Paper Example on Women in the Workplace: Enhancing Performance Through Diversity

Introduction

Gender diversity as a topic of concern in the workplace has historically been of interest to many scholars on various fronts pertaining to the management outcomes of the business. Undoubtedly, the majority of literature on the topic of gender diversity support the inclusion of women in the workplace for enhanced performance. This current study takes the discussion of gender diversity in the workplace a step further by evaluating successful outcomes initiated by women in various lead role capacities of various organizations. Moreover, the paper will investigate variations between different women's performances from different countries across the globe. Overall, the study is meant to accumulate knowledge on the successful outcomes of businesses worldwide as a direct result of the inclusion of women in leading management roles in their organizations.

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Among literature evaluated present findings that support feminine authority in the management board. For instance, Pucheta-Martinez and Bel-Oms (2018, p. 12) present their findings in support of the inclusion of women on boards of directors in organizations. The ramifications thereof are such that female board members have a positive influence on decision-making in the organization. To that extent, the research paper brings together a wealth of knowledge from such literature to gauge the extent to which female empowerment has had an influence on the successful outcomes of firms, or otherwise. The wealth of knowledge generated presents various implications for business and industry especially for the future composition of gender diverse leadership management boards of organizations.

Potential Contributions to Literature

Current literature on gender diversity and its leadership outcomes focus on a variety of issues. These range from a comparison of strategy between the EU and the US on gender diversity namely using government quotas versus shareholder resolutions respectively to evaluate business outcomes from a third wave feminist theory perspective (Dobson, Hensley, & Rastad, 2018, p. 348), to whether corporate social responsibility improves with gender diverse boards (Francoeur, Labelle, Balti, & Bouzaidi, 2017, p. 12). Kirsch (2017, p. 15) found it necessary to investigate the causes and implications of quotas on gender diversity outcomes of the organization by conducting a systematic literature review on the topic.

Similar sentiments by Bravo and Reguera-Alvaro (2018, p. 9) concerning the efficacy of gender diversity in audit committees found that including women in the audit committees of businesses has the implication of enhancing transparency and encouraging responsible spending of the business financial resources. Another area of research found in the literature concerns the impact of intervening variables associated with gender diversity specific to regions of the globe. The intervening aspects in ASEAN countries, for instance, are found to be gender inclined indirectly to corporate social responsibility reporting and directly with corporate performance (E-Vahdati, Zulkifli, & Zakaria, 2018, p. 18).

The majority of the literature presented above are concerned with evaluating the positive and negative implications of including women in the workforce specifically in management and leadership positions of the organization. However, none of the literature found so far have a combined outlook on the overall implication of gender diversity on the outcomes of the business. Other than simply focusing on performance, the core contribution of the current study is on combining the knowledge developed from various sources of literature on the topic. As such, the research will evaluate whether women in management have more positive than negative attributes that can be linked to business success or vice versa. The ramifications of the findings will imply that recommendations developed should either encourage or discourage gender diversity in management towards future compositions of gender diversity in leadership roles of organizations.

Major Research Gaps

The current literature is primarily focused on the evaluation of the causes and effects of gender diversity in the management of organizations. Hoang, Abeysekera, and Ma (2016, p. 1), for instance, indicate that board diversity has the implication of enhancing corporate social disclosure. Implying that women's inclusion in the board of directors will result in a more responsible company to its CSR obligations. Interestingly, Manita, Bruna Dang, and Houanti (2018, p. 48) conducted the same research and found results contrary to Hoang et al.'s findings. No significant relationship was found between the inclusions of women on boards of directors with the capacity for disclosure of environmental social governance (ESG).

The overarching point in the literature is the fact that both sides of the debate are represented to an extent that benefits and lack thereof are discussed as pertains to whether inclusion of a diverse workforce in the management positions positively impacts business outcomes. Nonetheless, no literature among those presented has conclusively established whether the inclusion of diversity in leadership yields more positive than negative outcomes or vice versa. In that regard, the current research seeks to close the gap in research, which is whether it is overall positive to include women in management boards as a consequence of more positive outcomes for firm's performance in comparison to a non-diverse leadership.

Major Research Questions

According to Husted and Sousa-Filho (2018, p. 1), differences abound from one region to the next as pertains to the impact of gender diversity on ESG disclosure. Their study that focused on Latin America found that a negative relationship existed between ESG disclosure and women CEOs' inclusion on the board of directors. On the other hand, a positive relationship did exist between board size and independence of directors as pertains to ESG disclosure. These findings contradict with both Manita et al.'s (2018, p. 48) and Hoang et al.'s (2016, p. 1) respectively, that are presented in the immediately previous section under research gaps. Consequently, the variations in research findings present the possibility of the development of research questions that will guide the current study.

From a broader perspective, the study intends to give an answer to the question of whether gender diversity in management has more positive than negative implications as pertains to business outcomes. Further, the research begs the question of whether regional differences show a pattern supporting gender diversity in management overall or discourage it altogether. The research will also ask the question of whether gender diversity is only meant to champion the rights of women's inclusion in management boards regardless of the lack of evidence of positive performance business outcomes for validation. Finally, the research will also look into possible recommendations for business and industry as pertains to the focus on gender diversity in the top management of institutions for the enhancement of organizational outcomes. The specific research questions are as below.

• What is the overall impact of gender diversity in leadership management of organizations across the globe, as pertains to business outcomes?
• Does gender diversity in leadership and management of organizations vary in terms of business outcomes from one region of the world to another?
• Does gender diversity in leadership and management of organizations only serve to attain affirmative action with no valuable implications for business outcomes?
• What advice can be given to policymakers as pertains to gender diversity in leadership and management of organizations towards the future successfulness of business outcomes?

Research Problem

Gender diversity in management is a challenge to achieve across various industry sectors. The vast literature on the topic addresses different aspects of gender diversity in management. Agyemang-Mintah and Schadewitz (2017, p. 35) find that a firm's financial performance and value are pegged on its capability to present itself as a gender-sensitive or inclusive organization. Another aspect views gender roles as imperative in the soundness of organization policies and advocates the inclusion of women in the management boards of firms for the sole purpose of enhancing policy outcomes (Thams, Bendell, & Terjesen, 2018, p. 137). In a Chinese business environment, research showed that gender diversity enhanced decision making of the board of management, hence, advising investors to demand gender inclusivity among management personnel. Equally, policymakers were advised to enhance gender diversity in management as it has the implication of enhancing business performance (Sial, et al., 2018, p. 15).

The challenge that the sources presently have is that they do not provide a holistic evaluation of gender as a positive or negative aspect as it regards the management of organizations and its overall performance. Moreover, the studies all seem to evaluate the benefit of including women in the management of the organizations vis-a-vis the demerits. Nevertheless, none of them considers the fact that gender diversity in management can have an overall positive or negative impact on business outcomes across the globe. Therefore, the current research seeks to close the gap in research by answering the question of whether gender diversity has negative or positive impacts on organizational outcomes across the globe.

Study Aims and Objectives

The aims and objectives of the research can effectively be communicated through sampling a few concepts captured by current literature on the topic under evaluation. One study focused on the evaluation of the link between compositions of boardroom members in terms of gender as pertains to CSR outcomes in developing countries (Yasser, Mamun, & Ahmed, 2017, p. 9). Another study found that CSR reporting in Egyptian companies was primed on attributes such as ownership of the company and managerial body independence as opposed to the actual composition of gender in the leadership of the organization (El-Bassiouny & El-Bassiouny, 2018, p. 19).

Galbreath (2016, p. 24) was concerned with the relationship between CSR mediation of gender parity and its impact on a firm's financial performance. His findings showed that women included in boardrooms enhanced CSR outcomes, which in turn affected the financial performance of the business in a positive manner.