Women Matter: Gender Diversity as a Corporate Performance Driver

This research essay explores the critical role of gender diversity in driving corporate performance. It examines the impact of women in leadership positions, the benefits of diverse decision-making processes, and the positive correlation between gender diversity and financial success. The essay analyzes studies and data to demonstrate how companies with greater gender diversity achieve higher levels of innovation, creativity, and profitability. It also addresses the challenges and barriers women face in the corporate world and highlights the importance of creating inclusive work environments to foster a culture of equality and opportunity.

Research Essay-
‘Women Matter: Gender diversity, a corporate
performance driver’
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Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Main Body:......................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................10
References:....................................................................................................................................11
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Introduction:
In the management functions, the gender disparity endures to exist and unless we take necessary
steps and find out the root cause the notorious glass ceiling will be continued. The organizations
can be made as better workplace and the profits can be enhanced with the assistance of gender
diversity. The organizations can lead to excellence after getting women leadership, the research
topic of Women Matter: Gender diversity, a corporate performance driver will be discussing all
the vital aspects of women diversity in the corporate world. There are diverse reasons women are
not supported by the corporate organisations but as per the studies, women can uplift the
organisational performance.
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Research Essay Plan
Objectives Time period Steps to be taken Results
Training
opportunities
5 Months For greater gender diversity the
training opportunities should
be provided to the women’s
and they must be given equal
chances to perform in the
organisational activities.
By providing proper
training opportunities it
will lead to more trained
and professional female
employees who can
compete with their male
contenders.
Solving conflicts 2 Months All the thoughts and views of
the male and female employees
need to be taken into
consideration so that there
remains no dissimilarity in
their viewpoints.
By solving the conflicts
between the male and
female employees there
will be better decision-
making process within the
organisation.
Equal
compensations
1 Month For uplifting the gender
diversity bot the male and
female employees need to be
paid equal remuneration by
analysing their efficiency and
the quality of their work.
By paying equal
remuneration to the
employees their morale
can be uplifted.
CSR 2 Months Minimising the discrimination
with the assistance of CSR.
It will motivate the female
employees to perform
better.
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Main Body:
The prerequisite to retain and hire is the best reason to augment the gender diversity in the
corporate organisations. There are nine essential criteria’s that lead to the success of the
corporate organisations like, leadership, accountability, control, direction, innovation, capability,
work environment, motivation, values and gender diversity (Ali, et. al, 2014). Women’s at the
top management of the companies lead to the brilliance of the corporate organisations. Corporate
organisations need to incorporate women’s in their decision-making process to adapt the
continuous changing economic and social trends. Women’s have a chief impact on the buying
process which assists the companies to get better facts about the purchasing structure.
Women’s have been expressive on growing proportion base even in the markets where
traditional buyers are male. To get together the shareholders, clients and the employers so that
the company image can be enhanced gender diversity is very much crucial. In the terms of
gender diversity, the capital arcades and the investors are paying more and more courtesy
towards it. For the successes of the research two studies on the cross sections can be studied. As
per the first study a proprietary McKinsey diagnostic tool was used so that the organisational
excellence can be measured as per its nine criteria’s, by using this tools the evaluation of
115,000 employees of the 231 public and corporate companies were demonstrated as per the nine
criteria’s in correlation of companies excellence, the companies that had gender diversity ranked
among the top opening margins (Badal and Harter, 2014). There should be at least three to four
women’s in the senior management of the company which can result in higher brilliance in the
companies.
In the second study 89 European listed companies were selected that were having a higher
number of women in their senior management and as per the study, the weight in the corporate
decisions than the manager and there were more than two women’s in their senior management.
As per the study, it can also be said that the companies that are having more women in their
senior management also had a great performance in terms of their financial position (Wrench,
2016). The position of women’s in corporate organisations is very adverse as there is gender
discrimination and not gender diversity but with the uplifting policies, they are getting more
chances to prove them.
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(Figure 1: Proportion of companies in each sector split by the number of women’s on the
board, end-2011).
(Source: CREDIT SUISSE AG, 2012).
As per the figure above it can be said that the corporations within every sector which are having
zero, two or more females on their board are the sketchily discourse sectors which are too close
to the concluding shopper like healthcare. The heavy markets like IT have a lesser quantity of
women’s and more than 50% of the IT companies had no women on their board. Some of the
issues related to gender diversity in the workplace are respected in the workplace where the
diversity is crucial so that the work can be more productive. The second issue is of conflicts
where the fights become inevitable after the discrimination and racism in the workplace.
Companies not having gender diversity may lead to less success and even the conflicts may
become explosive. The personal life of a person doesn’t affect the workplace to a major extent
but the lifestyle acceptance may be an issue sometimes. The man vs. women issue is going on
through decades in the workplace and there are issues which are increasing irrespective of the
improved performance after the work of women’s. Worldwide there are significantly lesser
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females in the labour force than their male counterpart. Compared to the 76% of men only 50%
of the women in the labour force were women. There have been great decisions by the
government in many countries to reserve the quotas for women directors in the corporate
boardrooms (McDowell, 2018). There are yet many hurdles in implementing such kind of
policies in the competitive industries. Many of the researchers have revealed that in gender
diversity there are positive associations.
The monitoring role of the boardrooms can be enhanced after arguing the gender diversity which
also positively boosts corporate governance. Gender diversity is very much essential for the
countries that are facing strong external oversights. The relationship of gender diversity at the
workplace may be non-linear as per few predictions. Having a higher number of women’s in the
team prepares the companies to get knowledge of their specific requirements (Hunt, et. al, 2015).
The loss by not having gender diversity can be seen by the example that when the cars with
voice recognition were launched then it failed to recognize the voice of women’s as most of the
people in the team were males.
In the corporate organisation, there is vast discrimination among the genders of the employee's
male employees are more domination on the female ones, which may lead to a diminishment of
useful resources, the female employees may not perform up to the standards after facing the
discrimination. The opportunities are also very low for the women’s in the corporate
organisations which stops the development in this sector. In the heavy industries male can be
given more attention but in other sectors such as hospitality and finance, women’s are given
more priority as it also assists in enhancing the image of the firm (Guillaume, et. al, 2017). There
is basically less number of female participants in the organisations because of the conflicts they
face at such places by their dominating male contenders but with the assistance of the policies
and quotas by the government for women’s they have been able to work freely.
The innovative capacity of the team can be uplifted by increasing the gender diversity within a
group. The business sectors are presently struggling to survive with the commotions the vitality
of gender diversity to limb creativity is very much vigorous. The women managers are
positively associated with such kind of disruptive creativity as the women’s are more likely to
display the behaviours of leadership. The leadership skills are at very much short supply
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presently which leads to great loss to the organisations. The company’s processes are greatly
impacted by the demography of a workgroup. It is vital to note that the issue of gender diversity
at the workplace can be diminished to a simple numbers game. There is developing evidence that
the impacts of women directors on the corporate boards are significantly melded in the broader
context. With the increased number of women members of the directors, the decision-making
process of the board uplifts with the ratios (Cumming, et. al, 2015). Another related factor which
curbs the relationship between gender diversity and the performance in the industrial setting is of
women empowerment.
If compared to the manufacturing industry it depends on the physical capital in the service
industry which can incorporate various factors such as education and hospitality industry. On the
part of the employees and the manufacturing team, close engagement with the clients can create
wider space for the optional behaviour. One of the other factors that bind the creative and prolific
potential of the women employees is of making and engaging the climate of inclusion
(McDowell, 2018). When it comes to the gender diversity there is high-end competition among
the youth in terms of getting jobs and possessing the qualities to work in this market.
The individuals need to go beyond their goals to influence the true latent of the gender diversity.
At the time of influencing the management, necessary steps should be taken so that the women
harassment can be prevented. With the assistance of the inclusionary environment, the gender
diversity can augment the performance as it can’t mechanically result by employing a higher
number of males at the workplace. The companies need to encourage their employees to speak
against the minority issues and gender conflicts in the organisation so that they can utilize the
gender diversity to achieve their desired goals and objectives (Chapple and Humphrey, 2014). If
the employees have high self-esteem and have the power to express them freely then they don’t
need much valued or encouraged an environment to work towards their goals.
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(Figure 2: ROE: 0 vs. 1 or more women on the board).
(Source: CREDIT SUISSE AG, 2012).
In the above image, the 0 vs. 1 or more women on the board chart has been compared, which
assists in four of the chief findings. Number one is the High return on equity (ROE) as per the
chart the companies having one or more women’s in their board over the six years show 16%
which is 4% higher than the usual ones. The net debt to the equity of the firms that have no
women on their board averaged to the 50% and the ones which were having one or more
women’s in their board had marginally 48% lower.
The Higher Price-book value (P/BV) for the firms having women is on usual the third
sophisticated (2.4x) than the ratios of those having no women (1.8x). The companies having
more women’s in their board had better average growth which was 14% over the six years of
2005 to 2011 in the chart shown which was 4% higher than the companies shaving no women on
their board (Rhode and Packel, 2014). The market vision benefit of gender diversity is more
likely to be impressive in the retail sector where the customer satisfaction is paid more
importance. The companies have a higher number of urgency to create gender diversity in their
organisation so that they can stay competitive in the market.
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Conclusion:
As per the research conducted above it can be concluded that gender diversity is very much vital
to enhance the excellence of the companies. Having a number of females at the workplace can be
a precondition for breaking the glass ceiling but it may not be adequate in itself. Women have
the power to come up with the barriers occurred in the dominant model of the corporate
organisations. The issues that are faced by the women’s at the workplace are stated in the
research study along with the graphs that provide data about the organisation having one or more
number of women’s. It is vital to employee women’s in the workplace and takes their decisions
to uplift the performance of the companies.
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References:
 Ali, M., Ng, Y.L. and Kulik, C.T., 2014. Board age and gender diversity: A test of competing
for linear and curvilinear predictions. Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 125(3), pp.497-512.
 Badal, S. and Harter, J.K., 2014. Gender diversity, business-unit engagement, and
performance. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, Vol. 21(4), pp.354-365.
 Chapple, L. and Humphrey, J.E., 2014. Does board gender diversity have a financial impact?
Evidence using stock portfolio performance. Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 122(4), pp.709-
723.
 CREDIT SUISSE AG., 2012. Gender diversity and corporate performance. [Online] Calstrs.
Available at: https://www.calstrs.com/sites/main/files/file
attachments/csri_gender_diversity_and_corporate_performance.pdf. [Accessed on 8 May
2018].
 Cumming, D., Leung, T.Y. and Rui, O., 2015. Gender diversity and securities
fraud. Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 58(5), pp.1572-1593.
 Guillaume, Y.R., Dawson, J.F., Otaye‐Ebede, L., Woods, S.A. and West, M.A., 2017.
Harnessing demographic differences in organizations: What moderates the effects of
workplace diversity?. Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol. 38(2), pp.276-303.
 Hunt, V., Layton, D. and Prince, S., 2015. Diversity matters. McKinsey & Company, Vol. 1,
pp.15-29.
 McDowell, L., 2018. Gender, identity and place: Understanding feminist geographies. John
Wiley & Sons.
 Rhode, D.L. and Packel, A.K., 2014. Diversity on corporate boards: How much difference
does difference make?. Del. J. Corp. L., Vol. 39, p.377.
 Wrench, J., 2016. Diversity management and discrimination: Immigrants and ethnic
minorities in the EU. Routledge.
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