2024 Annual Corporate Directors Survey
Over 500 corporate directors shared their views on the most pressing issues facing boards. Learn their views on how they are leading their organizations through uncharted territory in our 2024 survey.
Why good boards make bad decisions: Four factors undermining board effectiveness
A widely accepted notion is that corporate boards function like well-oiled machines. And why shouldn’t they? At their core, boards are more than a group of highly qualified individuals — they are sophisticated teams, assembled to work together smoothly while bringing diversity of thought, expertise and experience to their oversight role.
But problematic group dynamics can derail all kinds of teams, and boards are no exception. Directors brought onto boards for their creativity and independence may find themselves in a boardroom culture that pushes them to be deferential and disinclined to challenge the status quo. Reaching consensus may become the goal more than offering input and solutions; consequently, board members known for rationality and agility can become irrational and obstinate.
The good news: board culture doesn’t have to become dysfunctional. Boards can take proactive steps to resolve problems and maintain board effectiveness. But this requires directors to consider some key questions.
Four behavioral factors undermining board effectiveness
Rigid group dynamics aren’t inherently bad. When addressing familiar problems, a limited focus may keep the process streamlined, saving collaborative energy for areas that would benefit more from experimentation and brainstorming. But most board decision-making in uncertain environments — and nearly all environments are uncertain today — demands creativity and adaptive thinking. And that’s exactly what threat rigidity shuts down.
Sometimes it doesn’t matter whether a course of action is paying off — people may double down regardless. They may invest more time and resources into a failing endeavor, long past the point at which they should move on from it.
Every boardroom faces the potential problem of escalation of commitment, as management or directors defend past decisions. But boards don’t need to accept the status quo.
We have found that directors generally recognize the benefits of board diversity. Our research shows that strong majorities agree that gender, ethnicity, age and perspective are important to creating diversity of thought in the boardroom.* While achieving the right mix of background and competencies is important for board effectiveness, research also shows that is only part of the equation. There are other, unobservable aspects of board composition.
* PwC, 2022 Annual Corporate Directors Survey, October 2022.
Psychological safety is a prerequisite to a board fulfilling its oversight responsibilities. Directors who feel that they face high levels of interpersonal risk may be far less willing to volunteer new ideas or voice effective challenges, let alone dissent. And that can steer leaders toward making decisions based on incomplete information and the overall board toward approving the safest (but not necessarily the best) solutions.
A board can take concrete steps to boost an individual director’s sense of psychological safety and increase interpersonal risk-taking.
Action items moving forward
- Board assessments
- Board composition and recruitment
- Board leadership
- Board meeting practices
Board assessments
Make behavioral questions a greater part of assessment surveys. Assessments should provide insights on how directors individually and collectively contribute to the effectiveness of the board. So revisit the questions being asked in assessments. Consider the question style (open-ended versus closed) and the type (practices versus behavioral).
Questions to enhance your next board assessment
In the appendix of our guide, we've included an example questionnaire to enhance your next board assessment. While use of this tool will provide helpful information, additional value may be gained by distributing the tool more widely to obtain the views of others (e.g., fellow directors, management and others with whom the board interacts).
Contact us
Follow us
