CEO hiring in public interest entities: Biased, exclusionary and unprofessional hiring processes?

• Published in: Veftímaritið Stjórnmál og stjórnsýsla
• Main Authors: Christiansen, Þóra H., Óladóttir, Ásta Dís, Kristjánsdóttir, Erla S., Gunnarsdóttir, Sigrún
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Icelandic
• Published: Stjórnsýslustofnun 2021
• Subjects: CEO recruitment; diversity; inclusion; listed companies; succession planning; Arftakaáætlun; fjölbreytileiki; inngilding; ráðningar forstjóra; skráð félög; Kvenna; Iceland
• Online Access: http://www.irpa.is/article/view/a.2021.17.1.5; https://doi.org/10.13177/irpa.a.2021.17.1.5

Iceland is a global leader in gender equality, nevertheless, inequality persists in public interest entities, that is listed companies. Men hold CEO positions in all 19 Icelandic listed companies and chair the board of all companies, except one. This study sheds light on the hiring process for CEOs of listed companies and why the increased number of women board members has not led to an increased number of female CEOs. The research question is: How do women on boards of listed companies experience the CEO hiring process with regard to the possibilities of men or women to be hired? Twenty-two women sitting on boards of all listed companies in Iceland were interviewed. Findings reveal dissatisfaction with the prevailing hiring practices, which the female board members experience as a fast-paced and very closed process. The process is heavily reliant on board-members’ networks and headhunters’ lists. Such hiring processes are exclusionary for women and some interviewees are conflicted about their own participation in the process. The main contribution of this research is that female board members of all listed companies are interviewed for the first time to shed light on their experiences of the hiring process for senior management positions. Ísland telst leiðandi á heimsvísu í jafnrétti kynjanna, þrátt fyrir það er staðan ójöfn hjá félögum sem teljast þjóðhagslega mikilvæg, þ.e. skráðum félögum. Karlar eru forstjórar allra 19 félaganna sem skráð eru á markað og gegna stjórnarformennsku í þeim öllum utan einu. Rannsóknin beinir sjónum að ráðningarferli forstjóra skráðra félaga og hvers vegna fjölgun kvenna í stjórnum hefur ekki leitt til fjölgunar kvenna í forstjórastöðum. Rannsóknarspurningin sem liggur til grundvallar er: Hvernig upplifa konur sem sitja í stjórnum skráðra félaga ráðningarferli forstjóra með tilliti til möguleika karla og kvenna á því að hljóta starfið? Tekin voru viðtöl við 22 konur sem sitja í stjórnum allra skráðra félaga á Íslandi. Niðurstöður leiða í ljós óánægju með ríkjandi ...