Forget ‘good’ corporate governance – What’s ‘good enough’?
Authors: Nordberg, D.
Conference: Global Research Foundation for Corporate Governance
Dates: 11-14 September 2024
DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4958882
Abstract:Since 2018, I have chaired the board of a major social care provider in England. I will soon complete my tenure as a non-executive director of a large performing arts organisation after quite a challenging six years. Covid brought existential threats to both organisations, and with it big – and aggressive – shifts in strategy for each. It was, in hindsight, a good time to be a company director; it might have been a very bad time. The difference was a combination of luck and very hard work. However, both cases bore only a passing resemblance to what we scholars talk about as “good” corporate governance. Yet both outcomes were undeniably good for the organisations and the people they serve.
The purpose of this conference is an admirable one – to identify fruitful paths for future research in pursuit of the elusive goal of good corporate governance, not just in developed markets of the northern hemisphere but also those in what we (oddly?) call the Global South. I’d like to start with a bit of history, however – and more than a bit philosophy – so we can see better where we currently stand. This talk will ask questions more than it gives answers. You won’t discover the future of anything by receiving answers. Let me warn you: My history lesson will be tendentious. I’ll say things I cannot demonstrate empirically and make assertions without solid evidence. That is, I will claim as true statements that are at best hunches that have coalesced into beliefs.
Source: Manual