- Title
- Manifestation of token behaviours on corporate boards; a qualitative study
- Creator
- Bhardwaj, Sneh
- Date
- 2021
- Type
- Text; Thesis; PhD
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/183609
- Identifier
- vital:16310
- Abstract
- As boards are central to organisational performance, an ineffective board functioning has long remained a matter of concern among corporate governance researchers, board practitioners, policy makers and the media not only in India – the context of this study – but also across the regions of Asia-Pacific, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. An important aspect of boards’ ineffective working concerns directors’ token board behaviours. This debate in corporate governance circles however continuously adheres to a gender/minority-focused approach, attributing token board behaviours to the gender of minority directors on corporate boards (i.e., women directors). The study aims to examine, firstly, the selection process and criteria for corporate board directors’ appointments in India. Secondly, this thesis examines how the quota appointees are being recruited, integrated, and treated by corporate boards in India, to explain the ensuing participation of quota appointees. The third contribution is (from the third and fourth study aims) a more nuanced explanation of token board behaviours of Indian men and women directors (beyond the commonplace explanation of token board behaviours based on the number of minority directors on corporate boards) from an in-depth examination of directors’ board conduct. The research draws on three theories. Firstly, the resource dependence theory (RDT) lens is used to review the literature on board appointments. RDT supports an argument that board composition impacts board processes, dynamics, and culture, and vice versa. Secondly, the token theory, which identifies the inclusion of minority groups as a perfunctory gesture, is used as a putative explanation for effective/ineffective board participation of directors. Thirdly, the institutional theory is applied to examine the findings related to directors’ quota-based board appointments in response to institutional pressures, namely, coercive, normative, and mimetic. An interpretative phenomenological approach informs this study’s research design. I developed four research questions and, to answer these, conducted twenty-seven semi-structured interviews with Indian board directors to obtain first-hand narration of lived experiences in this context. The findings indicate that a majority of directors consider the pre-, during and post-meeting board dis-engagement, impaired board culture, poorly structured board processes, lacunae in director selection including those of the law-supported women directors and board inexperience of directors as determinants of token behaviour on boards, rather than attributing this understanding to the gender of board minorities alone. These results provide an enhanced understanding of token behaviours manifested by board directors. In so doing, new proposals for restructuring directors’ selection processes, quota law’s implementation, directors’ board roles and boards’ internal functioning are offered. The research has implications for regulators, companies, and governments attempting to enhance the corporate governance effectiveness of corporate boards by putting an end to directors’ token behaviours.; Doctor of Philosophy
- Publisher
- Federation University Australia
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Rights
- Copyright Sneh Bhardwaj
- Rights
- Restrict access by author 24 months starting 1 July 2022
- Subject
- Token board behaviour; Gender diversity; Quota law; Corporate boards; Independent directors; Executive directors; Women directors; Board dynamics
- Thesis Supervisor
- Morgan, Damian
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