Thesis: How the unsaid shapes decision-making in the boardroom

Since I have only a limited number of hard-copy copies of the dissertation and the articles are under embargo as they are under review, I cannot freely share my work. Hopefully, the papers will be published soon. Two papers have been published (you can find them on my website). I am still working on two more. 

Despite the institutional importance of supervisory boards (RvCs), scholars have limited insight into boardroom processes. Unveiling the black box of RvC decision-making requires direct observation of what happens in the boardroom and overcoming numerous methodological challenges. This abductive, subjective study reflexively explores the decision-making of RvCs, focusing not on what was said, but on 'the unspoken.' The author attended board meetings of 17 RvCs and interviewed 119 board members about what occurred during those meetings. The study particularly examined how board members responded ‘in action,’ what they chose not to say, and why and when they consciously or subconsciously decided to withhold their thoughts and feelings. Focusing on the unspoken rather than the spoken involves exploring the difference between what is thought but not expressed. This approach also reveals how cognitive biases, blind spots, and contradictions shape the decision-making of a supervisory board.

This dissertation offers an initial explanation of a) how taken-for-granted and automatic socio-cognitive processes between board members influence boardroom decision-making, b) how directors and supervisors who take their governance paradigm for granted — and thus are considered paradigm-adhesive — trigger a spiral of the unspoken when attempting to manage hidden conflicts through informal decision-making, c) how four 'silence climates' create four different levels of cohesion and cognitive conflict that influence board effectiveness, and d) how awareness of different levels of consciousness and ‘perspective-taking’ is required to examine taken-for-granted assumptions and automatic behavior in the boardroom.

The content, summary, and the chapters with the introduction and discussion can be found here: