Our research question will classify as fundamental research, since it will expand knowledge regarding the impact of diversity on the workforce. Furthermore, the findings will have significant value to society, but it will not bring a solution to a problem itself. Finally, we have decided on the topic and research objective ourselves. Fundamental research brings out value to society but is not directly applicable to problems in the real world and is assumed to be the foundation of applied research. Applied research gives practical solutions that are relevant to managers in organisations.
6. Scientific articles (Full reference in bibliography)
A) Article one: The impact of cultural diversity in corporate boards on firm performance
B) The article was found via the university’s library website (www.eur.nl/ub). Advanced search was used where the keywords “cultural”, “diversity”, “firm” and “performance” were filled in the search bar. The results were narrowed down by using the filter “Last 5 Years”.
C) This is the first study examining the role of cultural diversity of the board on firm performance. They discourage “romanticizing” cultural diversity regarding company results. The article defines cultural diversity as “the average of cultural distances in all pairs of board members” (Frijns, Dodd and Cimerova 2016, p. 525). Cultural diversity has more negative than positive aspects. However, the negative effects could be decreased by firm complexity and presence in foreign markets. They find that for firms with a strong presence in foreign markets, the negative relation between performance and cultural diversity disappears. Moreover, complex firms performance is not affected by cultural diversity, whereas for non-complex firms, performance is negatively affected. They further examine that the negative effect is concentrated among independent directors, because of dependent directors being in frequent contact with each other. Finally, it is mainly the diversity in individualism and masculinity that affects the effectiveness of boards.
D) The first scientific article which was published in 2016 was chosen as it is directly relevant to leadership and cultural diversity. Both negative and positive sides of cultural diversity are mentioned, so the reader gets to understand various perspectives. Moreover, solutions for mitigating the negative effects are included. Finally, it assumes that there are only two main factors of diversity that strongly affect the effectiveness of boards of director which are masculinity and individualism.
E) Citation score: 34, EJL, 2017: P, Harzing’s (2018) journal quality list: A
A) Article two: Leader Cultural Intelligence in Context: Testing the Moderating Effects of Team Cultural Diversity on Leader and Team Performance
B) The second scientific paper was found by using the university’s library website. The following search terms were used: “racial” “diversity” “leader”. Filters were selected which would show articles published between 2008 and 2018. The article came up as article 14 in the suggestions.
