The impact of gender diversity on performance: The moderating role of industry, alliance network, and family-friendly policies – Evidence from Korea

Abstract This study analyzes the effects of gender diversity in management on organizational performance using Korea Workplace Panel Survey data for 2005, 2007, and 2009. Few studies have examined this relationship for firms outside the United States, particularly in Asian countries. Similar to previous research, our findings show that gender diversity in management has a U-shaped relationship with firm productivity. Second, the curvilinear relationship between gender diversity in management and firm productivity is stronger in service-oriented industries relative to manufacturing industries, with the highest level of employee productivity within homogeneous management groups. Third, we include a measure of workplace family-friendly policies to moderate the relationship between gender diversity in management and organizational performance. We find that the U-shaped pattern also holds in firms with a large number of family-friendly policies. This suggests that gender diversity in management has considerable influence on the productivity of Korean firms through interactions with family-friendly policies.