M.Comm. (Financial Management) / Our planet is getting smaller and older because the population is growing by the second and our resources and means of sustaining life are getting depleted. Companies need to rethink their strategy and business models to do no harm to the environment and society. The board of directors, as custodians of corporate governance, are responsible to direct their corporations towards sustainability performance. This has implications for the manner in which the board act and organise themselves. This study explores whether the board characteristics of sustainability performing companies differs from non-performing companies in terms of the gender; ethnicity; age; affiliation and the background of the directors at specified points in time namely 2004, 2007 and 2010 and how these board characteristics evolved over the specified period. The results should contribute to obtaining an understanding of how boards in South Africa are organising themselves in practice to enhance the sustainability performance of their companies. A comparative analysis using cross sectional data found that companies embracing sustainability performance have significantly more directors with non-traditional backgrounds on their board. A trend analysis using longitudinal data found that sustainability performing as well as nonperforming companies is becoming more diverse. Findings from this study provides practical guidance to companies wishing to integrate sustainability into their governance structures in that companies should consider recruiting directors with non-traditional backgrounds.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:7832 |
| Date | 09 December 2013 |
| Creators | Fourie, Saretha Sara |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | University of Johannesburg |
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