Contemporary challenges in corporate governance

There is no doubt that the emergence in the last 15-20 years of corporate governance as a focus for academic and managerial concern has been significant: the collapses of such large companies as Enron and the scandals to hit others such as WorldCom, sent shudders through investor markets, Governments and boards of Directors alike. Theoretical and applied outputs have examined the reasons for such failures, offered models for 'good' corporate governance and reported on skills, intentions and activities good and bad, of those involved in governance. Notorious though these failures might be in terms of their exposure of failures in governance and control they are merely manifestations of failure in particular aspects of governance within particular structures in particular contexts: most often the large Anglo-American publicly owned company or corporation. However, governance as a term, concept and construct is much broader: with its definition as 'a set of relationships between a company's management, its Board, its shareholders and other stakeholders...also providing the structure through which the objectives of the company are set and the means of attaining those objectives and monitoring performance are determined' (OECD 2004, p.11), principles of governance have a general significance in a wide range of cultural and management contexts. That governance can be described as 'good' when and if the policies and procedures of governance implemented and observed increase value: debate continues around what how such value can be measured and to whom it should first and foremost accrue. Hence this collection of case studies. The title to this book is carefully chosen to reflect our intention in providing them: to offer an opportunity for readers to understand and appreciate the breadth and complexity of contexts in which issues of governance arise and to explore strategies for addressing those issues.