scholarly journals The Financial Debacle Necessitates a Systematic Approach to Achieving Ethical Behavior in the Corporate Workplace

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Clifton Clarke ◽  
Myles Bassell
Keyword(s):  
Boards Of Directors ◽  
Business Schools ◽  
Codes Of Ethics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Corporate Boards ◽  
Wall Street ◽  
Unethical Conduct ◽  
Business Executives ◽  
Financial Scandals ◽  
The Impact

The current vitriolic discourse over the financial scandals implicating Wall Street and its satellite institutions dictates a fresh look at strategies intended to eradicate or prevent unethical practices in business activities. The spate of recently published unethical behavior among business executives in the United States confirms, unequivocally, that past and current strategies have failed. This paper reviews and evaluates the impact of some of these strategies. It found that the strategies focus on legislation, written corporate codes of ethics and assorted activities in business schools. It found that these strategies are largely isolated and missed the fact that unethical business conduct is systemic, reflecting the ethical lapses of two systems: a public system (consisting of governmental bodies, business schools, and the general citizenry) and a corporate system (consisting of boards of directors, executives, managers and employees). It found that there is a significant gap between the rhetoric of corporate executives and their attention to unethical conduct in the workplace. It concludes that isolated legislative actions, apathetic business schools’ policies, complacent and complicit corporate boards, contribute to the failure. It also concludes that, the implementation of business ethics in the workplace requires a transformation of attitude within and between these systems and posits that a system approach is the only strategy that can successfully transform these systems and that business schools are uniquely capable of leading this transformation.

scholarly journals A System Approach to Implementing Business Ethics in the Corporate Workplace

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Clifton Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Business Ethics ◽  
Boards Of Directors ◽  
System Approach ◽  
Business Schools ◽  
Codes Of Ethics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Corporate Boards ◽  
Unethical Conduct ◽  
Financial Scandals ◽  
The Impact

The current vitriolic discourse over the financial scandals implicating Wall Street and its satellite institutions dictates a fresh look at strategies intended to eradicate or prevent unethical practices in business activities. The spate of recently published unethical behavior among business executives in the United States confirms, unequivocally, that past and current strategies have failed. This paper reviews and evaluates the impact of some of these strategies. It found that the strategies focus on legislation, written corporate codes of ethics and assorted activities in business schools. It found that these strategies are largely isolated and missed the fact that unethical business conduct is systemic, reflecting the ethical lapses of two systems: a public system (consisting of governmental bodies, business schools, and the general citizenry) and a corporate system (consisting of boards of directors, executives, managers and employees). It found that there is a significant gap between the rhetoric of corporate executives and their attention to unethical conduct in the workplace. It concludes that isolated legislative actions, apathetic business schools’ policies, complacent and complicit corporate boards, contribute to the failure. It also concludes that, the implementation of business ethics in the workplace requires a transformation of attitude within and between these systems and posits that a system approach is the only strategy that can successfully transform these systems and that business schools are uniquely capable of leading this transformation.

The Squandered Brilliance of Our Disposable Youth

2021 ◽  
pp. 35-109
Author(s):  
Jim Freeman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Public School ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
The United States ◽  
Corporate America ◽  
Wall Street ◽  
Public School Systems ◽  
Communities Of Color ◽  
The Impact

This chapter addresses the education inequities in the United States, and distinguishes between “public schools” and “charter schools.” Though the chapter recognizes that this is itself controversial, and charter schools have taken to referring themselves as public schools, for the sake of clarity it is important to be able to distinguish between the two. While the charter schools' efforts have been primarily directed at Black and Brown communities thus far, the chapter unveils the school privatizers' ultimate targets, which are set much more broadly than that. It examines the impact of school privatization on public school systems and the harms caused by school privatization in communities of color. The chapter then takes a look at Corporate America and Wall Street, and analyses how they can always profit from new markets and expandable markets. Ultimately, it reveals how the ultra-wealthy maintain education inequities to ensure that there will be millions of poorly educated, low-skill individuals who are essentially forced to accept the low wages to survive.

scholarly journals The Impact of Effective Corporate Boards and Audit Committees on Attracting Foreign Ownership in Listed Companies in the Gulf Cooperation Council

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 190
Author(s):  
Mohammed Gubran Al-shamahi ◽  
Kamarul Bahrain Abdul Manaf ◽  
Ali Saleh Al-arussi
Keyword(s):  
Firm Size ◽  
Stock Markets ◽  
Boards Of Directors ◽  
Listed Companies ◽  
Foreign Ownership ◽  
Gulf Cooperation Council ◽  
Audit Committees ◽  
Corporate Boards ◽  
Political Risks ◽  
The Impact

This study empirically examines the impact of effectiveness of both corporate boards and audit committee on foreign ownership in selected non-financial listed companies of the stock markets in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Contrary to previous studies, this study enters the firm size, leverage, exchange rate risks, inflation risks and economic growth as control variables. For the first time, it also includes the political risks’ variable as a control variable that may affect foreign ownership. In term of panel data regression analysis, the study was built on fixed effect model and conducted to the period of 2012-2015 for 143 non-financial listed companies on the GCC stock markets. Our results explain that foreign ownership is positively related to the effectiveness of both the boards of directors and the audit committees. Political risks and firm size are positively significant with foreign ownership, while the leverage is negatively related to foreign ownership. The implication of this study may help beneficiaries in making better policy decisions and provide guidance for corporate managers on the needs of foreign investors.

scholarly journals The Impact Of International Financial Reporting Standards On Accounting Curriculum In The United States

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
JeRamMohan R. Yallapragadarry ◽  
Alfred G. Toma ◽  
C. William Roe
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Business Schools ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Financial Reporting Standards ◽  
Reporting Standards ◽  
Financial Reporting Standards ◽  
Accounting Curriculum ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Impact

According to the time line presently specified by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), business firms in the United States (US) should switch from the existing US accounting reporting guidelines of the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by the year 2014.  The US business school graduates and accounting professionals have less than four years to understand the differences between the two accounting systems, and to learn how to implement the new International Accounting Standards.  But many of the business schools in the US are not yet ready to include the new IFRS standards in their accounting curriculum. In many schools, administrators do not have any understanding of how to incorporate the new standards in their curriculum. Many European countries shifted to IFRS as early as 2005.  They are ahead of the US in teaching IFRS to their students. The main problems in incorporating IFRS in the curriculum include lack of good textbooks and providing training for professors to learn IFRS procedures so that they can teach them to their students. This paper makes an effort in presenting the historical background of IFRS, and the impact of the adapting of IFRS on US business schools.

scholarly journals Does Board Gender Diversity Affects Dividend Payout? Evidence from a review of literature

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (16) ◽  
pp. 19-34
Author(s):  
Emma Anuar ◽  
Rozainun Abdul Aziz ◽  
Maslinawati Mohamad ◽  
Rugayah Hashim
Keyword(s):  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Boards Of Directors ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Board Composition ◽  
Corporate Boards ◽  
Women Directors ◽  
Dividend Payout ◽  
Board Gender Diversity ◽  
The Impact

The objective of this paper is to review the literature on how board gender diversity impacts dividend payout among public listed companies in Malaysia. Traditionally, higher-level management positions are held by men. Leadership and decision making are predominantly male, while the minority are women directors. When corporate boards show diversity, there is a significant presence of women or the addition of women to the board. In the past, present, and indeed the future, board gender diversity is the issue that is a growing trend and is getting more attention. The shareholders and investors are putting pressure on the boards of directors’ to show increased performance. The findings from this paper will provide evidence on whether board gender diversity influences the dividend payout. Board composition without gender discrimination is the new normal for corporations to thrive after the global lockdowns from Covid-19. Other relevant matters on the impact of board gender diversity will also be discussed.Keywords: board gender diversity; board characteristics; board composition; board traits; female directors; dividend payout; MalaysiaeISSN: 2514-7528 © 2020 The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/jabs.v5i16.350

Reversing Predatory Value Extraction

2019 ◽  
pp. 192-206
Author(s):  
William Lazonick ◽  
Jang-Sup Shin
Keyword(s):  
Boards Of Directors ◽  
The United States ◽  
Stock Repurchases ◽  
Open Market ◽  
Corporate Boards ◽  
Executive Pay ◽  
Socioeconomic Mobility ◽  
Reward Value ◽  
Innovative Products ◽  
Corporate Profits

This concluding chapter suggests the following changes in the United States’ corporate-governance regime that can get its economy back on the path to sustainable prosperity: (1) rescind SEC Rule 10b-18 and ban open-market stock repurchases; (2) redesign executive pay to incentivize and reward value creation, not value extraction; (3) reconstitute corporate boards of directors to include to include representatives of households as workers, as taxpayers, and as savers as well as households as founders—and exclude the predatory value extractors; (4) reform the corporate tax system so that it returns profits to taxpaying households and funds government spending on infrastructure and knowledge for the next generation of innovative products; (5) redeploy corporate profits and productive capabilities to support collective and cumulative careers, and thus enable widespread upward socioeconomic mobility.

scholarly journals The Impact of Post-Crisis Regulatory Reforms on Cross-Border Financial Transactions

2018 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 41-44
Author(s):  
Sharon Brown-Hruska
Keyword(s):  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Regulatory Structure ◽  
Wall Street ◽  
Market Participants ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Consumer Protection Act ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Financial Transactions ◽  
The Impact

One of the near casualties of the global financial crisis (Crisis) was the march toward a more principles-based global regulatory structure that simultaneously encouraged cross-border transactions and recognized sovereign authorities over them without the necessity of a one-size-fits-all regulatory framework. The implementation of the G20 reforms for over-the-counter derivatives was far more prescriptive than principled. Post-crisis implementation of the G20 reforms, embodied in the United States in Title 7 of the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, yielded a costly, and in some markets, persistent loss of liquidity and fragmentation as market participants have attempted to sort out complex and sometimes competing regulatory requirements for reporting, trading, clearing, margin, and capital in practice.

scholarly journals The Impact of World Ranking Systems on Graduate Schools of Business: Promoting the Manipulation of Image over the Management of Substance

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kent V. Rondeau
Keyword(s):  
Business Schools ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Image ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
League Tables ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Ranking Systems ◽  
The Impact

This essay explores and examines how rankings and league tables have played (and continue to play) a major andconsequential role in how contemporary business schools manage their affairs. It introduces and advances theproposition that rankings promote the short-term manipulation of public reputation (image) projected by businessschools at the expense of the long-term investments in quality improvement. When schools shift scarce resources toactions aimed at enhancing their public image in the short-term, the consequences for the quality of the professionaleducation is significantly compromised in the long-term to the detriment of the constituencies that they serve. Whilethis paper focuses mainly on business schools in the United States and Canada, where this author has experiencedthese consequences first-hand, the effects are similar if perhaps less dramatic, for those professional businessprograms located in higher education institutions operating in the United Kingdom and Europe. While rankingsystems are not going away anytime soon, some potential ways are identified for business schools to escape thedeleterious and perverse effects of being captive players in the deadly rankings game.

THE HUMAN CAPITAL OF BOARDS OF DIRECTORS AND INNOVATION: AN EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (06) ◽  
pp. 2050056
Author(s):  
ALIX VALENTI ◽  
STEPHEN HORNER
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Pharmaceutical Industry ◽  
Boards Of Directors ◽  
Resource Dependence ◽  
Corporate Boards ◽  
Women Directors ◽  
Firm Innovation ◽  
Empirical Examination ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Strategic Outcomes

The human capital of corporate boards of directors is a key organizational resource affecting a variety of strategic outcomes. Using human capital theory within the broader theoretical contexts of agency theory and the resource dependence perspective, we investigate the effects of certain types of board human capital on firm innovation. Our findings are generally supportive of our theory that board human capital is associated with firm innovation. Specifically, we examine the role of certain types of board human capital on firm innovation and find that scientific expertise, industry experience, financial expertise, and women directors positively affect firm innovation in the pharmaceutical industry, with innovation measured by R&D expenditures and number of patents. These results imply that the knowledge, experience, and expertise that directors bring to corporate boards are important considerations in constituting corporate boards. Further, our work adds to understanding of the impact of board characteristics on firm strategic outcomes.

scholarly journals A Historical Analysis of the Investment Company Act of 1940

2021 ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Michael Weiner
Keyword(s):  
Boards Of Directors ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Securities And Exchange Commission ◽  
Exchange Traded Funds ◽  
Stock Selection ◽  
Investment Company ◽  
Wall Street ◽  
Structural Aspects

More than 100 million Americans invest $25 trillion in mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (collectively, “funds”) regulated by the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the “Act”), making funds the predominant investment vehicle in the United States. Everyday investors rely on funds to save for retirement, pay for college, and seek financial security. In this way, funds demonstrate how “Wall Street” can connect with “Main Street” to improve people’s lives. By way of background, funds are created by investment advisers (“advisers”) that provide investment advisory (e.g., stock selection) and other services to their funds in exchange for a fee. Investors purchase shares of a fund, which represent a pro-rata interest in the fund’s net assets—essentially, the securities chosen by the adviser—with the hope that the value of those assets, and in turn, the value of the fund, will appreciate. Although managing a fund is expensive, pooling investments from the public allows an adviser to spread its costs over an entire fund, which allows professional money management to be affordable for all. Prior to the Act, the unique structural aspects of funds, coupled with a lack of regulation, enabled rogue advisers to put their own interests ahead of those of fund shareholders. These structural aspects include that a fund typically relies on its adviser, which seeks to make a profit, to manage its day-to-day operations. Before 1940, adviser personnel also dominated the boards of directors of funds, which are responsible for overseeing the adviser and negotiating its compensation. This made funds susceptible to rogue advisers that were more interested in managing funds to benefit themselves and their “affiliates” (i.e., their employees and related businesses), as opposed to increasing the value of their funds. Recognizing the vital role that funds play for both the overall economy and the citizen of “small means,” the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the fund industry worked together to draft the Act, which Congress passed unanimously. The incredible growth of funds over the past 80 years is often attributed to the oversight and direction provided by the Act, which regulates all facets of fund operations and is arguably the most complex of our nation’s securities laws. Understanding the policy concerns that led to the Act helps to cut through that complexity and make sense of the Act’s provisions. As a result, this article focuses on those concerns, which can be thought of as guiding “Principles,” to demonstrate how the Act seeks to: (1) prevent insiders from taking advantage of funds they manage; (2) require effective disclosure; and (3) ensure the equitable treatment of shareholders. The Principles make the Act easier to apply by serving as shoal markers for conduct to avoid. But, just as a buoy indicates dangerous areas to avoid, the Principles also help guide conduct that steers clear of them. The Principles are thus a useful lens for interpreting the Act, particularly when considering novel situations or whether, per the “rubber” built into the Act, exemptive or other relief is appropriate. In these instances, harnessing the history and purpose of the Act can help advisers, fund directors, practitioners, and regulators apply the Act and ensure that funds remain a driver of national and, most importantly, investor gain.

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