Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Table of cases
- Table of statutes
- Preface
- Preface to the first edition
- PART ONE BASIC CONCEPTS, BOARD STRUCTURES AND COMPANY OFFICERS
- 1 The concept ‘corporate governance’ and ‘essential’ principles of corporate governance
- 2 Stakeholders in corporate governance and corporate social responsibility
- 3 Board functions and structures
- 4 Types of company directors and officers
- PART TWO CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN AUSTRALIA
- PART THREE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN INTERNATIONAL AND GLOBAL CONTEXTS
- PART FOUR BUSINESS ETHICS AND FUTURE DIRECTION
- Index
2 - Stakeholders in corporate governance and corporate social responsibility
from PART ONE - BASIC CONCEPTS, BOARD STRUCTURES AND COMPANY OFFICERS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Table of cases
- Table of statutes
- Preface
- Preface to the first edition
- PART ONE BASIC CONCEPTS, BOARD STRUCTURES AND COMPANY OFFICERS
- 1 The concept ‘corporate governance’ and ‘essential’ principles of corporate governance
- 2 Stakeholders in corporate governance and corporate social responsibility
- 3 Board functions and structures
- 4 Types of company directors and officers
- PART TWO CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN AUSTRALIA
- PART THREE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN INTERNATIONAL AND GLOBAL CONTEXTS
- PART FOUR BUSINESS ETHICS AND FUTURE DIRECTION
- Index
Summary
It is conceivable, indeed it seems almost essential if the corporate system is to survive, that the ‘control’ of the great corporations should develop into a purely neutral technocracy, balancing a variety of claims by various groups in the community and assigning to each a portion of the income streams on the basis of public policy rather than private cupidity.
Berle and Means, The Modern Corporation and Private Property (1932), 356.What we are witnessing is a shift in the content of the shareholder value norm, so that it comes to represent the idea that shareholders exercise their powers not as representatives of the market, but as agents of society as a whole. The corporate governance of the future will be centrally concerned with how this idea is worked out in practice.
Simon Deakin, ‘The Coming Transformation of Shareholder Value’ (2005) 13 Corporate Governance: An International Review 11, 16.Introduction
Contemporary commentary on corporate governance can, in general terms, be divided into two main camps, between those who consider corporate governance as being about building effective mechanisms and measures to satisfy either: (1) the expectations of the variety of individuals, groups and entities (collectively ‘stakeholders’) that inevitably interact with the corporation; or (2) the narrower expectations of shareholders (shareholder primacy).
This chapter focuses on the first of these objectives, with attention being given to the stakeholders of the company, how the law influences corporations to recognise and protect the interests of these stakeholders, and the relationship between these stakeholders and the underlying objective of companies of achieving and maintaining good corporate governance.
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- Principles of Contemporary Corporate Governance , pp. 20 - 70Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010