Minority Representation On Board Essay

Minority representation on board
Ethnic diversity consists of having a mix of individuals from various social, racial, cultural and religious backgrounds. An ideal ethnic diversity would include people that represent the area in which the company functions. Nearly 30 percent of directors in South Africa are African Black, Colored or Indian. This is because of the enactment of the legislation Broad-Based Black Empowerment Act, 2003 that encourages ethnic diversity at the workplace.
A study has revealed that a substantial number of directors especially those from large organizations, consider it extremely important to have minority representation on their boards as it would better reflect the change in the marketplace and help in identifying growth in the minority market segments. People of color comprise 29 percent of

Bertrand in his study stated incidences were fictitious CV's were used to apply for positions across industries. It was found that white individuals received 50 percent more callbacks. In another similar and more recent study by DWP, it was found that a high level of name-based discrimination was done where CV's identical in substance with the only difference being was the use of ethnic names, 29 percent more white people got callbacks.

A study by Sinclair and Kunda (1999) showed that white and African‐American managers were rated as equally skilled when they praised participants, but African‐American managers were rated less skilled than whites when they criticized participants. In another study, Biernat and Kobrynowicz (1997) stated that African‐American job applicants were subjected to severe standards of competence than white applicants. A study by Greenhaus and Parasuraman (1993) showed that the achievements, abilities and efforts of black managers were given less credit than with the achievements of white