Title: Beyond diversity: why the inclusion is imperative for boards to promote sustainability among agile non-profit organisations?

Authors: Irfan Saleem; Safdar Husain Tahir; Zahra Batool

Addresses: Faculty of Business, Sohar University, Sohar-311, Sultanate of Oman ' Lyallpur Business School, Government College University Faisalabad, Faislabad-38000, Pakistan ' Department of Management, University of Guelph, Ontario – N1G 2W1, Canada

Abstract: Based on the theoretical underpinning of stakeholder's perspective and sustainability model, the study aims to explain how the board of governors could enable agile non-profit organisations (NPOs) to achieve sustainability by adopting inclusive board behaviour. By juxtaposing two societies, one who welcomes the diverse workforce and others who dislikes a diverse workforce, the study contributes by linking sustainability and stakeholder's theory of corporate governance. The cross-sectional design was used to collect primary dataset of CEOs and the board of governors from agile NPOs of Canada and Pakistan. The study applies structural equation model with the help of SMART-PLS. Empirical results suggest that board diversity indirectly helps to achieve sustainability in terms of performance. The study shows inclusive board behaviour unconsciously favours stakeholders, including both employees and society. Besides, results exhibit mediating effects of the inclusive board behaviour. Notably, this research is beneficial for the management of agile-NPOs.

Keywords: agile; NPOs; non-profit organisations; stakeholder theory; sustainability; workforce diversity; inclusive behaviour; cross-sectional design; structural equation model; mediation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJASM.2021.118069

International Journal of Agile Systems and Management, 2021 Vol.14 No.2, pp.254 - 275

Received: 04 Aug 2020
Accepted: 18 Jan 2021
Published online: 11 Oct 2021 *

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