Governance Policies (governance + policy)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Changes in Korean Corporate Governance: A Response to Crisis

JOURNAL OF APPLIED CORPORATE FINANCE, Issue 1 2008
E. Han Kim
In the last months of 1997, the value of the Korean currency lost over half its value against the dollar, and the ruling party was swept from power in presidential elections. One of the fundamental causes of this national economic crisis was the widespread failure of Korean companies to earn their cost of capital, which contributed to massive shareholder losses and calls for corporate governance reform. Among the worst performers, and hence the main targets of governance reform, were family-controlled Korean business groups known as chaebol. Besides pursuing growth and size at the expense of value, such groups were notorious for expropriating minority shareholders through "tunneling" activities and other means. The reform measures introduced by the new administration were a mix of market-based solutions and government intervention. The government-engineered, large-scale swaps of business units among the largest chaebol,the so-called "big deals" that were designed to force each of the groups to identify and specialize in a core business,turned out to be failures, with serious unwanted side effects. At the same time, however, new laws and regulations designed to increase corporate transparency, oversight, and accountability have had clearly positive effects on Korean governance. Thanks to reductions in barriers to foreign ownership of Korean companies, such ownership had risen to about 37% at the end of 2006, up from just 13% ten years earlier. And in addition to the growing pressure for better governance from foreign investors, several newly formed Korean NGOs have pushed for increased transparency and accountability, particularly among the largest chaebol. The best governance practices in Korea today can be seen mainly in three kinds of corporations: (1) newly privatized companies; (2) large corporations run by professional management; and (3) banks with substantial equity ownership in the hands of foreign investors. The improvements in governance achieved by such companies,notably, fuller disclosure, better alignment of managerial incentives with shareholder value, and more effective oversight by boards,have enabled many of them to meet the global standard. And the governance policies and procedures of POSCO, the first Korean company to list on the New York Stock Exchange,as well as the recent recipient of a large equity investment by Warren Buffett,are held up as a model of best practice. At the other end of the Korean governance spectrum, however, there continue to be many large chaebol-affiliated or family-run companies that have resisted such reforms. And aided by the popular resistance to globalization, the lobbying efforts of such firms have succeeded not only in reducing the momentum of the Korean governance reform movement, but in reversing some of the previous gains. Most disturbing is the current push to allow American style anti-takeover devices, which, if successful, would weaken the disciplinary effect of the market for corporate control. [source]


Regional Government and Governance in China and the United States

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 2009
Lin Ye
A comparative analysis of regional governance policies in China and the United States is presented from multiple perspectives, including jurisdictional structure, intergovernmental relationship, and performance outcomes. Policy reviews and case studies contrast how regional approaches may assist governments to learn seminal lessons from multinational experiences. [source]


Lay perceptions of the desired role and type of user involvement in clinical governance

HEALTH EXPECTATIONS, Issue 1 2009
Andrea Litva BA (Comb Hons) MA PhD
Abstract Objective, The aim of this paper is to explore variations in lay perceptions of user involvement in clinical governance. Context, The English National Health Service has sought to build a dependable health service through enhanced effectiveness, responsiveness and consistency. Clinical governance, a policy for improving service quality, is a key pillar of these reforms. It is a statutory duty of primary care organizations to ensure that users are involved in all service planning and decision making, including clinical governance. Yet surveys indicated that user involvement in clinical governance was underdeveloped and underutilized. Design, Focus groups were conducted with different types of lay people to explore their perceptions around public involvement in different aspects of clinical governance policy. Results, Content analysis of the transcripts reveals that different groups of lay people varied in their desired role perspective and preferred type of involvement in different aspects of clinical governance policy. Drawing upon existing models of user involvement, we identified three role perspectives that lay people could take in user involvement , consumer, advocate and citizen. We compared our findings regarding the desired type of involvement with existing models of user involvement, and identified a new type of involvement, overseeing, that is relevant to clinical governance policy. Conclusions, These findings suggest that to facilitate user involvement in clinical governance, it would be necessary to use different strategies to accommodate the differing role perspectives and types of involvement desired by different groups of lay people. [source]


How can an organization's statements of vision, beliefs, values, and philosophy be integrated into policy governance policy?

BOARD LEADERSHIP: POLICY GOVERNANCE IN ACTION, Issue 64 2002
Article first published online: 15 MAR 200
No abstract is available for this article. [source]