Top management team gender diversity and productivity: the role of board gender diversity

Based on the significance of context, the purpose of this paper is to investigate a positive top management team (TMT) gender diversity–productivity relationship derived from the upper echelons theory, and a moderating effect of board gender diversity on the TMT gender diversity–productivity relationship derived from the relational framework.

The hypotheses were tested in 172 organisations listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. This research uses archival data from multiple secondary sources, with a one-year time lag between the predictor and outcome.

The findings indicate a positive effect of TMT gender diversity on employee productivity and a strong positive TMT gender diversity–employee productivity relationship in organisations with a low level of board gender diversity.

This study provides pioneering evidence for a positive effect of TMT gender diversity on employee productivity and for a moderating effect of board gender diversity.