来源：《哈佛商业评论》2022年7、8月双月刊
Diversity on corporate boards is an urgent priority, emphasized by company leaders and public policy agendas. For example, in 2021 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved a rule requiring most companies on the Nasdaq exchange to have at least two directors from underrepresented groups—minority or female—or to explain why they don’t. Such initiatives are laudable not only for reasons of fairness: Research shows that heterogeneity in groups boosts the quality of decision-making. Yet little evidence has persuasively linked increased board diversity with improved firm outcomes. A new study explores why and suggests conditions that can help.
公司领导人和公共政策议题都强调，公司董事会的多元化是一个紧迫的优先事项。例如，美国证券交易委员会在2021年批准了一项规定，要求纳斯达克(Nasdaq)交易所的大多数公司至少有两名董事来自代表性不足的群体——少数族裔或女性——否则就要解释为什么没有这样做。这样的举措值得称赞，不仅是因为公平：研究表明，群体的异质性可以提高决策的质量。然而，几乎没有证据能令人信服地将董事会多元化与公司业绩改善联系起来。一项新的研究探索了其中的原因，并提出了可能有帮助的条件。
The researchers worked with the auditors of 54 U.S. public companies to code the transcripts of every board meeting from 1994 to 2006 to determine the number of minutes each director spoke. This revealed, unsurprisingly, that women and Black directors typically held the floor much less than white men did. Controlling for the differing sizes of corporate boards, each white man spoke, on average, for 11% of the total annual board meeting time, whereas each Black man spoke for just 4% and each woman just 8% of the time. The researchers continued tracking transcripts after the close of the study and saw the same results: Black and female members were still not speaking out. “Without the participation of underrepresented directors,” the researchers write, “the potential benefits of board diversity are lost.”
研究人员与54家美国上市公司的审计人员合作，对1994年至2006年的每次董事会会议记录进行编码，以确定每位董事发言的分钟数。不出所料，结果表明女性和黑人董事的发言时间通常比白人男性少得多。考虑到公司董事会规模的不同，平均而言，每个白人男性发言的时间占年度董事会会议总时间的11%，而黑人男性发言的时间仅为4%，女性发言的时间仅为8%。研究人员在研究结束后继续跟踪记录，看到了相同的结果：黑人和女性成员仍然不能大胆地发声。研究人员写道：“如果代表性不足的董事参与不足，董事会多元化的潜在好处就会丧失。”
Because board transcripts are confidential, the analysis was solely quantitative and thus the researchers could not document why such directors were so reticent. But anecdotal evidence suggests that white male members’ behavior often exerted a chilling effect. They cite the experience of Liz Dolan, who resigned from the board of the action sports and clothing company Quiksilver in 2015 after learning she had been excluded from critical discussions. “Even when a woman earns a seat at the table,” Dolan wrote in Fortune, “the men can put you in a soundproof booth.” It may also be that members of underrepresented groups felt insecure and censored themselves. “It’s difficult to imagine corporate directors being intimidated; they are usually very successful and dynamic people,” says the University of Central Arkansas’s Christopher Tuggle, who led the study. “But relative status matters even in a group of highfliers.”
由于董事会的记录是保密的，这项分析只是定量的，因此研究人员无法记录这些董事为何如此沉默寡言。但坊间证据表明，白人男性成员的行为往往会产生令人不寒而栗的效果。他们以利兹·多兰的经历为例。2015年，在得知自己被排除在关键讨论之外后，她辞去了极限运动和服装公司Quiksilver的董事会职务。多兰在《财富》杂志(Fortune)上写道：“即使女性赢得了一个席位，男性也可以把你安排在隔音的隔间里。”也可能是代表性不足群体的成员感到不安全，并对自己进行审查。“很难想象公司董事会受到恐吓；他们通常是非常成功、充满活力的人，”该研究的负责人、阿肯色中央大学的克里斯托弗·塔格尔说。“但即便是在一群能人当中，相对地位也很重要。”