Business enterprise typically entails corporate governance, defined as the system of company ownership, control and direction. Corporate governance is an embedded institutional and legal feature of societal approaches to economy and enterprise that is fundamental to understanding the character and conduct of business locally, regionally, nationally and globally.
With attention to varieties of corporate governance at national and firm levels the module will consider essential principles and practices of corporate governance as they relate to boards of directors, managerial control, stakeholder and other external relations. ‘Sustainability’ affords the module a context constituted by an array of substantive existential societal challenges by which to consider and critique how governance and managerial actors, notably company boards of directors and managerial leaders, enact the role of business in society for good or ill. In this regard the module will focus on the “G”(governance) to enable students to learn about “E”(environmental) and “S” (social) challenges that constitute attention to “ESG”.
By the end of the module students will be able to relate corporate governance to: sustainable corporate strategy and leadership; value creation and destruction; company responsibility and accountability; corporate ownership, investor behaviour and stewardship; company purpose and the role of business in society. Furthermore they will do so with a contextual awareness and appreciation of varieties of capitalism, ownership and business systems in the world today.