ABSTRACT

Research question: This study examines the effect of board gender diversity and a critical mass of women on the board on organizational problems of non-profit sport clubs. It relies on theories from social categorization and information/decision-making perspectives and on critical mass theory.

Research methods: Four waves of data from a German sport club panel (2009–2015; n = 6504) are used which allow analyzing causal effects with lagged variables. Gender diversity was measured with the share of women on the board, the Blau index, and the number of women on the board. The perceived severity of human resource, financial, facility, and development problems represent the dependent variables.

Results and findings: The results of regression analyses show that board gender diversity significantly reduces human resource and financial problems. Human resource problems are even smallest in clubs with an overbalanced board (≥60% women), while facility problems are perceived as bigger in such clubs. The results provided evidence for critical masses of one or at least three women for reducing human resource problems and of at least four women for perceiving bigger facility problems. Development problems are not impacted by board gender diversity or critical masses.

Implications: The findings for human resource and financial problems support the information/decision-making perspective, suggesting that board gender diversity benefits the organization because of diversity in resource access, human and social capital, and improved quality of decision-making. Thus, increasing gender diversity of the board can be a way to reduce problems in these areas.

摘要

研究问题：本研究考察了董事会性别多样性和董事会女性人数对非营利体育俱乐部组织问题的影响。它依赖于来自社会分类和信息/决策观点的理论以及临界质量理论。

研究方法：使用来自德国体育俱乐部小组（2009-2015；n  =  6504）的四波数据，可以分析滞后变量的因果效应。性别多样性是通过董事会中的女性比例、布劳指数和董事会中的女性人数来衡量的。人力资源、财务、设施和发展问题的感知严重性代表了因变量。

结果和发现：回归分析的结果表明，董事会性别多样性显着减少了人力资源和财务问题。人力资源问题在董事会过度平衡的俱乐部（≥60% 女性）中甚至最小，而在此类俱乐部中，设施问题被认为更大。结果为减少人力资源问题的一名或至少三名女性和至少四名女性感知更大的设施问题提供了证据。发展问题不受董事会性别多样性或关键群众的影响。

启示：人力资源和财务问题的调查结果支持信息/决策的观点，表明董事会性别多样性有利于组织，因为资源获取、人力和社会资本的多样性以及决策质量的提高。因此，增加董事会的性别多样性可以成为减少这些领域问题的一种方式。