Director workloads, attendance and firm performance

Purpose – This study examines whether increased director workloads are benefiting firms or are causing directors to become too busy, resulting in lower director attendance and weaker firm performance. Design/methodology – Empirical analysis of the relationships between meeting frequency, director attendance rates and firm performance using archival data. Findings – Attendance rates for both outside and inside directors decrease as they are required to attend more meetings. The benefits firms obtain from holding additional meetings are significantly eroded by lower director attendance. Originality/value – This study brings together the literatures on meeting frequency, director busyness and firm performance to show that increased director workloads are only beneficial to firms if directors do not become too busy to fulfill their obligations to shareholders.