Factors affecting gender diversity in Malaysia

The representation of women at the decision-making level in Malaysia has received special attention from the government since 2004, the year in which it adopted a policy requiring that 30 per cent of the posts at decision-making level in the public sector be filled by women. The objective of this pa...

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Main Author: Abdullah, Shamsul Nahar
Format: Conference or Workshop Item
Language:English
Published: 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://irep.iium.edu.my/34303/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/34303/1/2ABRC_Shamsul.pdf
id iium-34303
recordtype eprints
spelling iium-343032014-01-23T05:55:29Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/34303/ Factors affecting gender diversity in Malaysia Abdullah, Shamsul Nahar HF5387 Business ethics The representation of women at the decision-making level in Malaysia has received special attention from the government since 2004, the year in which it adopted a policy requiring that 30 per cent of the posts at decision-making level in the public sector be filled by women. The objective of this paper is to examine the factors that determine the appointment of women to the boards of Malaysian large firms. Large firms were chosen in this study because they have the resources and the capacity to adopt the policy more readily compared to smaller firms. The results reveal that gender diversity is positively associated with board size and the presence of family on the board. That is, the larger the board is, the more likely it is that women sit on it. The fact that the presence of women on the board is associated with the presence of one or more family members on the board means that the appointment of women to the board is very much influenced by family ties rather than commercial reasons. The results show that firm performance is negatively associated with gender diversity. That is, firms with low financial performance are more likely to have women on their boards. Hence, taken altogether, the evidence suggests that the appointment of women to the board is very much driven by tokenism and family connection rather than by the business case. 2013-10 Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/34303/1/2ABRC_Shamsul.pdf Abdullah, Shamsul Nahar (2013) Factors affecting gender diversity in Malaysia. In: Second Asian Business Research Conference 2013, 6-7 October, 2013, Burj Al Arab, Dubai.
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Local University
institution International Islamic University Malaysia
building IIUM Repository
collection Online Access
language English
topic HF5387 Business ethics
spellingShingle HF5387 Business ethics
Abdullah, Shamsul Nahar
Factors affecting gender diversity in Malaysia
description The representation of women at the decision-making level in Malaysia has received special attention from the government since 2004, the year in which it adopted a policy requiring that 30 per cent of the posts at decision-making level in the public sector be filled by women. The objective of this paper is to examine the factors that determine the appointment of women to the boards of Malaysian large firms. Large firms were chosen in this study because they have the resources and the capacity to adopt the policy more readily compared to smaller firms. The results reveal that gender diversity is positively associated with board size and the presence of family on the board. That is, the larger the board is, the more likely it is that women sit on it. The fact that the presence of women on the board is associated with the presence of one or more family members on the board means that the appointment of women to the board is very much influenced by family ties rather than commercial reasons. The results show that firm performance is negatively associated with gender diversity. That is, firms with low financial performance are more likely to have women on their boards. Hence, taken altogether, the evidence suggests that the appointment of women to the board is very much driven by tokenism and family connection rather than by the business case.
format Conference or Workshop Item
author Abdullah, Shamsul Nahar
author_facet Abdullah, Shamsul Nahar
author_sort Abdullah, Shamsul Nahar
title Factors affecting gender diversity in Malaysia
title_short Factors affecting gender diversity in Malaysia
title_full Factors affecting gender diversity in Malaysia
title_fullStr Factors affecting gender diversity in Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed Factors affecting gender diversity in Malaysia
title_sort factors affecting gender diversity in malaysia
publishDate 2013
url http://irep.iium.edu.my/34303/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/34303/1/2ABRC_Shamsul.pdf
first_indexed 2023-09-18T20:49:28Z
last_indexed 2023-09-18T20:49:28Z
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