Strathclyde Abu Dhabi centre hosted a research-themed evening on September 25 shortly before the official start of the Strathclyde UAE part-time MBA semester, welcoming several dozen students, graduates and business community friends.
The two-part event explored the importance of defining research philosophies and ethics, then delved into cutting-edge research about the implications of board diversity. Guest speaker Dr Nada Kakabadse presented on both subjects.
A Policy, Governance and Ethics Professor at the University of Reading's Henley Business School, Dr Kakabadse's research interests range from boardroom effectiveness and leadership to ethics, diversity, policy, and more. Currently she is conducting research in the UAE with Strathclyde Business School lecturer Dr Katerina Nicolopoulou, who is a resident academic at Strathclyde Abu Dhabi and who hosted Tuesday's 'Research Squared' evening.
The event began with a mini master class about the application of philosophy to research. Aimed at those interested in the pursuit of high level academic research, the class explored how the ways we think about research, seek answers, and define truths create individualized parameters through which our research methodologies are created and lenses through which our research outcomes are interpreted. After presenting a wide variety of tools and constructs for determining personal outlooks and narrowing down inquiries into a given research topic, Dr Kakabadse also discussed the importance of thoroughly considering such concepts prior to submitting a PhD proposal or committing to an academic advisor.
Dr Kakabadse presented her own research into gender-based board diversity in the UK, US and Ghana. After sharing extensive background research on the breakdown of international board diversity (or often, lack thereof) along the lines of gender, age, ethnicity, and other factors, Dr Kakabadse revealed surprising outcomes regarding her recent study. Examining aggregate data accumulated through interviews with top-50 listed companies, she found that boards with three or more women were actually correlated with lower share prices than their counterparts with predominantly male boards.
In the question and answer session that followed, this finding was further explained as being not necessarily any reflection of gender capabilities, but rather – in large part – a likely repercussion of criteria for appropriate board member selection often being ignored under pressures of affirmative action or positive discrimination. The study’s findings thus encourage organisations to pursue ideals of board diversity without sacrificing adherence to best practices when it comes to seeking and evaluating potential board members.
All in all, it was a thought-provoking and enlightening evening that explored a timely research question and philosophical conceptualisations of research; both topics with practical applications for the audience of academically inclined businesspeople.