It is suggested board diversity enhances a board’s effectiveness and performance in several ways. Greater board diversity supports the idea that directors should possess characteristics that allow them to bring a range of different viewpoints into the boardroom. Diversity relates to the different characteristics, attributes and expertise of an individual. Diversity may include gender, ethnicity, age, professional background, culture, religion, sexual orientation, technical proficiency and skills, independence, knowledge, industry and commercial experience, constituency representation, and life experience.
With board members from a variety of backgrounds, it is more likely a diverse board will promote different viewpoints or ‘diversity of thought’, which in turn will contribute to a board’s effectiveness and performance. How? By offering unique points of view, directors from different backgrounds will often challenge majority directors to think differently. Finally, it is of no surprise that having directors from a wide range of backgrounds can assist an organisation to gain better access to important resources because of the wider, varied and different social networks.
By Dr W. Beilby and Dr B Edlin
We write for this magazine so that we can assist boards in Tauranga to think more about their governing roles.
