The Corporate Board: Confronting the Paradoxes / Edition 1

by Ada Demb, F.-Friedrich Neubauer, Adrian Cadbury

Overview

Written for practitioners, this book addresses corporate governance and the role of the board of directors in multinational corporations. Throughout the world, corporations are experiencing the second major transition in corporate governance of this century. The nature of the relationship between the corporation and the rest of society is changing fundamentally. The corporate board has unique responsibilities during this transition, but as it tries to respond directors are faced with destabilizing paradoxes: resolving who is in control—management or the board, achieving critical judgment while maintaining detachment, and avoiding becoming either a cozy club or a collection of all-stars. This book, based on interviews with 71 directors serving on more than 500 boards in eight countries, shows the nature of the challenges and suggests ways to analyze and confront them. This major international study compares the experiences of board members in Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Venezuela.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195070392
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/02/1992
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	9.56(w) x 6.38(h) x 0.91(d)

About the Author

Ohio State University

International Institute for Management Development

former Chairman, Cadbury Schweppes Ltd.

Table of Contents

1. Assessing the Discomfort2. Corporate Governance: Lifespace and Accountability3. The "Job" of the Board: Defining the Portfolio4. Whose Responsibility: The Board or Management? 5. Commitment and Depth Versus Detachment and Breadth6. "Cozy Club" Versus Independent "Personalities"7. Dealing with Board Performance8. Imperatives for the Twenty-first CenturyName IndexIndex

Editorial Reviews

"A comprehensive international survey of how boards work and the problems they face....The discussion of the paradoxes, and the various solutions to them, is comprehensive, well-structured and illuminating....Fascinating and important."—Long Range Planning

"A breakthrough in management research."—The Financial Times

"Merits highest recommendation for its unique perspectives and for its ambitious approaches to fundamental issues in management."—Choice

"[A] stimulating book assessing board practice and structure in Britain, Germany, France, Finland, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada, and Venezuela. The authors, both Swiss academics with wide experience of international companies, write elegantly (a distinct bonus in such a book)....[A] timely and valuable contribution to the corporate governance library."—Director

"This is a handbook for directors which will give guidance and spark new thinking on the organization and structure of boards. Maybe one day boards will be persuaded to evaluate their own performance. It's all in this book!"—Sir Anthony Pilkington, Chair, Pilkington PLC

From the Publisher