The Impact of an Organizational Crisis on the Relationship between Board Members’ Gender and Stakeholder Orientation An experimental study about the stakeholder orientation of board members in healthy organizations compared to an organization in crisis
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2023-06-28
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en
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Abstract
There are different studies about the impact of women in the board which state that
they provide better financial performances or less fraud, for instance. However, board
members’ gender and stakeholder orientation are never linked to each other, while these are
important subjects in the literature. This research will make that link and thereby, focuses on
the moderating impact of an organizational crisis on this possible relationship between board
member’s gender and stakeholder orientation.
Consistent with the theory about gender roles and characteristics, it is expected that
female board members will have a higher stakeholder orientation than male in a healthy
organization, but that it decreases during an organizational crisis. These hypotheses are tested
on board members in the region of Nijmegen and Arnhem. An experiment is conducted with
the use of vignettes to manipulate an organizational crisis. These are partly conducted online
and partly through interviews. The results don’t find support for the hypotheses, so there is no
link between board member’s gender and stakeholder orientation, and an organizational crisis
has no moderation effect neither.
However, the study finds that an organizational crisis does have a significant effect on
stakeholder orientation. Furthermore, male board members have higher stakeholder
orientation during an organizational crisis than in a healthy organization. And, when board
members have to choose one stakeholder to focus on in both situations, women are more
likely to switch, during a crisis, in that choice than men. Women often make the switch focus
from community to employees, while men keep customer as most important stakeholder.
These findings contribute to the literature because it contradicts the existing studies about
gender differences and shows the impact of an organizational crisis. Practically, organizations
require a diverse board to have a proper stakeholder orientation in healthy and crisis
situations.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen