Hull University Business School: Responsible women leading the way
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By Dr Carole Elliott of Hull University Business School
A GOVERNMENT inquiry report by Lord Davies of Abersoch due to be produced in the next two weeks is set to recommend that blue-chip companies be given two years to sharply increase the number of women on their boards, telling them that they need to be more creative in looking for talented women for top jobs, or face the possible imposition of quotas.
The targets that have been mentioned are between 15 to 30 per cent, which is a large rise on the current 12.5 per cent, a figure which has barely increased in the past five years. The UK is already behind many of its European partners, for example, in Norway, there is already a quota of 40 per cent in place similarly in Spain and the Netherlands, and several other countries are considering introducing a target in the near future. In my research I, with Valerie Stead from Lancaster University Management School, have been looking closely at the experiences of women in leadership, not restricted to the hallowed halls of the FTSE 100, but encompassing the unsung heroes of the wider world – those invisible women who work in the background of organisations and community groups and whose achievements are not readily recognised. Ethical practices are often talked about in business, but are less often embedded in the mind-set of the boardroom. In the wake of the economic meltdown, businesses are becoming more accountable to stakeholders and need to show that they are able to deliver sustainable and responsible business for the long-term. Perhaps it is these women who can teach business a lesson or two about ethics and community responsibility. Responsibility was a consistent theme in the experiences of these women. The vast majority were driven by ethical and responsible values, rooted in their own community and worked beyond the boundaries of traditional organisations. Through speaking to so many women, it remains unclear as to why women are so poorly represented in the boardroom, especially as we move into an era of corporate social responsibility. They understand that they are responsible to where they come from, their home community, and to the area in which they work, and that their leadership decisions have tangible, social, cultural and political anchors and impacts on their surroundings. These women are also more aware of what factors are influencing their decisions and how this impacts on their judgements. The move towards more gender equality must be at the top of corporate boards’ agendas. To remove the barrier of the glass ceiling will benefit businesses through delivering a greater complexity of thought and different viewpoints, to shift the perspective on decision making and strategy formation – creating a more diverse team of leaders that is able to find better solutions for a sustainable future. The women in my research may not always be from similar privileged backgrounds of many boardroom leaders or politicians. However, when it comes to understanding an organisation’s duty to be responsible, they definitely have the outsider edge. More articles in
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