ABSTRACT

Over the years, the top echelon of global organizations seem to be composed of more males than females, causing an imbalance on leadership and resulting to corporate governance (CG) gaps. Researchers affirm the imperative of diversity of ideas in CG decision-making in global firms for stakeholder benefits. This study conducts an integrative review (IR) of scholarly articles to investigate research findings on the relationship between CG and female inclusion (FI) on U.S boards. The review cites case studies of multinationals’ (MNCs) CG lapses and integrates their findings for practical application. The research adopts Finkelstein, Hambrick, and Cannella’s (2009) upper echelon theory (UET), Jensen s (2011) stakeholder, and trait theory to discuss the relationship of FI to CG on boards. Davies (2011) observes that females on MNC TMTs are known to enforce governance, discipline, ethics, and policy. However, evidence shows most global corporations do not include females in their top teams due to traditional and societal practices embedded in organizational culture. While scholarly findings are divergent on FI on boards, most results of the qualitative and quantitative research reviewed for this study link sound CG to FI on TMTs. The paper underscores the importance of FI on boards to engender CG policies that could benefit both the organization and its stakeholders for firm longevity. The study recommends that findings on FI relating to U.S MNCs could be generalized and applied to resolve some of the CG gaps on the boards of corporations in regions outside the US for firm sustainability.

Keywords: Female inclusion, corporate governance, boards, top management teams, firm success