Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/226339

Title

A holistic approach to corporate governance: lessons from the financial crisis and a way forward

Author(s)

Young, Suzanne;  Thyil, Vijaya

Abstract

The heightened focus on corporate governance and, in particular, the failure of boards to protect corporations in the aftermath of the global financial crisis (GFC) underline the timeliness of this chapter. The current events, which include failures of monitoring and oversight and fraudulent behaviour by board members and their excessive remuneration levels, have all contributed to make the recent crisis one of the worst international financial collapses since the early part of the twentieth century. Improved decision-making is thus called for in moving corporations to better performance levels (Useem, 2006). However, boards are facing challenges in trying to balance their function as compliance officers with their function as shapers of the corporation's future (Lorsch and Clark, 2008). Simultaneously, a broader issue has emerged where society is redefining deviant behaviour, so that lower levels of conduct that were previously stigmatized are now considered acceptable (O'Brien, 2004). Thus, even though researchers and commentators have usually linked corporate governance to control and compliance with a focus on regulatory solutions, increasingly, we are seeing new approaches that call for behavioural and leadership change and the development of a holistic paradigm that is more suitable for the complexities of the twenty-first century (see Corporate Governance: An International Review, Vol. 17, Issue 4). This chapter picks up these developments and argues for a holistic perspective of governance and moves the debate from a narrow regulatory approach that excludes crucial variables, to highlight the importance of viewing governance problems and solutions from a wider and more inclusive multi-disciplinary paradigm.

Publication type

Book chapter

Source

Reframing corporate social responsibility: lessons from the Global Financial Crisis / William Sun, Jim Stewart and David Pollard (eds.), Chapter 16, pp. 365-388

Publication year

2011

Keyword(s)

Corporate governance;  Corporate social responsibility;  Global Financial Crisis

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

ISBN

9781107001879, 1107001870

Publisher URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511736599.016

Copyright

Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011.

Peer reviewed