National Diversity of Icelandic Company Boards

Abstract

National diversity of company boards has not been subject to much research internationally and not at all in Iceland and its effect on companies’ operations are not clear. There has been little research into the diversity of Icelandic company boards and mainly focused on gender diversity but not national diversity. The Icelandic labour market has become significantly more diverse since Iceland joined the EEA area. The economic forces behind this are analysed in the article. However, Icelandic company boards do not reflect this newfound diversity. Immigrants still have few board seats although their numbers have gone up significantly in recent years. The presentation of immigrants on company boards differs significantly across industries and different nationalities tend to be represented better in some industries than others. The causes of this are not clear but the division to some extent reflects the distribution of immigrants across industries.