaviors at the workplace. Moreover, the greater the age distance between younger managers and older reports, the less likely is for the employees to perceive their younger superiors as able to display transformational leadership. Our results highlight also that the LMX interactions mediate the relationship between age diversity and job satisfaction especially when managers are older than their dyadic partners. Furthermore, this study underscores a number of positive direct effects of managers' and employees' ages on the job satisfaction and organizational affective commitment, depending on whether managers are younger or older than their collaborators. This work highlights the importance of further research on the role and meaning individuals assign to age, on the one hand, and the need for a closer examination of its complex effects on work attitudes and behaviors, on the other hand. In terms of practical and managerial implications, these findings may help managerial practice in the organizations comprising work teams whereby chronologically / subjectively younger managers and older employees or vice versa collaborate daily. As for research implications, this dissertation emphasizes the particular usefulness to simultaneously examine managers' and employees' ages for a more thorough understanding of their effects on organizational outcomes such as those presently studied.

This thesis comprises three research essays. The study documents empirical evidence around the research themes by analysing a sample of the UK’s listed non-financial firms from 2005 to 2018. It applied panel data analysis (fixed or random effects) techniques and the potential endogeneity issue is controlled by using the two-step system, GMM. Earnings-management research holds that manipulating a firm's real activities is more damaging to its long-term growth and value than accruals manipulation. Therefore, by building on agency theory and emphasising board monitoring, first essay investigates the role of independent directors’ tenure and connection to several boards in controlling real earnings management (REM). This study finds that independent directors elected to board before appointment of current CEO are negatively associated with the level of REM. Furthermore, this research provides evidence that REM is higher in those firms whose INDs are connected to several boards at a time. Though economically insignificant in most of the models, this research also shows that the association between INDs’ tenure and REM varies with the phases of their tenure. Directors in the early stage of their tenure are observed as being less effective in controlling REM. However, as INDs’ tenure grows, they employ better oversight over management's conduct, thereby reducing REM. Contrary to this, the extended tenure of INDs is associated with higher REM. These results collectively suggest that the board monitoring role protects the stakes of shareholders/stakeholders by constraining REM; when INDs are free from the influence of CEO, they are not over-committed due to their presence on several boards, and they have moderate board tenure which is neither too short nor too long. Furthermore, drawing on collective contributions and group performance perspectives, second essay explores the role of board diversity in the firm’s R&D investment decisions. Additionally, building on a fault-line argument about a team's demographic attributes, the current research decomposes the impact of demographic and cognitive diversity on R&D spending. The research observes a positive relationship between board diversity and the level of R&D spending. Moreover, this research documents that cognitive diversity is positively associated with R&D investment. However, demographic diversity has an insignificant relationship with firms’ spending on R&D projects. Further, this study confirms that demographic diversity negatively moderates the relationship between cognitive diversity and R&D investment. These results suggest that the board's attributes as a group carry the significance to influence the decisions having strategic importance. The findings on the sub-dimensions of board diversity imply that board functional/cognitive diversity is more relevant to corporate decisions and outcomes than is demographic diversity. Based on the monitoring perspective (agency theory) and resource provision view (resource dependency theory), third essay investigates the role of independent directors’ specific attributes in the corporate propensity to R&D investment. The study documents a positive association between INDs’ moderate (median) tenure and the firm’s spending on R&D projects, but early and extended tenure is observed as being insignificant. INDs with a presence on three or fewer boards are observed to promote R&D investment. However, INDs sitting on more than three boards negatively affect the firm’s propensity to invest in R&D initiatives. Financially expert INDs are negatively associated with corporate R&D investments, suggesting that such directors may resist funding these projects beyond optimal risk level because of their expertise. These results suggest that INDs’ monitoring and advising competence improves as they spend time on the firm’s board, but that extended tenure is counterproductive as it impairs INDs’ impartiality. Furthermore, INDs’ capital (resources) accruing from connection to multiple boards is only beneficial for the firm’s strategic decisions if their monitoring role is not compromised because of their over-commitment (busyness). / Mirpur University of Science and Technology (MUST)