Corporate Governance and Financial Performance

Corporate governance: “The set of laws, policies, incentives, and monitors designed to handle the issues arising from the separation of ownership and control.” (Cornett, Adair, & Nofsinger, 2016, p. 16).

A corporate stakeholder is a person or group that can affect or affected by the actions of business (Boundless, n.d.). There are two broad groups of stakeholder, internal stakeholders and external stakeholders. Internal stakeholders are parties who directly involved in the activities of the firm such as owners, managers and workers. External stakeholders are people outside of the business for example are customers, suppliers, creditors, government and the society. (BBC, n.d.) (Boundless, n.d.). Further more, different stakeholder has its own interest in the business, employees want their wage to increase, manager or owners want to maximize the business’s profit, the society wants products that help to develop the community and consumers want products that meet their demand. Through an overview, all the stakeholders have diverse impacts on the company and it depends on the approach of the

There are three internal and one external governance mechanisms used for owners to govern managers to ensure they comply with their responsibility to satisfy stakeholders and shareholder’s needs. First, ownership concentration is stated as the number of large-block shareholders and the total percentage of the shares they own (Hitt, Ireland, Hoskisson, 2017, p. 317). Second, the board of directors which are elected by the shareholders. Their primary duty is to act in the owner’s best interest and to monitor and control the businesses top-level managers (Hitt, Ireland, Hoskisson, 2017, p. 319). Third, is the

The stakeholder theory made popular by Ed Freeman (1984) does seem to represent a major advance over the classical view (Freeman, 1984). It might seem inappropriate to refer to the stakeholder position as neoclassical. Bowie (1991: 56-66) has defined stakeholders as a group whose existence was necessary for the survival of the firm--stockholders, employees, customers, suppliers, the local community, and managers themselves.

Managers and shareholders are the utmost contributors of these conflicts, hence affecting the entire structural organization of a company, its managerial system and eventually to the company's societal responsibility. A corporation is well organized with stipulated division of responsibilities among the arms of the organizational structure, shareholders, directors, managers and corporate officers. However, conflicts between managers in most firms and shareholders have brought about agency problems. Shares and their trade have seen many companies rise to big investments. Shareholders keep the companies running

The article is written to help readers gain a solid understanding the roles of corporate governance, both inside and outside the company. Its goal is simply to impart information, not make claims or arguments on its own. I will be judging it mainly on the sources gathered, numerous examples and explanations given and the overall effectiveness it possesses in effectively communicating its ideas.

In cooperate governance, stakeholders are the people who have got some interests in the business and these include shareholders, creditors, suppliers, employees, customers, communities and environment. Stakeholder debate has been there since business has been around and the question in this debate is to determine ‘for whose benefit does the company exists?’ Different theories such as the shareholder value theory, the stakeholder theory and the enlightened shareholder value theory have all been developed to address this question. These approaches (theories) have got some strengths and some weakness which are going to be conversed below.

In general ,the stakeholder approach may be more conducive to balancing a wide variety of corporate interests and thereby discouraging impropriety.Executives and boards should take the perceptions of both shareholders and stakeholders into account when formulating strategy and enunciate their stance in all organizational communications. Only within that kind of clearly delineated context, can managers be expected to make appropriate decisions. Indeed, some of the most successful businesses are those which have embraced stakeholder values for example Bodyshop. However, we see that generally, shareholder value

The shareholder primacy view holds that the primary purpose of the corporation is to maximize shareholder value. In contrast, the stakeholder approach to the corporation argues that in addition to their profit making function, corporations should serve society in a positive manner. This means that all primary stakeholders’ interests should be considered equally, not just those

This paper will have a detailed discussion on the shareholder theory of Milton Friedman and the stakeholder theory of Edward Freeman. Friedman argued that “neo-classical economic theory suggests that the purpose of the organisations is to make profits in their accountability to themselves and their shareholders and that only by doing so can business contribute to wealth for itself and society at large”. On the other hand, the theory of stakeholder suggests that the managers of an organisation do not only have the duty towards the firm’s shareholders; rather towards the individuals and constituencies who contribute to the company’s wealth, capacity and activities. These individuals or constituencies can be the shareholders, employees,

The interests of shareholders were always the primary objective of the corporations, and the management primary duty was to maximise their financial profit. According to Milton Friedman (1970), a corporate executive’s only social responsibility is to create wealth for the shareholder and to conduct the business in accordance with their desire. This perspective has been strongly challenged and modified due to the negative impact of the shareholder theory. The global scandals and crises which have been caused by the extreme interpretation of the shareholder theory have led to the rising of the stakeholder theory where the interests of the employees, the customers, and the local communities were taken into consideration and not been ignored as previously.

The importance of major stakeholders is moreover reinforced by David Boddy (2011:96) who argues that stake holders can influence considerable dominant managers, also the businesses which choose ‘ignore’ stakeholders can be in danger of a decline in their business activity. What David Boddy is essentially trying to convey is stakeholders are an integral part of the business and managers have to take consideration of these stakeholders when carrying out business activities, if not then the business may suffer negative consequences.

As explained by Schelker (2013), the agency problem between the owners and the management of a firm is at the heart of the corporate governance literature. Hence, there is a need for a

The importance of Corporate Governance has been strongly highlighted by many organizations and foreign nations. According to Zulkafli (2004), Corporate Governance is the process and structure used to direct and manage the business and affairs of the company towards enhancing business prosperity and corporate accountability with the ultimate objective of realizing long term shareholder value, whilst taking account the interests of other stakeholders . This, in simpler terms meaning managing the company’s money in such a way, where they face less risk and maximize the utilization of the resources. Due to this reason, corporate governance is becoming a must in many nations and their economic policy. However, over the years, many such corporate governance failures have been a root cause in the company’s demise. The top level managements’ misleading actions have been detrimental to their organization. International scandals such as Enron, Worldcomm, and Tyco International, have created a stir in the economy and harmed their company. Many top level staffs were fired, accused and even tried in court, with a majority of them facing prison sentences even till now.

All that said, overall, including stakeholder governance as one of the pillars of good corporate governance framework can result in a more comprehensive understanding of corporate risk and opportunity, drive learning, innovation and performance while contributing to a strong reputation and prosperity over time. In fact, it is said that stakeholder governance has the potential to turn ‘distrustful opponents into critical friends ’.