Dr Dimitrios Georgakakis will give a presentation during the International Business and Strategy research seminar series on 12th December

Dr Dimitrios Georgakakis, University of St. Gallen is giving a seminar presentation during the International Business and Strategy lunchtime seminar series on 12th December, at 13.00-14.30 in room 108, Henley Business School.

Presentation title:

CEO Political Ideology and Corporate Discrimination Lawsuits: Examining The CEO-Board Interface

Abstract:

Studies show that CEOs with different political ideologies (i.e., conservative versus liberal CEOs) differ in their values concerning equality and diversity issues. Drawing on upper echelons theory, and the team diversity literature, we contribute to this area of research. We argue that, as conservative CEOs have less egalitarian values and pay less emphasis to workplace-diversity issues compared to their liberal counterparts, their firms are more likely to experience a ‘diversity litigation crisis’ – defined as the number of corporate discrimination lawsuits filed against the organization. We also suggest that the hypothesized positive relationship between CEO conservativism and corporate diversity litigation becomes less pronounced when the board of directors (BoD) is liberal in ideology. Data from the S&P 500 firms between 2007 and 2014 support our predictions. Overall, our study demonstrates that – in an era where organizations strive to realize value from workforce diversity – the CEO-BoD ideology interface plays a key role in affecting corporate social outcomes.