Diversity Perspectives and Minority Nonprofit Board Member Inclusion

Purpose - Using survey data of nonprofit board members from racial/ethnic minority groups, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how the three work group perspectives toward diversity theorized by Ely and Thomas (2001) - discrimination-and-fairness (P1), access-and-legitimacy (P2), and integration-and-learning (P3) - are associated with minority group members\u27 inclusion experiences. Design/methodology/approach - The paper investigates how an organization\u27s motivations for board diversity, as perceived by racial/ethnic minority board members, drive various organizational- and board-level practices and behaviors, and ultimately impact their experience of inclusion. The paper uses two different operationalizations of the diversity perspectives to assess their impact on minority board members\u27 inclusion experiences. The hypothesized model was tested using partial least squares analyses on the responses of 403 racial/ethnic minority nonprofit board members. Findings - Regardless of the measure used, racial/ethnic minority board members experienced increased feelings of inclusion as the perceived operating perspective for board diversity changed from P1 to P2 to P3, while concurrently the mediating factors influencing inclusion experiences changed in significance. Findings support the importance of the integration-and-learning perspective for the experience of inclusion by racial/ethnic minority board members. Practical implications - Findings indicate that organizations that employ an integration-and-learning approach to diversity and focus on encouraging their majority group members to engage in inclusive behaviors, rather than on policies and procedures, will engender the racial/ethnic minorities\u27 experience of inclusion. Originality/value - The paper quantitatively investigated how three organizational diversity paradigms are associated with the individual inclusion experiences of minority nonprofit board members

The Impact of CEO Tenure and Effective Board Performance on Organizational Change

We investigated the impact of CEO tenure on non-profit organizational change with board performance as a mediator. Using data from a survey of CEO’s, we operationalized positive organizational change (POC) as activities such as developing a strategic plan and launching a major initiative or expansion. Negative organizational change (NOC) included actions like cutting staff and using reserves or endowment. Our findings show that CEO’s with less tenure enacted POC and that tenure had no impact on NOC. Further we found that board performance mediates the relationship between CEO tenure and both POC and NOC, supporting the need for effective boards

The Influence of Board Diversity, Board Diversity Policies and Practices, and Board Inclusion Behaviors on Nonprofit Governance Practices

This study examines how and when nonprofit board performance is impacted by board diversity. Specifically, we investigate board diversity policies and practices as well as board inclusion behaviors as mediating mechanisms for the influence of age, gender, and racial/ethnic diversity of the board on effective board governance practices. The empirical analysis, using a sample of 1,456 nonprofit board chief executive officers, finds that board governance practices are directly influenced by the gender and racial diversity of the board and that board inclusion behaviors together with diversity policies and practices mediate the influence of the board\u27s gender and racial diversity on internal and external governance practices. Additionally, we found an interaction effect that indicates when boards have greater gender diversity, the negative impact of racial diversity on governance practices is mitigated. The findings suggest that board governance can be improved with more diverse membership, but only if the board behaves inclusively and there are policies and practices in place to allow the diverse members to have an impact

Women's Leadership Development Programs: Lessons Learned and New Frontiers

The quest to develop talent across all workforce segments coupled with the persistent underrepresentation of women in leadership positions in organizations across the globe has led to increasing demand for women’s leadership development programs (WLDPs) over recent years. This special issue, titled Women’s Leadership Development Programs: Lessons Learned and New Frontiers, considers the use of these programs to foster transformational change (Anderson, Vinnicombe, & Singh, 2008; Debebe, 2011; Vinnicombe & Singh, 2002, 2003; Bilimoria, Joy, & Liang, 2008; Bilimoria & Liang, 2012; Ely & Meyerson, 2000; Fletcher, 2004). In this introduction, we begin with a discussion of transformational learning and change at the individual and organizational levels and go on to highlight five key themes in the literature on women’s leadership programs, identifying some of the questions and issues that motivated this special issue. We then provide a description of each article included in the special issue before concluding with some thoughts on fruitful directions for future research on women’s leadership programs

Owners, managers, and boards of directors: The role of control of the corporation.

The study addresses recent concerns about the nature and consequences of control of the large corporation. The effectiveness of the board of directors in ensuring that the preferences of owners and those of the larger society are maintained, in the face of powerful influences to the contrary, was investigated by examining the moderating influence of corporate control on the relationship between indicators of performance (accounting performance, market performance, firm size, corporate misconduct, and technological competitiveness) and chief executive compensation and turnover. Corporate control was defined in terms of three theoretical perspectives: intercorporate alliances (network control), managerialism (direct control), and agency theory (market evaluations). The results of structural equations modeling and path analyses of the direct and interactive effects of control indicated that although the market's evaluation of the firm's performance was consistently significant in the determination of CEO compensation and turnover, both network and direct control significantly distinguished among firms with respect to the effectiveness of the board of directors in ensuring that owners' interests are maintained in the employment of firm performance criteria for CEO compensation and turnover decisions. Specifically, the results indicated that firms characterized by a high degree of managerial control generally demonstrated little or no concern with the employment of market performance in CEO compensation and turnover, compensated their chief executives higher than did other firms, had significantly higher associations with accounting performance, and negatively associated technological competitiveness with chief executive compensation. Although firms characterized by a high degree of network control generally concerned themselves with the market's evaluations of their performance, they also compensated their chief executives higher than did other firms, positively associated corporate misconduct with changes in compensation, and negatively associated technological competitiveness with the CEO compensation. These results point to the need for the design of differential corporate and social policies that account for the behaviors of firms according as their loci and mechanisms of control vary.Ph.D.Business AdministrationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/104793/1/9116127.pdfDescription of 9116127.pdf : Restricted to UM users only