Board diversity and corporate social performance - An Australian exploratory study

Abstract

Board gender diversity continues to be an issue of concern in Australia as highlighted in the quarterly report of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. The target of achieving a 30% representation for women on the ASX200 boards by 2018 is proving to be a considerably challenging task. As of August 2017 only 66 boards have reached this target while there are still 11 companies without any women directors. A few studies examine board diversity in Australia. Sheridan finds that very few companies have women on their boards in 2000 and that women board members are appointed on the basis of "who you know not what you know". Family connections and public visibility are found to be important influences along with business knowledge by women board members in the Australian context by Sheridan and Milgate. Dimovski, Lombardi, Ratcliffe, and Cooper examine the corporate boards of real estate companies in Australia. They find that only 8 women out of a total of 167 board members in 35 companies for the year 2011. In the Australian context a self-regulatory approach is adopted with regard to board diversity as stated in ASX Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations. Unlike in countries such as Norway, Island, Israel and Spain, Australian regulators have continued to emphasise self-regulatory approach similar to countries such as Sweden, Finland, the UK and the USA (Sheridan, Ross-Smith, & Lord, 2015).