The Politics of Management: the Corporate Governance Issue

1986 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 286-299
Author(s):  
Arthur Knight

THE TERM CORPORATE GOVERNANCE HAS COME INTO USE TO describe both the purposes and the methods which determine the structure and the control of companies. A wide range of legal, regulatory and less formalized arrangements is thus embraced. In the UK in recent years discussion has related to a number of interrelated issues: the structure and functioning of boards of directors, reporting to shareholders and the ways in which shareholders use their power. These issues have a bearing upon business performance, though the debate about ways to improve the quality of management embraces also the cultural factors, the educational system and training arrangements; and performance depends too upon factors wholly or largely beyond the influence of managers, such as the tensions from class-division, over-powerful unions and the uncertainties which flow from discontinuities in public policy which are especially evident in the British political system. But in the general debate the corporate governance issues have perhaps had less attention than they deserve; the discussion has been confined to a limited circle. It is proposed here to concentrate on non-executive directors.

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 238-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Nana Yaw Simpson

Purpose – This study aims to examine the structure, attributes, and performance of boards of directors of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) within the broader context of public sector governance. This is informed by the less attention given to the concept among public sector organizations despite efforts to make state enterprises more effective and efficient, especially in developing and middle income countries. Design/methodology/approach – Data was collected through questionnaires self-administered in 2010 to all 25 SOEs in Accra, Ghana, out of the 29 nationwide. Some key officials were interviewed and documentary evidence analyzed to achieve triangulation of data and results. Findings – Results show that state-owned enterprises have boards and comply with the minimal governance issues outlined the legal frameworks establishing them. However, they exhibit significant weaknesses in the areas of board performance evaluation, criteria for board appointment, the balance of executive directors and non-executive directors, and other board characteristics, indicating a departure from general practices. Practical implications – Findings suggest the need for a tailored corporate governance framework or code for state-owned enterprises in developing countries. Originality/value – Compared to the literature, this study provides insight on boards from the perspective of state enterprises in ensuring good corporate governance, particularly in the context of a middle income country (Ghana).


2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-63
Author(s):  
Jose Elias Feres de Almeida

In an environment with poor quality of Corporate Governance Mechanisms, the quality of directors’ attributes might exert an important role to improve firm’s value and performance. I developed an index to explore the quality of Board of Directors based on Brazilian and international corporate governance codes to measure directors qualitative attributes. The sample consist in 24 Brazilian firms that traded at NYSE in the period over 1999-2006. The results show us that board of directors with high types of attributes can improve value measured individually and by the quality index. The main results indicate that firm value improved with high types of professionals, accountants seated in boards, directors with high level of education and that participated in executive training. Keywords: Board of Directors’ Quality, Corporate Governance, Firm Value, Directors Qual


Author(s):  
Arwa Hassan Baabbad

The present study aimed to find out the role of corporate governance in improving the quality of information in the Saudi Electricity Company. The researcher used the descriptive survey methodology. As to achieve the study objectives، the researcher utilized the questionnaire tool، in which the study sample (50) members of SEC distributed into employees، managers and decision makers. The study concluded to many results، among of which are: there is a statistically significant relationship between the availability of corporate governance system and performance improvement of the Saudi Electricity Company، there is a statistically significant relationship between corporate governance and appropriateness in improving the performance of the Saudi Electricity Company، it was also found that there is a statistically significant relationship between corporate governance and optimal disclosure in improving the performance of Saudi Electricity Company. The study also found that there is a statistically significant relationship between corporate governance and the right timing in improving the performance of the Saudi Electricity Company. The study suggested number of recommendations، among of which are: the importance of the shareholding companies to comply with the corporate governance regulations considering the interest of companies and their shareholders and all other parties benefiting from the financial statements، attempting to take advantage of the multiple benefits of corporate governance and expand its application in the various economic units in Saudi Arabia، conduct studies on companies that applies the requirement of the Corporate Governance Regulations، and the impact of the application of corporate governance on the shares of these units to find out the relationship between the quality of accounting information in light of the application of corporate governance and the stock market from another angle، imposing deterrent penalties concerning the Corporate Governance Regulations on companies that did not apply this regulation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Altaie ◽  
MA Hadis ◽  
V Wilson ◽  
MJ German ◽  
BR Nattress ◽  
...  

SUMMARY Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the irradiance and the quality of LED light curing units (LCUs) in primary and secondary clinics in the UK and to assess the effect of damage, contamination, use of protective sleeves, and distance of light tips to target on the irradiance and performance of LCUs. Methods: The irradiance levels (mW/cm2) of 26 LED LCUs from general dental practices and 207 LED LCUs from two dental hospitals were measured using a digital radiometer (Blue Phase II, Ivoclar, Vivadent, Amherst, NY). Ten LED light guide tips (Satelec Mini, Acteon, Merignac, France) were selected to evaluate the effect of chipping, contamination (tip debris), and use of protective sleeves and tips to sensor distance on irradiance (mW/cm2) using a MARC Resin Calibrator (Blue Light Analytics, Halifax, Canada). Homogeneity of the light output was evaluated using a laser beam profiler (SP620; Ophir-Spiricon, North Longan, UT, USA). Statistical analysis was conducted using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with post hoc Tukey test (α=0.05) and linear regression with stepwise correlation tests. Results: Thirty-three percent of the LCUs delivered irradiance output less than 500 mW/cm2. The condition of the light curing tips was poor, with 16% contaminated with resin debris, 26% damaged, and 10% both contaminated and damaged. The irradiance output was significantly reduced in contaminated (62%) and chipped (50%) light curing tips and when using protective sleeves (24%) (p<0.05). Irradiance was also reduced when increasing the distance with 25% and 34% reduction at 7 mm and 10 mm, respectively (p<0.05). Conclusion: There remains a lack of awareness of the need for regular monitoring and maintenance of dental LCUs. Damaged and contaminated light curing tips, use of protective sleeves, and increasing the distance from the restoration significantly reduced the irradiance output and the performance of the LCUs.


2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 1161-1184
Author(s):  
Josimar Pires Da Silva ◽  
Mariana Pereira Bonfim ◽  
Rafael Martins Noriller ◽  
Carlos Vicente Berner

AbstractThe objective of this research is to verify the level of relationship between the mechanisms of corporate governance and the performance of the companies of the public subsector, listed on BM&FBovespa. The research was based on the financial statements from 2010 to 2014, obtained on the BM&FBovespa website, resulting in a sample of 63 companies with 315 observations. In order to calculate the performance proxy of the company, the ROA was used, and for the calculation of the proxies of the corporate governance mechanisms were used for the quality of the audit, the concentration of ownership in common shares and preferred shares, participation in the levels of governance of BM&FBovespa, number of shares held by the government and number of directors in the Board, adapted from the Mollah and Zaman (2015) survey. Convergence with national and international research, the findings of the study showed that such variables as quality of profit, concentration of ownership in preferred shares, participation in governance levels and size of the Board are positively related to the performance of the company; already a concentration of ownership in common shares and number of shares held by the government are negatively related to performance. For future reference, it is recommended to expand other sectors of the market as well as to use other mechanisms of corporate governance, presented in the literature.Keywords: Corporate Governance. Performance. Public Subsector.Mecanismos de governança corporativa e desempenho: análise das companhias do subsetor de utilidade pública listadas na BM&FBovespa Resumo O objetivo da pesquisa foi o de verificar o nível de relação entre os mecanismos de governança corporativa e o desempenho das empresas do subsetor de utilidade pública, listadas na BM&FBovespa. A pesquisa teve como base os dados das demonstrações financeiras de 2010 a 2014, obtidas no sítio eletrônico da BM&FBovespa, resultando assim, em uma amostra de 63 empresas, com 315 observações. Para o cálculo da proxy de desempenho da empresa foi utilizado o ROA, e para o cálculo das proxies dos mecanismos de governança corporativa foram utilizadas a qualidade da auditoria, concentração de propriedade em ações ordinárias e em ações preferenciais, participação nos níveis de governança da BM&FBovespa, número de ações mantidas pelo governo e número de diretores no Conselho, adaptado da pesquisa de Mollah e Zaman (2015). Convergente com pesquisas nacionais e internacionais, os achados desse estudo evidenciaram que as variáveis qualidade do lucro, concentração de propriedade em ações preferenciais, participação nos níveis de governança e tamanho do Conselho são positivamente relacionados com o desempenho da empresa; já a concentração de propriedade em ações ordinárias e o número de ações mantidas pelo governo são negativamente relacionadas com o desempenho. Para pesquisas futuras, recomenda-se ampliar a outros setores do mercado bem como utilizar outros mecanismos de governança corporativa, presentes na literatura.Palavras-chave: Governança Corporativa. Desempenho. Utilidade Pública.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-21
Author(s):  
Bruno Elmôr Duarte ◽  
Ricardo Pereira Câmara Leal

This article analyzes conflicts between principals that led to activism by one large Brazilian government-owned investor as a minority shareholder and verifies the antecedents, means employed, apparent motivations, and effectiveness of its reactions (Goranova & Ryan, 2014). It examines the cases of three large high ownership concentration listed companies using solely public sources. Poor performance was a frequent conflict antecedent. No evident trade-off between activism and corporate governance (CG) practices emerged. High ownership concentration influenced the way the investor reacted and its success because opposition through internal CG mechanisms was usually not successful and led to legal proceedings. The limitations of the regulatory framework became evident from the mixed outcomes of these proceedings. The investor was not exclusively financially motivated and it occasionally opposed the interests of other minority shareholders to follow government policy. These findings illustrated how high ownership concentration rendered difficult the mitigation of principal-principal conflicts even for a large government-owned investor and help explain the failure of previous econometric studies to relate activism, quality of CG practices and performance (Young, Peng, Ahlstrom, Bruton, & Jiang, 2008)


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 677-687
Author(s):  
Sam Ngwenya

The global financial crisis of 2008 that resulted in the collapse of many financial institutions in the United States (US) and Europe have resulted in debates over the failures of corporate governance structures to properly protect investors. The main objective of the study was to determine the relationship between corporate governance and performance of listed commercial banks in South Africa. The results of the study indicated a statistically positive significant relationship between board size, proportion of non-independent and non-executive directors and bank performance. The results of the rest of the corporate governance indicators are mixed when using different performance measurement variables.


2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 578-587
Author(s):  
Donatella Busso ◽  
Alain Devalle ◽  
Fabio Rizzato

Board evaluation is an evaluation of the performance of the board of directors and its committees, as well as their size, composition and operation. The aim of this paper is to investigate how entities do the evaluation of the performance of the board and how they disclose the self-assessment. We analysed the largest forty constituents of both Italy’s FTSE MIB index and the UK’s FTSE 100 index. The results show that although Corporate Governance Codes’ requirements are similar, implementation of these requirements and the related disclosure continue to show significant differences. The UK companies seem to have a stronger “forward-looking” approach compared to Italian companies. Disclosure provided by Italian companies is too often not enough to enable stakeholder understanding of the process and its outcome. This research contributes to the literature by providing results on the evaluation of boards of directors: regulators, practitioners and researchers must deal with this topic in order to strengthen the rules of corporate governance.


2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Frances Reid ◽  
Mamidipudi Thirumala Krishna ◽  
Claire Bethune

AimTo record the level of allergy teaching occurring in UK medical schools. The UK has experienced an ‘allergy epidemic’ during the last 3–4 decades. Previous government reviews have emphasised the importance of allergy education and training, treating common allergies in primary care with referral pathways to a specialist and the creation of regional networks. It is acknowledged that the delivery of allergy teaching in UK medical schools is variable, despite the well-recognised need.MethodsAll consultant members of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology involved in teaching medical students were invited to partake in qualitative research, employing an online questionnaire for data collection. Participants were asked to comment on the format of the allergy teaching delivered, the student participation and the clinical opportunities provided. Students were recruited to complete a similar survey as supporting evidence.Results44 responses were collected, representing 64.7% of medical schools in the UK. Clinical allergy placements were compulsory in 31.8% of medical schools that responded. In 36.4%, it was reported that less than 10% of students had an opportunity to take an independent history from a patient with allergic disease, or practise using an epinephrine autoinjector. 90.9% responded that an allergy rotation was not offered to final year students.ConclusionsAllergy undergraduate teaching is suboptimal and heterogeneous in UK medical schools and there is a real need for standardisation as a means to enhance quality of care.


2022 ◽  
pp. 1945-1962
Author(s):  
Yakira Fernández-Torres ◽  
Ricardo Javier Palomo-Zurdo ◽  
Milagros Gutiérrez-Fernández

As a key part of the fourth industrial revolution, technology companies have become the most valuable companies in the world in terms of market capitalization. Surprisingly, however, these companies have been overlooked by studies of gender diversity in corporate governance even though their highly distinctive features may cause major differences in gender diversity with respect to companies in other sectors. The goal of this chapter is therefore to provide the first characterization of gender diversity in the corporate governance of large technology companies—specifically those with the highest market value—and explore the relationship between gender diversity and business performance. To achieve this goal, descriptive statistical analysis is used. Data correspond to the period 2005 to 2017. The findings confirm the under-representation of women on the boards of directors of 162 publicly listed companies. The findings also show that the most profitable companies are those that have the greatest female representation on their boards of directors.


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