Factors Shaping Workplace Segregation Between Natives and Immigrants

Research on segregation of immigrant groups is increasingly turning its attention from residential areas toward other important places, such as the workplace, where immigrants can meet and interact with members of the native population. This article examines workplace segregation of immigrants. We use longitudinal, georeferenced Swedish population register data, which enables us to observe all immigrants in Sweden for the period 1990–2005 on an annual basis. We compare estimates from ordinary least squares with fixed-effects regressions to quantify the extent of immigrants’ self-selection into specific workplaces, neighborhoods, and partnerships, which may bias more naïve ordinary least squares results. In line with previous research, we find lower levels of workplace segregation than residential segregation. The main finding is that low levels of residential segregation reduce workplace segregation, even after we take into account intermarriage with natives as well as unobserved characteristics of immigrants’ such as willingness and ability to integrate into the host society. Being intermarried with a native reduces workplace segregation for immigrant men but not for immigrant women.     

The Complete Gradient Clustering Algorithm: properties in practical applications

The aim of this paper is to present a Complete Gradient Clustering Algorithm, its applicational aspects and properties, as well as to illustrate them with specific practical problems from the subject of bioinformatics (the categorization of grains for seed production), management (the design of a marketing support strategy for a mobile phone operator) and engineering (the synthesis of a fuzzy controller). The main property of the Complete Gradient Clustering Algorithm is that it does not require strict assumptions regarding the desired number of clusters, which allows to better suit its obtained number to a real data structure. In the basic version it is possible to provide a complete set of procedures for defining the values of all functions and parameters relying on the optimization criterions. It is also possible to point out parameters, the potential change which implies influence on the size of the number of clusters (while still not giving an exact number) and the proportion between their numbers in dense and sparse areas of data elements. Moreover, the Complete Gradient Clustering Algorithm can be used to identify and possibly eliminate atypical elements (outliers). These properties proved to be very useful in the presented applications and may also be functional in many other practical problems.     

Interlocking directorships and firm performance in highly regulated sectors: the moderating impact of board diversity

Interlocking directorships are a pervasive element of the corporate landscape. Academic literature documents many examples of spreading business practices and strategic outcomes through this form of inter-organizational connectedness. Yet, the findings on the long debated relationship between interlocking ties and firm performance remain mixed. In this study, we provide an analysis of this relationship on the basis of a sample of UK-listed financial and utility companies across a 10 year period. Our findings provide support to the busyness hypothesis of interlocking and indicate that when used in excess, interlocking is likely to compromise the attention of directors on the focal company board. Moreover, in reconciliation of the competing views of the resource-dependence and agency theory, we propose a contingency-based model of interlocking with board diversity as a moderator of the baseline interlocking-firm performance relationship. Our results render support to the assertion that the potential for dissemination of ideas and innovations resides in the interlocking ties. However, boards need to be receptive to that knowledge exchange for this transfer to take place and this process may be facilitated by the level of and changes in board diversity. This study contributes to research into the consequences and implications of interlocking directorships and demonstrates that the search for the moderating and mediating variables represents a step in the right direction.     

Rethinking board diversity with the behavioural theory of corporate governance: opportunities and challenges for advances in theorising

In this study, a cross-theoretical hybridization between diversity archetypes and the behavioural theory of corporate governance is proposed. Within an integrative theoretical framework, I discuss three variants of the board’s social setting: diversity as variety; separation; and disparity. Their influence on the mechanisms of the socially-situated and socially-constituted agency, and in consequence the socially-constructed boardroom reality, is considered. The model stipulates what kind of impact individual agency perception, associated with each diversity archetype, can be expected to have on board task effectiveness (monitoring/control, resource-provision, and strategy-making/consulting). There are altogether six theoretical propositions made in this paper. The study represents an application of the behavioural theory of corporate governance in the theory-building paper. I utilise the notion of diversity and the theory of subgroups from existing group effectiveness literature. The proposed theoretical framework strongly benefits from recent taxonomically-systematizing efforts in the area of diversity research. The proposed model also allows for due consideration of behavioural patterns in the boardroom. This framework scores high on its generalisability to a wider population and realism of context, but low on its precision of measurement. A discussion of the model’s limitations unfolds in the wider context of the challenges and paradoxes/conundrums with which the community of corporate governance scholars is invariably confronted. The model suffers from a limited translatability of findings into actionable managerial implications and recommendations of the regulator, as expressed in corporate governance codes.     

The implications of board nationality and gender diversity: evidence from a qualitative comparative analysis

Journal of Management and Governance - This study extends research on the board nationality and gender diversity to a new, unchartered, methodological territory of qualitative comparative analysis...