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Diversity lessens 'group tliink', says study Lack of Legally-binding sanctions nneans EU initiatives Inave failed to deliver

PAMELA NEWENHAM

Diversity in the boardroom helps mitigate the "group think" that contributed to re­

cent financial disasters and leads to better decision-making and better use of the talent pool, a conference on corporate governance has heard.

Presenting the findings of a research paper on diversity in boardrooms, TCD professor Blanaid Clarke said there was considerable evidence to show that diversity in boardrooms re­sulted in better corporate per­formance.

However, she said that un­less sufficient market incen­tives were in place for compa­nies to change they won't do so.

This can be seen in the case of Spain which introduced an equality law in 2007 requiring companies with 250 employees or more to develop gender equality plans with clear impli­cations for female appoint­ments to the board. However, because no dissuasive sanc­tions are in place, the law is not really working there, Prof Clarke said.

She told the European Corpo­rate Governance and Company Law Conference in Dublin that EU recommendations and char­ters on diversity in the board­room had not worked. The EU has found that the only tangible progress on the issue was in member states where there are legally-binding obligations con­cerning the percentage of wom­en on boards.