In recent years, the composition of boards and, particularly, the inclusion of women on boards has attracted significant scholarly interest and public debate. In this article, I comprehensively review the academic literature on board gender composition. Using the systematic review method, I ask whether women directors really are different from men on boards, what factors shape board gender composition, how board gender composition affects organizational outcomes, and finally, why board gender quotas and other forms of regulation are introduced and what outcomes can be expected. Based on my findings, I develop a conceptual framework that clarifies the causal processes underlying both women's access to boards and the effects of women's presence on boards. Finally, I offer a research agenda designed to enrich our understanding of board gender composition.

The gender composition of corporate boards: A review and research agenda

The effective management of work/life balance (WLB) is an issue increasingly recognized as of strategic importance to organizations and of significance to employees. We argue that an organization's need to attract and retain valued employees in a highly competitive labour market is a strong motivating factor for increased organizational awareness and action with regard to implementation and management of WLB strategies. In this paper, we report the findings of three surveys conducted annually from 1997 to 2000 with organizations in Australia. We explore the range and usage of WLB strategies in Australian organizations and identify the barriers to those strategies. It is evident that, while some achievements have been made over the years, there remain substantial challenges for the uptake and management of WLB strategies.

Achievements and challenges for work/life balance strategies in Australian organizations

Preface, Richard Howitt MEP * Introduction * Part One: Codes of Conduct and Global Deregulation The Political Economy of Codes of Conduct * Labour Rights/Corporate Responsibilities: The Role of ILO Labour Standards * 'I'll Tell You What I want ': Women Workers and Codes of Conduct * Mapping Codes Through the Value Chain: From Researcher to Detective * Part Two: Codes of Conduct Perspectives from Stakeholders on the Global Production Chains. Stakeholders Perspectives: Beyond Codes: Lessons from the Pentland Experience * The International Trade Union Movement and the New Codes of Conduct * The Emperor's New Clothes: What Codes Mean for Workers in the Garment Industry * Can Codes of Conduct Help Home-based Workers * Regional Perspectives: 'Made in China': Rules and Regulations Versus Codes of Conduct in the Toy Sector * The Contradiction in Codes: The Sri Lankan Experience * The Potential of codes as Part of Women's Organizations' Strategies for Promoting the Rights of Women Workers: a Central American Perspective. * The Fox Guarding the Chicken Coop: Garment Industry Monitoring in Los Angeles * Practical Issues in Developing and Implementing Codes: Working with Codes: Perspectives from the Clean Clothes Campaign * ETI: a Multi-stakeholder Approach * Monitoring the Monitors: a Critique of the Third-party Labour Monitoring * Code Monitoring in the Informal Fair Trade Sector: The Experience of Oxfam GB * Appendix 1: Useful Web Sites * Index

International and Comparative Industrial Relations@@@Corporate Responsibility and Labour Rights: Codes of Conduct in the Global Economy

Sustainability within planetary boundaries requires concerted action by individuals, governments, civil society and private actors. For the private sector, there is concern that the power exercised by transnational corporations generates, and is even central to, global environmental change. Here, we ask under which conditions transnational corporations could either hinder or promote a global shift towards sustainability. We show that a handful of transnational corporations have become a major force shaping the global intertwined system of people and planet. Transnational corporations in agriculture, forestry, seafood, cement, minerals and fossil energy cause environmental impacts and possess the ability to influence critical functions of the biosphere. We review evidence of current practices and identify six observed features of change towards 'corporate biosphere stewardship', with significant potential for upscaling. Actions by transnational corporations, if combined with effective public policies and improved governmental regulations, could substantially accelerate sustainability efforts.

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Transnational corporations and the challenge of biosphere stewardship

Impact of board gender diversity on dividend payments: Evidence from some emerging economies

Purpose – This paper aims to highlight the disparity between the huge global influence and reach of transnational corporations, on the one hand, and the lack of international legal infrastructure for regulating TNC activity, on the other. Existing avenues for holding TNCs accountable for breaches of international standards are woefully inadequate. After rejecting the idea of subjecting TNCs to potential criminal liability, the paper then proposes a set of principles for international TNC responsibility modelled on the 2001 Draft Articles on State Responsibility. The potential future role of regional human rights courts and the International Labour Organisation in holding TNCs accountable is also explored.Design/methodology/approach – A survey of existing legal texts and secondary scholarship was undertaken to determine the existing coverage of the regulatory infrastructure for holding TNCs to account, and to identify gaps in that coverage.Findings – Significant governance gaps in the existing institutiona...

Transnational corporations and international law: bringing TNCs out of the accountability vacuum

This study uses quantitative analysis to build as complete a picture as possible of the gendered-nature of boardrooms in major listed firms in China and India. Data were collected and analysed to understand where women hold boardroom positions across the range of company sizes and types in both countries. In particular, data were analysed to establish the extent to which board size, company size (market capitalisation), workforce size, industry sector and/or firm ownership type are related to the presence of women on the board of a company. It was discovered that women do better than average in firms from within the financial services sector, and in firms with a larger work-force size. State-owned firms do comparatively better in India than in China, possibly reflecting the fact that women's political empowerment in India is more advanced than in China, and much more advanced than women's economic participation in India.

The glass ceiling that refuses to break: Women directors on the boards of listed firms in China and India

Domestic violence is a serious issue, and the costs for business of failing to address the impacts of domestic violence in the workplace are high. New technologies and economic shifts towards services sector industries are fast dissolving the boundaries between the workplace and the home in many national labor markets. Moreover, companies are now expected to meet higher standards of behavior in fulfilling their responsibilities to employees and wider society. These developments present challenges for ethical reasoning about the limits of employer responsibility in relation to domestic violence. While a number of possible approaches have something to contribute, this paper argues that feminist theories provide the most useful framework for ethical reasoning about the issues domestic violence raises for business organizations. The practical value of such reasoning is then illustrated by applying the organizing framework developed by Yuan et al. (J Bus Ethics 101:75—92, 2011) to examine how recurring domestic violence-related initiatives can be integrated as routine practices in firm operations. The paper thus provides a structured qualitative study of theory and practice for dealing with the impacts of domestic violence in the workplace.

Corporate Social Responsibility Through a Feminist Lens: Domestic Violence and the Workplace in the 21st Century

Perspectives on the emerging role of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

Contents: Preface 1. Introduction: Legal Transplants, Convergence and Regionalism in Chinese Corporate Law Reform 2. Birth Pangs of a Market: Creation and Development of China's Cross-Border Share Markets 3. Securities, Regulatory Authorities and H-Share Enterprises 4. Internal Governance Structures Within the H-Share Firm: Solving Agency Problems in a Cross-Border Environment 5. Nine Case Studies: The Story of Nine Vanguard Firms in China's H-Share Market 6. Market Efficiency in a Chinese Context Conclusion Bibliography Index

Alice de Jonge

Papers

Transnational corporations and international law: bringing TNCs out of the accountability vacuum

The glass ceiling that refuses to break: Women directors on the boards of listed firms in China and India

Corporate Social Responsibility Through a Feminist Lens: Domestic Violence and the Workplace in the 21st Century

Perspectives on the emerging role of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

Corporate Governance and China's H-Share Market