職場雙語:女董事帶來更佳業績?

As any scientist can confirm, the fact that two events repeatedly occur at the same time does not mean that one event causes the other. Trying to explain the link is often the challenge. So it is with the perennial debate over gender diversity in corporate boardrooms. As political pressure to get more women on to boards intensifies, various statistical studies – from McKinsey to Ernst and Young– have suggested that higher female representation is accompanied by better financial and stock market performance. The question is why.

任何一個科學家都可以確認一個事實，兩件事同時發生多次，並不代表一件事是導致另一件的原因。試圖解釋兩者的聯繫往往是種挑戰。圍繞公司董事會成員性別構成的長期辯論也是如此。隨着要求更多女性進入董事會的政治壓力加劇，各類統計研究（從麥肯錫到安永會計師事務所）都顯示，女性董事比例較高的公司有更好的財務及股市表現。問題是原因何在。

Research published by the Credit Suisse Research Institute, looking at data for more than 2,300 companies worldwide, has produced an intuitively appealing explanation. First, the study notes a difference in share price returns before and after the 2008 global financial crash. For large-cap stocks, boards with female members have outperformed those without by 26 per cent during the past six years. For smaller companies, the figure is 17 per cent. In both cases the outperformance came after the 2008 ructions. The study also notes that when women are represented at board level, companies tend to have lower gearing. More than that, gearing came down faster post-2008 when female directors were present.

瑞信(Credit Suisse)研究院發表的研究報告，分析了全球超過2300家企業的數據，提供了一個在直覺上具有吸引力的解釋。首先，該研究報告注意到2008年全球金融危機之前和之後股價回報率的區別。在大市值股票中，有女性董事成員的公司，過去六年的表現超過沒有女性成員的公司26%。在小市值股票公司中，這個數字是17%。在上述兩種情況下，更好的表現都出現在2008年動盪之後。研究還指出，當董事層有女性代表時，公司負債率往往較低。不僅如此，有女董事的公司，在2008年後負債率的下降速度更快。

Wisely, the authors hesitate to draw facile conclusions and admit nothing is proved. But one explanation may be that female directors encourage risk aversion – particularly beneficial when booms turn into bleaker market conditions. If so, such a conclusion has interesting implications. For a start, it is unclear whether investors should welcome women on to company boards wholeheartedly once the business climate changes and the name of the game becomes risk-taking and growth. That said, perhaps policy makers should stuff the boards of companies that repeatedly take too many risks with female directors. A few banks spring to mind. Are there any women out there brave – and risk-averse – enough to volunteer to sit on the boards of Barclaysor UBS?

明智的是，報告的作者們不願就此得出輕易的結論，他們承認這些數字不能證明什麼。但其中一種解釋可能是，女董事往往會鼓勵風險規避——這在市場環境由繁榮轉爲慘淡時尤爲有利。若真如此，這一結論就帶來一些有意思的潛在影響。首先，一旦商業氣候發生變化，遊戲主題轉變爲冒險和增長，投資者是否還應該全心全意歡迎女董事，這點還不清楚。話說回來，對於那些反覆冒太高風險的公司，政策制定者或許應該考慮將女性塞進其董事會。這讓人想到一些銀行。有沒有一些足夠勇敢（和討厭風險）的女性，自願擔任巴克萊銀行(Barclays)或瑞銀(UBS)的女董事？