Program Requirements - Corporate Governance BUSI 6052   Corporate Governance
CREDIT HOURS: 1.5
The central focus of corporate governance is the relationship between the top management team (TMT), the board of directors (BoD), and other stakeholders, especially stockholders. The collapse of Enron, Global Crossing, and WorldCom in the United States revealed the wide-scale shenanigans of their boards of directors. The failure of Parmalat and Swissair rekindled concerns about the effectiveness of monitoring boards in Europe. Similarly, in Canada, the failure of Bre-X, Cinar, Hollinger, Livent, and YBM Magnex illustrates the prankishness of their board members and the degree of their lack of concern for stockholders' interests. The failure of Lehman Brothers as recently as August-September 2008 has been attributed to poor monitoring by its board. Clearly, poor governance has led to the death of these once successful, highly admired large corporations and to massive losses and restructuring in many other cases across the globe. The reputation of audit and consulting companies associated with these ill-fated corporations suffered a great setback, leaving stakeholders wondering whom to trust to safeguard their interests! Besides, drastic changes in different types of work environments have imposed significant challenges for the governance of contemporary organizations. Corporate Governance is designed to give students an in-depth look at the corporate governance triad, as indicated above, that controls the modern corporation. Accordingly, this course will deal with the control, composition, functions, roles, and structure of boards; board responsibility and accountability; shareholder and other stakeholder representation; and corporate boards vis-à-vis financial and reputational risks, social responsibility, and ethics.
FORMAT: Lecture