Responsibility Of Board Research Articles

Board guidance for company climate opportunities

The major research question of this paper is whether net-zero pledges are a dangerous trap for boards of directors’ guidance and monitoring of their companies’ climate activities and opportunities. There is no current consensus on how to do so. Professor Bob Garatt is the Director at Good Governance Development Ltd, a London External Examiner at Gulf Cooperation Council Board Development Institute. He recommended the following research paper as an important and wise caveat that all boards need to consider as an antidote to easy ESG (environmental, social and governance) rhetoric and accounting. Dyke, Watson, and Knorr (2021), in their paper, “Climate Scientists: Concept of Net-Zero is a Dangerous Trap” provide guidance for boards to assess their companies’ climate activities and opportunities. Their research is summarized in two sections of this paper. This paper expands our five prior research papers, which focused upon specific board responsibilities for various aspects of climate impacts on their companies. To avoid this dangerous trap of net-zero pledges, our current paper provides an overall climate perspective for boards, providing guidance for the board of directors’ responsibilities for assessing the role of their companies in climate activities and opportunities. It is critical for boards to develop guidance and actions for monitoring companies’ climate activities and opportunities

Benchmarking Malaysian Government-Linked Companies’ Corporate Governance and Sustainable Development Goals Performance with Public Companies of Developed Countries

Purpose: This study examines the impact of Corporate Governance (CG) and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) practices on the financial market and company performances of public sector companies in Malaysia, benchmarking against the public listed countries in United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Singapore. The benchmarking is done between a developing country against four developed countries. Design/Methodology/Approach: Panel data regression is adopted for methodology, and the research timeframe is 2017 to 2021. Eight-panel data models, which are stock return, volatility, investor sentiment, profitability, liquidity, solvency, financial efficiency and repayment capacity models are selected. Findings: The result shows that board responsibilities, remuneration, audit committee, risk management and internal control, engagement with stakeholders and conduct of general meetings are the CG variables to affect the financial market and company performance. SDG 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 13, 16 and 17 are significant to the financial market and company performance. Originality/Value: The result of this study contributes to policymakers, regulators and practitioners in identifying the best CG and SDG practices that can help the Malaysian GLCs to gain better financial performance. The results assist the Malaysian government in understanding the gap between CG and SDG practices compared to developed countries and advocate the Malaysian companies to adopt better practices. Keywords: Corporate governance, sustainability, financial market, performance, GLC.

Artificial Intelligence in the Russian Media and Journalism: The Issue of Ethics

Artificial intelligence is gradually being integrated into the work of Russian media and journalists, spreading to various areas of media practices, in particular, information search and fact-checking; speech, sound, and image recognition; prioritization of topics, creation of texts, and their targeted distribution, etc. Such Russian media companies as Interfax, Sports.ru, RIA Novosti are regarded as leaders in this field. With the development of AI, the professional media community inevitably faces new challenges in the ethical regulation of media practices, their correlation with the daily moral issues for editors and journalists. Based on the rich history of foreign and domestic discourse concerning the philosophical and ethical problems of artificial intelligence, as well as analyzing the codes of ethical regulation of AI developments in different countries, the authors highlight the main provisions that need to be taken into account in the process of developing ethical standards for the use of artificial intelligence in media and journalism. The main issues that require mandatory codification include: preservation of the right of the audience to receive information about the interaction with artificial intelligence and transparency in this area on the part of editorial offices; a ban on the transfer of powers to artificial intelligence in matters of moral choice when preparing media content; joint responsibility of the editorial board and software developers for the consequences of the work of artificial intelligence systems, determining the range of potential topics for which the use of artificial intelligence is ethically unacceptable, etc. These recommendations are an invitation to a discussion in media and academic communities about the need for ethical codification of the use of artificial intelligence technologies in media and journalism.

Do multiple directorships stimulate or inhibit firm value? Evidence from an emerging economy

PurposeThis study aims to examine the potential influence of multiple directorships (MDs) on the firm value of listed firms in Jordan.Design/methodology/approachUsing a sample of 1,067 firm-year observations of Jordanian listed companies from 2010 to 2020, this study applies a pooled ordinary least squares regression model to examine the above-stated relationship. This technique was supported by conducting a generalized method of moments estimation to address the possible occurrence of endogeneity concerns.FindingsThe results show a significant negative relationship between MDs and firm performance, thereby supporting the “Busyness Hypothesis”, which suggests that directors with MDs are expected to be over-committed, too busy and less vigilant. Thus, their ability to effectively monitor the company management on behalf of the shareholders is quite limited.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study in Jordan, and one of the very rare studies in the Middle Eastern and North African region, to examine the relationship between MDs and firm performance. This study provides important policy and practitioner implications in the field of corporate governance by highlighting the necessity of imposing stricter limits on the number of directorships allowed for board directors. Crucially, the empirical evidence implies that limited directorships ensure that directors are able to fulfil their board responsibilities appropriately, which is significantly associated with the firm value.

Nonprofit board responsibilities for financial oversight

According to the Good Governance Guide from BoardStrong, a subsidiary of the New York Council of Nonprofits that provides nonprofit board training, consultation and educational resources, a board's financial oversight responsibilities can be distilled into the following.

Bad Days at New Day Products

ABSTRACT This instructional case describes an embezzlement committed by the former executive director of a Southeast Idaho nonprofit organization, New Day Products. The case, based on an organization that helps people with disabilities, provides a rich context for students to learn about the important roles and responsibilities of nonprofit organizations' boards of directors. Highlighting the challenges faced by nonprofit boards of directors, the case asks students to consider how New Day Products' board of directors' governance decisions, including choosing financial statement reviews rather than audits, increased the executive director's opportunities to commit fraud.

Nonprofit Board Membership: A Novel Mechanism for Authentic Community Engagement and Leadership Development for Resident Physicians.

Many residency programs have increased curriculum emphasis on the social determinants of health in recent years, and genuine longitudinal experiences for community engagement can be rare and challenging to design. The pediatric residency program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh has its separate Pediatric Advocacy-Leadership-Service (PALS) program track with 6 total residents across all trainee levels in a given academic year. Since 2011, the PALS program's mission is to train residents to be outstanding primary care pediatricians with the knowledge and skills to provide effective health care, leadership, and advocacy on behalf of children and families in medically underserved communities. This specific training is accomplished through multiple elements in the spirit of the acronym. Authentic leadership training, beyond personality profiles and suggested readings, is exceptionally difficult to provide. The PALS program provides the following unique training opportunity to meet this need.Enabling authentic community engagement while simultaneously offering robust leadership development, the PALS program facilitates each resident to be a member on the board of directors of a local nonprofit organization during residency training. This pairing is done with individual attention to each resident's interests and the community organization's vision and values. First-year PALS residents are asked to critically reflect on personal strengths, goals, and areas of growth. Local community pediatrician and public health leader, Dr Amy Nevin, has years of experience with grassroots community health networks to coordinate “the match” between each nonprofit organization and resident. To enable junior residents to contribute meaningfully as board members, she and the PALS third-year residents provide specific mentorship and are in communication with various local nonprofits gauging specific organization needs. First, an interview is completed, and the nonprofit leadership decides whether the resident physician is their desired board member candidate. If all parties are interested in proceeding, clear expectations are outlined upfront. For example, residents are never expected to make large personal financial donations to the organization. Residents are transparent regarding their rigorous clinical schedules. Nonprofit organizations provide board meeting times to the residents and share reasonable attendance expectations. Residents then provide board meeting times in advance to residency program leadership for accommodations when possible. The timeline varies per each pairing but is finalized by the end of intern year at the latest to provide at least 2 full years of active nonprofit board membership.The resident nonprofit board membership experience has been an empowering community opportunity with mutual benefits for both local nonprofits and residents. Several residents have cited their nonprofit board role as one of their most rewarding experiences of residency. Many residents invited their community partners to visit the hospital for guest lectures during teaching conferences. Community nonprofits have utilized resident perspectives, often the only medical voice on many boards, on numerous occasions including navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. The list of participating nonprofit organizations (Table) has grown even as some partners actively seek a new resident board member as graduating ones complete their residency programs. Most residents had never previously held board responsibilities, and this leadership opportunity intends to serve all graduates as future community health leaders in their careers. Further investigation is needed longitudinally to survey graduates and community partners of this experience to understand its long-term career impact.

Board of Directors’ Responsibility for Activities of A Limited Liability which Having No Legal Entity Status

The aim of this study is to find and analyzes the responsibility of Board of Directors of a Limited Liability Company (PT) operated the company and entered into legal relationship with third parties on behalf of the company when the company has not legally obtained the status of a legal entity. The focus study since business practice is always encountered with competition among entrepreneurs in the effort to gain profit in various unhealthy ways, thus it results in violations of laws and regulations. The research method was used was a normative legal study with a statutory, conceptual and analytical approach. The results of the study show that legal actions on behalf of the Company that has not obtained the status of a legal entity may only be carried out by all members of the Board of Directors together with the founders and members of Board of Commissioners of the Company. The novelty showed that every company need responsible for the company's damages or losses suffered by third parties having legal relationship with the company. Included for unlimited and mutual responsibility (jointly and severally). The actions of board of directors having exceeded their authority specified in the articles of association of the company, resulting in losses for the company shall not be considered as an action of the company. This loss will be the full responsibility of Board of Directors, as the limited liability company will turn into an unlimited liability.

The Model Disclosure of Islamic Social Reporting in Islamic Bank Indonesia

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to analyze the determinants of the disclosure of Islamic Social Reporting in Islamic banks in IndonesiaMethodology: The population in this study are Islamic banks in Indonesia which amounted to 14 (fourteen) in total, while the sample used was 9 (nine) Islamic banks that have met the criteria, namely Islamic banks that have published financial reports, annual reports and corporate governance reports between the period of period 2015-2019.Finding: The results of this study indicate that compliance with sharia principles, duties and responsibilities of the sharia supervisory board have a significant positive effect on the disclosure of ISR whereas financial performance has no effect on the disclosure of ISR. Corporate governance has shown moderate effect of compliance sharia on the disclosure of ISR, while Corporate governance does not moderate effect of duties and responsibilities of sharia supervisory board on disclosure of ISR and Corporate governance moderate effect of financial performance on the disclosure of ISR.Conclusion: It is important for the Islamic banks in Indonesia to maintain compliance sharia principles, and to increase the role of sharia supervisory boards, financial performance and the implementation of corporate governance.

The Physician on a Board of Directors: Bane or Benefit?

With the accelerated development of innovative domains such as artificial intelligence, big data, and personalized healthcare, the continuing growth of health-tech and bio-tech industries is to be expected. Concurrently, the question of the extent and nature of physicians’ involvement in these rapidly evolving industries arises, especially in management and leadership capacities such as directors or chief executive officers of such companies. Against this backdrop, the Israeli Medical Association recently launched a first-of-its-kind course designed to train senior physicians as directors in health-tech companies by providing them with vast relevant financial, legislative, and professional proficiencies. Due to their medical knowledge and clinical experience, physicians bring a substantial added value to these industries. However, considering the inherent tensions and potential conflicts between adhering to the logic of a profit-making, competitive market on one hand and maintaining the doctor’s oath on the other, it is inevitable that dilemmas and difficulties will emerge. Much has been written about the roles and responsibilities of boards of directors, but to date, little has focused on the unique position of physicians who serve in these roles. This article aims to examine the ways in which conflicts or dualities of interest manifest themselves for physicians who assume roles as directors and whether effective remedial strategies are available, based on the authors’ own experience in the initiation of the IMA physician-directors course.

Form over Substance: The Board Governance Practices in Indonesia

The study aims at investigating the decoupling behavior wherein firms tend to only adopt written policies formally, while they avoid implementing internal corporate governance mechanisms substantively. The analysis is focused on the area of the Board's responsibility. The sample consists of 487 firm-year observations having the ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard (ACGS) for the period 2013-2017. Using institutional theory, the research finds that fifty-seven percent (279 out of 487 observations) in the sample show decoupling behavior. Decoupling behavior is more pronounced in large firms with lower performance and higher leverage. Furthermore, the financial (banking) industry is less likely to behave decoupling due to the nature of the industry is highly regulated and enforced.

Corporate governance: A review of the fundamental practices worldwide

This paper focused on the concept of corporate governance based on shareholders’ and stakeholders’ perspectives and the development of corporate governance around the world, including the UK, the US, and Australia. The OECD Principles of Corporate Governance were presented, including shareholders’ rights, the equitable treatment of shareholders, disclosure and stakeholders’ rights and transparency practices, and the responsibilities of board of directors. Numerous corporate collapses have highlighted the call for the management and directors of companies to be more accountable, and they have led governments and international organisations such as the OECD to be more active in establishing principles of corporate governance. It was concluded that the system of corporate governance has increased in different countries in relation to the nature of the economy, legal systems, and cultural norms

Board responsibilities for company climate plans

The major research question of this paper is: “What are boards’ responsibilities for the climate plans of their companies?” There is no current consensus on how to do so. This paper explores the challenges of boards to assess annual meeting proposals concerning “Say on Climate” by both their own corporations and activist investors (Eccles, 2021; McDonnell, 2022). The guidance for board self-assessment for climate governance is provided. Next guidelines for boards to assess company climate plans are offered, and finally, conclusions are given. The major recommendation in this paper is that boards use six of the ten areas of the Climate Action 100+ Net Zero Company Benchmark Initiative to assess company climate plans. These key areas are climate governance, decarbonization strategy, net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 (or sooner) ambition, long-term, medium-term, and short-term GHG reduction targets. It is critical for boards to develop an effective climate governance structure and ensure that a company takes appropriate strategic decisions to manage climate-related risks and opportunities. And the most important role for investors is to ensure board of directors’ accountability.

Lay out clear roles when it comes to performance evaluations

Recent research from BoardSource highlights the importance of understanding the roles and responsibilities of boards versus executive directors in organizational governance. One area where this is especially important is in the human resources arena—managing the nonprofit's staff. If boards misunderstand their responsibilities here, experts say, it can cause friction with the ED, undermine their authority and lead to confusion among staff as to who, ultimately, they report to.

Board attributes, ownership structure and risk management: A proposed model for insurance firms in Nigeria

As a response to the weaknesses in corporate governance and risk management created by the 2007/2008 financial crises, Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) becomes imperative, especially in the financial sector. Therefore, in understanding the board's responsibility in ensuring good governance through ERM implementation, two fundamental questions need to be answered; what determines the makeup of the board? And what determines boards' action? Consequently, this study proposed a conceptual framework for investigating the moderating role of ownership structure on the relationship between board attributes and risk management of insurance firms in Nigeria using the model approach. Hence, the control, resource acquisition, and service roles of the board as explained by agency, stewardship, and resource dependence theories explain this relationship. Board attributes are measured by board composition, board structure, board characteristics, and board process, ownership structure is measured by ownership concentration, board ownership, and foreign ownership, and ERM is measured using the disclosure index. Findings from the review of literature reveal that governance attributes in board attributes-risk management relationships have been measured on single or fragmented criteria, leading to contradictory or conflicting findings. Hence, the significance of the study lies in the conceptualization and choice of board attributes as explained by board roles and an integrative theoretical perspective to propose the choice of board attributes in the board attributes-risk management relationship and how ownership structure can influence the relationship, adding to the existing literature onboard attributes, ownership structure, and risk management.

Effect of Corporate Governance Practices on Organizational Performance of State Corporations in the Health Sector, Kenya

Sound corporate governance practices are a major contributor to effective and efficient management of State Corporations in the health sector in Kenya. Since independence, the level of accountability in management of State Corporations has continued to decline despite the availability of various monitoring structures like legal frameworks, ethics and integrity, policies and the code of conduct and ethics intended to provide a clear road map to successful performance of the State Corporations. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of corporate governance practices on the performance of the State Corporations in the health sector in Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive research design with a population comprising of the health State Corporations. Primary data was collected the using questionnaires. Data was analyzed using SPSS software. The results indicated that accountability and organizational performance of health State Corporations is positively and significantly related. The results further indicated that transparency and organizational performance of health State Corporations is positively and significantly related Board Responsibility and organizational performance of health State Corporations is positively and significantly related. Moral Integrity and organizational performance of health State Corporations is positively and significantly related The study concluded that corporate governance practices have a positive and significant effect on organizational performance of State Corporations in the health sector in Kenya. The study recommended that the management of the State corporations should establish certain control mechanisms that ensure accountability. The study recommended that there should continuous internal check and audit on the part of management and low level of management to ensure adequate accountability systems in the State Corporations. Keywords: Corporate Governance, Organizational Performance & State Corporations

Understanding Nurses’ Experiences and Contributions to Governing Boards

The nursing profession has long valued and emphasized the importance of leadership from the bedside to all levels of organizations. Involvement at the board level allows nurses to create institutional processes to improve the delivery of services, set policies, and establish benchmarks to address pressing issues. No research exists to identify which skills nurses find most helpful in executing board responsibilities and what experiences lead to the attainment of these skills. The purpose of this study was to develop a repository of clear and relevant items that could be used to establish an instrument that measures nurses’ professional experiences and board member responsibilities. This article describes our study methods, and results, including five emerging themes that describe nurses’ perception of board activities and their board participation. These themes encompassed the intertwining of experiences and skills, foundational experiences that support credibility, transferable skills, use of policy processes, and the importance of networking. Discussion of our findings, limitations, and implications for practice can inform professional development activities to support nurses as they pursue board service, and the development of an instrument to evaluate the impact of their experiences, effectiveness, and perceived contributions when serving on boards.

The Relationship between Corporate Governance and Organizational Performance of Insurance Companies in Kenya

The environment in which insurance companies operate has been fraught with various corporate governance challenges that have hindered its progress. Thus, a deliberate effort has to be made to avoid future corporate mismanagement and company failures given the important role insurance plays in the economy of Kenya especially towards the development of the small and large scale firms through ensuring financial security. This study sought to establish the relationship between corporate governance and organizational performance of insurance companies in Kenya. This study was anchored on Agency. Positivism philosophical foundation was adopted with a cross-sectional survey. The study population comprised of 52 insurance companies in Kenya licensed by the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) as at December 2017.  This study utilized primary data collected using questionnaires. The influence of corporate governance was evaluated based on dimensions of three constructs namely transparency, board responsibility and ownership structure. The results indicated that corporate governance was positively and significantly associated to performance. This was an indication that corporate governance portrayed a strong connection with organizational performance. The null hypothesis of the study was corporate governance has no significant relationship with organizational performance of insurance companies in Kenya was rejected. The study concluded that good corporate governance influences organizational performance, therefore it can be concluded that higher profitability for the insurance firms is as a result of better corporate governance practices. Subsequently, insurance firms need to maintain good corporate governance practices by having appropriate board structure and composition that takes into consideration diversification of expertise. The study recommends that policy and decision makers need to ensure that appropriate corporate governance mechanisms are implemented in organizations. This constructs of corporate governance play a key role in effective governance of organizations. Policy and decision makers can use the findings in developing codes of governance that govern the practice. The management can utilize the findings to enrich codes of governance to include people management and leadership making them more effective especially against the backdrop of several corporate collapses that have been linked to the people factor in organizations. Keywords: Corporate Governance, Transparency, Board Responsibility, Ownership Structure, Organizational Performance, Insurance Companies & Kenya.

Key DE&I responsibilities for nonprofit boards

Based on interviews with dozens of directors from S&P 500 and FTSE 100 companies, the consultants at Russell Reynolds Associates developed the following list of core responsibilities of boards when it comes to oversight of racial and ethnic diversity.

Research shines light on nonprofit board responsibilities relating to diversity, inclusion

New research from Russell Reynolds Associates, a global leadership advisory and search firm, shows that boards of directors across the country are showing increased urgency in addressing racial equity and promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) within their organizations and their communities of stakeholders.