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The Ethics Of Corporate Governance, Donald Nordberg

Donald Nordberg

This paper is an early draft of an article that appeared in the Journal of General Management in 2008. How should corporate directors determine what is the "right" decision? For at least the past 30 years the debate has raged as to whether shareholder value should take precedence over corporate social responsibility when crucial decisions arise. Directors face pressure, not least from "ethical" investors, to do the "good" thing when they seek to make the "right" choice. Corporate governance theory has tended to look to agency theory and the need of boards to curb excessive executive power to guide directors' …