Headlines have made board diversity one of the key issues in corporate Essay

Headlines have made board diversity one of the key issues in corporate governance today, analyse the composition of the board of - Essay Example The move was prompted by the fact that although organizations sought to include women in non-executive appointments, there were little or no improvements in having women in executive posts (Treanor 2013). According to Neville and Treanor (2012), although the number of women in non-executive positions is on the rise, there is a stubbornly low number in senior management. Although some organizations have heeded to the call to have about 40% of the boardroom seats held by women, Norway which is ranked first has achieved about 35% non-executive directors after the government ordered firms to include women through quotas. In the United States, there are only 20 of the 500 S&P leading companies being led by women chief executives. Despite leading in the high number of women executives, the United States is not governed by quotas unlike European countries where board quotas have seen few female senior leaders and few chief executives. Joecks, Pull & Vetter (2012) highlight that despite the increase in the percentage of women in the workforce over years; there is a lag in the presentation of women in boardrooms as female directors. In addition, Joecks, Pull & Vetter (2012) note that the presentation of women in boardrooms fall behind in Europe owing to imposition of women quotas for countries like Norway, Netherlands, and France among others. The issue of inconsiderate female presentation in boardrooms is not just an issue without a cause. Joecks, Pull & Vetter (2012) reveal that fostering high female presentation in boardrooms is associated with either negative firm performance or positive performance. According to Treanor (2013), most companies have either a male-dominated boards or are all-male boards. The move to seclude women has long been attributed to the fact that males have had the right skills and attributes which could not be found in their female counterparts (Howard, 2013). However, time has changed this rule owing to the fact that more women have taken up education and have the potential to take up executive roles in organizations and promote high performance. Howard argues that organizational management should not be treated as one-size-fits –all and hence the need to consider diversity in the boardroom and more so gender diversity (2013). In addition, companies are needed to do away with governance regimes that do not meet the needs of the market, and changing times (Treanor 2013). Owing the seriousness of the issue, Treanor (2013), reveals that organizations are required to follow Lord Davies proposal in 2011 February which required that all companies to allocate 25% or a quarter of the boardroom seats to women. According to Joecks, Pull & Vetter (2012), the issues of women being underrepresented in boards is not only an issue in Germany but also internationally. According to Adams, Gray and Nowland (2013), the attainment of gender diversity in boardrooms has been a hard task especially where organizations have been left t o voluntarily handle executive appointments. This is because, most organizations have always considered appointing male executives at the expense of women. In this regard, women have faced unfairness and inequality in such appointments thereby remaining disadvantaged. This meant that, female directors have had discrimination and no efforts had changed such culture in organizations. Recently, the issue of boardroom gender diversity is of great focus and has seen countries impose gender quotas with the aim of improving firm performance