The causes of gender diversity in Malaysian large firms

The issue of women’s representation 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 the decision-making level in the public sector be filled by women. In 2011, the...

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Main Author:	Abdullah, Shamsul Nahar
Format:	Article
Language:	English English
Published:	Springer 2014
Subjects:	HF5387 Business ethics
Online Access:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/44088/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/44088/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/44088/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/44088/4/gender_problem.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/44088/7/44088-The%20causes%20of%20gender%20diversity%20in%20Malaysian%20large%20firm_SCOPUS.pdf

id	iium-44088
recordtype	eprints
spelling	iium-440882017-09-25T07:39:34Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/44088/ The causes of gender diversity in Malaysian large firms Abdullah, Shamsul Nahar HF5387 Business ethics The issue of women’s representation 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 the decision-making level in the public sector be filled by women. In 2011, the policy was extended to the private sector where 30 per cent of listed firms’ board seats are to be allocated to women with 2016 being the deadline for compliance. To this end, this paper aims at examining 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 than 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, 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 also reveal a positive association between board independence and the proportion of women directors. Further, it is found that board independence is associated positively with the presence of independent women directors. Finally, 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. Springer 2014-11 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/44088/4/gender_problem.pdf application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/44088/7/44088-The%20causes%20of%20gender%20diversity%20in%20Malaysian%20large%20firm_SCOPUS.pdf Abdullah, Shamsul Nahar (2014) The causes of gender diversity in Malaysian large firms. Journal of Management & Governance, 18 (4). pp. 1137-1159. ISSN 1385-3457 E-ISSN 1572-963X http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10997-013-9279-0 DOI 10.1007/s10997-013-9279-0
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	International Islamic University Malaysia
building	IIUM Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English English
topic	HF5387 Business ethics
spellingShingle	HF5387 Business ethics Abdullah, Shamsul Nahar The causes of gender diversity in Malaysian large firms
description	The issue of women’s representation 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 the decision-making level in the public sector be filled by women. In 2011, the policy was extended to the private sector where 30 per cent of listed firms’ board seats are to be allocated to women with 2016 being the deadline for compliance. To this end, this paper aims at examining 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 than 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, 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 also reveal a positive association between board independence and the proportion of women directors. Further, it is found that board independence is associated positively with the presence of independent women directors. Finally, 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	Article
author	Abdullah, Shamsul Nahar
author_facet	Abdullah, Shamsul Nahar
author_sort	Abdullah, Shamsul Nahar
title	The causes of gender diversity in Malaysian large firms
title_short	The causes of gender diversity in Malaysian large firms
title_full	The causes of gender diversity in Malaysian large firms
title_fullStr	The causes of gender diversity in Malaysian large firms
title_full_unstemmed	The causes of gender diversity in Malaysian large firms
title_sort	causes of gender diversity in malaysian large firms
publisher	Springer
publishDate	2014
url	http://irep.iium.edu.my/44088/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/44088/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/44088/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/44088/4/gender_problem.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/44088/7/44088-The%20causes%20of%20gender%20diversity%20in%20Malaysian%20large%20firm_SCOPUS.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T21:02:43Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T21:02:43Z
_version_	1777410730251780096

The causes of gender diversity in Malaysian large firms

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