Clue...less and stewardship

Am I clueless about harassment?

I think so. 

There are clear measures for social responsibility nd ethical practice for corporations. Research has indicated hat where corporations have at least 20% of their boards made up of women, they will be ranked in the Ethisphere Magazine's Most Ethical Companies list. 
ethisphere.com/magazine

There are several criteria which Ethisphere takes into consideration.

1. number of women sitting on the board. (so greater than 20% of the board membership is female)
2. larger corporations are likely to have more women in leadership positions and on the board. This was also found in the TD bank review of gender representation on Canadian boards. Smaller organizations typically had fewer women on the board. TD Bank's analysis that larger companies will have more resources to commit to promoting diversity generally. (TD: Making Diversity and inclusion a Strategic Priority) 

The Ivey Business School (UWO) made a business case for appointing more women to the Board. (Sept/Oct 2004). In this case the author, Stephenson suggests that more women on the board results in better defined conflict of interest guidelines and a codes of conduct. 
www.ivey.uwo.ca
also
www.iveycases.com

The Journal of Ethics (2003) notes that organizations having more women on boards results in a greater corporate involvement in community citizenship and hence a more robust approach to corporate social responsibility. 

So, one might conclude that those corporations with a robust approach to CSR are more likely to support diversity of thought and less likely to tolerate aberrant behaviour, such as abuse and harassment. 

I don't think that this is the end of this topic. 



NBPSPP Board and Stewardship

This Board oversees our pensions. They are, in effect, stewards of our future. By what principles do they operate? 

• is there a strategic plan?
• is there a statement of enterprise risk management? What is the risk tolerance?
• do they evaluate the their own performance, that of management and that of the plan?
•   what criteria are used to evaluate investment in companies? 
• how does the board monitor the companies in which they invest?
• are there proxy voting guidelines?
• how does our plan engage with the portfolio companies, during the fiscal year, prior to the annual meeting? Does the board ever meet with ID's from these companies?
• how sustainable are our investments? 
• does our |Plan ever take a position about the ethical behaviour/CSR performance of the companies in which we invest?
• how is executive compensation managed? Is there say on pay? Are there performance criteria by which management is measured?

These are questions which might be asked either at the annual meeting or as a part of the Q&A feature of the Plan's website.

We will look at reading lists for women, harassment and workplace safety tomorrow. As well, in the ongoing session about the BNPSPP Board functioning, we will suggest some questions that the Board should be asking of itself.