The Responsibilities of a Board of Directors

Duty of care is a requirement to exercise a reasonable degree of attention and caution to avoid negligence which would lead others to harm. You need to be aware of the surrounds at all time and check if there are any hazards which could be harmful.

So DUTY OF CARE ensures that safeguarding is a priority as it is upheld in practice. When I am engaging with an individual it is my duty to have an understanding of what is required for the well being of the individual, when I’m on duty in my workplace, I will observe and record, how the individual

Duty of care is a requirement to exercise reasonable care, attention and caution to avoid negligence which would lead to the harm of other people.

Common stockholders are the basic owners of a corporation, but few stockholders of large corporations take an active role in management. Instead, they elect the corporation’s board of directors to represent their interests. Board members seldom get involved in the day-to-day management of the company. They establish the basic mission and goals of the corporation and appoint

| |Duty of care can be defined as "an obligation, recognised by law, to avoid conduct fraught with unreasonable risk of danger |

* The control of the corporation is managed by an elected board of directors. The officers in the company normally have to be approved by the board of directors before they are offered a position to lead the company.

The duty of care is included into the codes of practice for different job roles and

To ensure that the company thrives and overcomes the crisis that may come on the way, the company has various strategies and ways to overcome that and to keep the company on the track which includes constitution and board of directors which has various roles and responsibilities. The company has got a constitution and also corporations’ act. The companies’ values are the trust, integrity and honesty. The board carries out the duties in regard to the interest of the companies’

In many misfeasance cases against directors, those breaches maybe relatively uncontroversial. This draws into focus the question of whether the director has any common law or statutory defence, including the Duomatic principle and ratification by shareholders (CA 2006 S.239), available to a claim against him for restitution to the company. S.239(6)(a) preserves the Duomatic rule that if an informal unanimous consent is reached among voting shareholders, it is unnecessary to pass such ratification resolution through general meeting or written resolution. The first part will examine the scope and requirements of this rule to illustrate the validity of such assent. S.239(7) leaves the door open for rules of law, which refers to common law principles, to continue guiding ratification. It will be assessed how these rules impose limitations on the general ratification power conferred by s.239.

It is essential that the role, duties and responsibilities of directors are clearly defined. The Combined Code (2006) states that “the board’s role is to provide entrepreneurial leadership of the company within a framework of prudent and effective controls which enables risk to be assessed and managed”.

In large corporations the success or failure of the company is the responsibility of the board of directors. According to Richard DeGeorge, “The members of the board are responsible to the shareholders for the selection of honest, effective managers, and especially for the selection for the CEO and of the president of the corporation.” (p. 202). The board members have a moral responsibility to ensure the corporation is run honestly, in respect to its major policies, and to ensure the interests of the shareholders are satisfied. The next responsibility within a corporation is the responsibility management has to its board of directors. DeGeorge writes, “It must inform the board of its actions, the decisions it makes or the decisions to be made, the financial condition of the firm, its successes and failures, and the like.” (p. 202). The management of the corporation is morally obligated to

Joshua Kennon (2007), stated that “The board of directors is the highest governing authority within the management structure at any publicly traded company and is usually made up of the directors who are elected for a specific number of years by the shareholders”. According to Wikipedia,” A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization”.

First of all, in Walmart, the Board of director is the most powerful governing authority who are responsible for setting the framework and management structure in general. It is committed to be operated in fairness and integrity in order to ensure the shareholders’ trust. Board of directors’ internal duty is to control mechanisms for good governance are adequate. This includes setting up legal existence, establishes company’s vision, key mission, strategic direction, selecting and appointing chief executives, governing the organization via policies and objectives to guide other agencies following up. All strategic decisions of the corporation would be raised and agreed by the board, such as hiring a CEO, approving to do a major financing or acquisition. Its primary responsibility is protecting shareholders’ asset as well as

The Board of Directors are in charge of determining the corporation’s leadership structure on an annual basis and determine if the board will be led by an independent Chairperson or an independent Lead Director. The board has decided that Ronald Sargent, the CEO of Staples, will remain and the Chairman of the board. The Board of Directors is broken down into five committees made up of around three or four board members. Each committee has there own responsibilities and are in charge of making critical decisions that they must assure is communicated properly throughout the entire company. This leadership structure assures that the Board of Directors has a proper balance of leadership roles that allows for a system that prevents any conflict of interests that may come from having the CEO serving on the board.

The board will help set strategies, direction, vision, hire/fire top management, monitor and supervise top management, oversee the use of resources, and care for shareholders' interests (Wheelen & Hunger, 2006, pp. 36-37).