Abstract:
The claim is often made that corporate governance
is an attempt to balance corporate interests with individual
and societal interests. Lord Adrian Cadbury, who chaired the
Cadbury Commission that produced the Cadbury Report on
Corporate Governance in the UK, claims that the objective
of corporate governance “is to align as nearly as possible
the interests of individuals, corporations and society”. This
paper will test whether this claim can be substantiated on
the theoretical and practice level. To test this claim on the
theoretical level the concept of corporate governance will
be analysed in order to determine whether the said balance
is implied by the concept of corporate governance. In order
to determine whether the claim find support in corporate
governance practices around the world, six continental or
regional reports on the relationship between business ethics
and corporate governance, representative of the various regions
of the world (Africa, Asia-Pacific region, Europe, Japan, Latin
America and North America), will be analysed critically. On the basis of this conceptual and corporate governance practice analysis an assessment will be made of whether corporate governance is about “align[ing] as nearly as possible the interests of individuals, corporations and society”.
