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Full-Text Articles in Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics

Governance Of The Governing: Accountability And Motivation At The Top Of Public Organizations, Donald Nordberg Sep 2013

Governance Of The Governing: Accountability And Motivation At The Top Of Public Organizations, Donald Nordberg

Donald Nordberg

Developments in the governance practices in UK public organizations show how ideas from the governance of listed companies have translated into public sectors bodies, government departments and the governance of parliament itself. The use of independent, non-executives directors in public bodies encapsulates the tension in the private sector between the service role of directors and how they control the executives who manage the business. This paper gives a preliminary examination of three public bodies, comparing how reform of their governance mechanisms has affected tensions in accountability and director motivation. What is evident is that the changes involve greater emphasis on …


The Ethics Of Shareholder Value: Duty, Rights & Football, Donald Nordberg Jan 2012

The Ethics Of Shareholder Value: Duty, Rights & Football, Donald Nordberg

Donald Nordberg

How does a board of directors decide what is right? The contest over this question is frequently framed as a debate between shareholder value and stakeholder rights, between a utilitarian view of the ethics of corporate governance and a deontological one. This paper uses a case study with special circumstances that allow us to examine the conflict between shareholder value and other bases on which a board can act. In the autumn of 2010 the board of Liverpool Football Club sold the company to another investing group against the wishes of the owners. The analysis suggests the board saw more …


Corporate Governance: Principles And Issues, Donald Nordberg Jan 2011

Corporate Governance: Principles And Issues, Donald Nordberg

Donald Nordberg

This paper is the first chapter of a book published by Sage Publications examining the principles considered in contesting theories of the field, and then the issues facing boards of directors in dealing with matters within the board, between boards and owners, between different types of owners, and then with the wider public. Taking a global outlook, the book also explores the role and limitations of transparency as a method of accountability before returning to the many unresolved questions in a field with an unsettled and perhaps unsettling future. This first chapter sets the stage with discussion of Lehman Brothers …


Review Essay: Disagreeing About The Climate, Donald Nordberg Jan 2009

Review Essay: Disagreeing About The Climate, Donald Nordberg

Donald Nordberg

This paper is an early draft of a review essay that subsequently appeared in the journal Business and Society in 2010. The science concerning climate change is clear, both sides of the argument agree. What they don't agree about is what that clarity means. Each side considers the matter settled, and their points of view unsettle each attempt to make public policy. Mike Hulme, director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia, thinks the reasons for the persistent differences lies in the complex ways we see and use climate change as a totem …


Some Are More Equal: The Politics Of Shareholder Activism, Donald Nordberg Jan 2008

Some Are More Equal: The Politics Of Shareholder Activism, Donald Nordberg

Donald Nordberg

This paper is an early draft of a chapter in the book Corporate Governance: A Synthesis of Theory, Research, and Practice (H. Kent Baker and Ronald Anderson, eds.) published by Wiley in 2010. Shareholder activism is an exercise of power, sometime benign, sometimes threatening to the interests of corporate management, boards and other shareholders. The complexity of these combinations helps to understand how difficult it is for directors to operate in shareholders' interest. What we see, particularly in relation to the growth of hedge-fund activism, is greater dispersion of shareholder interests and growing questions about the legitimacy of how those …


News And Corporate Governance: What Dow Jones And Reuters Teach Us About Stewardship, Donald Nordberg Aug 2007

News And Corporate Governance: What Dow Jones And Reuters Teach Us About Stewardship, Donald Nordberg

Donald Nordberg

This paper in an early draft of an article that appeared in Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism in 2007. The outcomes of near simultaneous bids for the news organizations Reuters Group plc and Dow Jones & Co. Inc. in 2007 hinged on mechanisms of corporate governance put in place at each company to protect the integrity and independence of the editorial operations. Neither company is a particularly model of good governance, since the restrictions – super-voting shares at DJ, veto-power by the trustees of the Founders Share Company at Reuters – almost completely rule out an open market for corporate …


The Ethics Of Corporate Governance, Donald Nordberg Jul 2007

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' …


Rebalancing The Board's Agenda, Donald Nordberg Jun 2007

Rebalancing The Board's Agenda, Donald Nordberg

Donald Nordberg

This paper is a draft of an article published in the Journal of General Management in 2007. Since the corporate governance scandals of 2001 and 2002, the work of boards of directors has been dominated by board processes and compliance, with a corresponding reduction in the emphasis on value creation. This discussion paper proposes a model for board activities and raises questions about how they can be rebalanced to provide greater emphasis on the board's strategic advisory role. It also looks at European governance issues, including the role of dual boards.