Corporate Governance, Economic, Management, and Financial Issues

Citation

Keasey, K., Thompson, S. and Wright, M. (1998), "Corporate Governance, Economic, Management, and Financial Issues", Managerial Auditing Journal, Vol. 13 No. 6, pp. 390-391. https://doi.org/10.1108/maj.1998.13.6.390.2

Having just reviewed Corporate Governance. Responsibilities, Risks and Remuneration, published by Wiley earlier in 1997, it was surprising to find an identical chapter in this slightly later text which appeared on 10 July 1997. The Helen Short and Kevin Keasey chapter “Institutional Shareholders and Corporate Governance in the United Kingdom” is simply the longer version which includes the tables and extra text of what appears in the other book as simply “Institutional Shareholders and Corporate Governance”. Mercifully the other contributions are refreshingly different. The ordering of chapters seems higgledy‐piggledy with a varied coverage. The range could have been ordered in three parts :

1. 1.

   1country analysis of Germany, Central and Eastern Europe, and market (United States) versus managed (Japanese);

2. 2.

   2industrial analysis (water, National Health Service, venture capital and buy‐outs, and multinationals); and

3. 3.

   3the cross‐sectoral issues of the introductory chapter on the corporate governance problem, competing diagnoses and solutions, two chapters on executive reward, one on non‐executive directors, and one on take‐overs, which manages to neglect the small but significant literature on the human behavioural aspects.

Audit committees are mentioned, mainly in one chapter, as is the case with board effectiveness. Those who believe the UK model deserves to be adopted worldwide should read the sobering critique of both the United States and UK models, dubbed as myopic, and give more thought to the value of the more stakeholder‐friendly Continental European models. The impediment to change is too many vested interests, despite their not being in the public interest. Salutory too is the warning about assuming that private sector models are immediately relevant in the public sector. The compilation is thoughtful, and well balanced and solidly grounded.