...ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE MECHANISMS IN THE FIRM -organisational structure definition, types, application e.t.c -corporate governance definition, application in the firm, e.t.c -importance of corporate governance and organisational structure to the growth of the firm -organisational structure mechanisms, corporate governance mechanisms in the firm INTRODUCTION Organisational Structure Organizational structure defines the scope of acceptable behaviour within an organization, its lines of authority and accountability, and to some extent the organizations relationship with its external environment. More specifically, it shows the patterns or arrangement of jobs and groups of jobs within an organization and yet it is more than an organizational chart. The organizational structure pertains to both reporting and operational relationships, provided they have some degree of permanence. The individual elements of an organizational structure typically include a variety of components that one may usefully see as building blocks: 1. Departments or divisions 2. Rules, procedures and goals 3. More temporary blocks such as task forces or committees Ideally, organizational sstructures should be shaped and implemented for the primary purpose of facilitating the achievement of organizational goals in an efficient manner. Indeed, having a suitable organizational structure in place-one that addresses the various human and business realities of the company...
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...Accounting, Auditing & Taxation 10 (2001) 139 –156 A study of the relationship between corporate governance structures and the extent of voluntary disclosure Simon S.M. Ho*, Kar Shun Wong School of Accountancy, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong Abstract The primary objective of this study is to test a theoretical framework relating four major corporate governance attributes with the extent of voluntary disclosure provided by listed firms in Hong Kong. These corporate governance attributes are the proportion of independent directors to total number of directors on the board, the existence of a voluntary audit committee, the existence of dominant personalities (CEO/Chairman duality), and the percentage of family members on the board. Using a weighted relative disclosure index for measuring voluntary disclosure, the results indicate that the existence of an audit committee is significantly and positively related to the extent of voluntary disclosure, while the percentage of family members on the board is negatively related to the extent of voluntary disclosure. The study provides empirical evidence to policy makers and regulators in East Asia for implementing the two new board governance requirements on audit committee and family control. © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Corporate disclosure; Corporate governance; Voluntary disclosure; Hong Kong 1. Introduction It is commonly agreed that the recent Asian financial...
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...RESEARCH QUESTION: Analyze a partnership between two (max. three) named organizations that focuses on a social inclusion issue using a sports initiative Abstract: “Positive Futures is a joint partnership project between Sport England, the youth justice board and the UK Anti-Drugs Coordination Unit. The aim of the initiative is to use sport to reduce anti-social behavior, crime and drug use among 10-16 year olds within local neighborhoods” (Sport England Positive Futures, 2002, p.1). The aim of the essay is to analyze the joint partnership between the three organizations and how they work together to tackle social inclusion issues using a sports initiative. The essay will also give you a detailed analysis of the aims and objectives of the individual organizations and also for their joint Partnership. “Sport England’s main initiative goal is to find out why do some people play sport, and why do some simply not want to join in. The main aim of Sport England is to promote the interests of sport at various levels such as regional, sub- regional and local levels” (Sport England, 2011). Sport England wants the people to succeed in their respective sport and they create opportunities for them starting right from the grassroots levels. They work in partnerships with UK sport (elite level sports) and youth sport trust (school level sport). “The Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (YJB) is an executive non-departmental public body. The Secretary of State for Justice appoints...
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...Péter HARBULA CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, SHAREHOLDER STRUCTURES AND VALUE CREATION Summary : This paper analyzes the interaction between shareholder structures and the quality of the corporate governance structure in France using the value creation criterion. Using shareholder structures allows analyzing the performance of French firms and to measure an underperformance of “hard core” and diffuse ownership firms. This paper, updating results from Harbula (2004), also investigates the relationship between performance and shareholder stakes. Keywords: Corporate governance, value creation (EVA, CFROI), enterprise performance, shareholder structures. Classification JEL: G32, G34 Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1925045 Péter HARBULA: Corporate governance, shareholder structures and value creation 1. INTRODUCTION The objective of this working paper is to determine whether “hard core” governed firms truly underperform their peers. The main cornerstone of the analysis will be again to introduce the concept of shareholder structures. During the analysis, the common tools developed by corporate finance practitioners were used including, among others, value creation and return to shareholders. By performing this analysis, even if it is not the central point, the underlying question of ownership structure and efficiency will also be considered. I will also include in the analysis, beside the performance measurement tools, an analysis if the evolution...
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...ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE Introduction: in this assignment I am going to explain two organisational structures which is Tesco and Harlow College, I will describe the functional areas, span control and the layers in the business. Organisation structure: is the structure that determines how the roles, power and responsibilities are assigned, controlled and how information flows between the different levels of management Importance of organisational structures * Organisational structure is important for decision making * Is most used for communication eg. Marketing employees will discuss any issues with their director then the director will forward it to the vice manger or any upper management * It helps in evaluating employee performance. * The structure helps the business to achieve its goals because various department leaders are in charge to help in meeting any project deadlines. * It enables companies to prevent any conflict. TESCO Span of control: is the number of staff members that can be managed efficiently, basically every staff member can have control over a certain amount of people. Span control helps Tesco a lot even the growth of the company. There two types of span control theses are: 1. Narrow span of control 2. Wide span of control Narrow span of control means a single manager or supervisor oversees few members. Narrow span of control is more expensive as compared to wide span of control as there is more number of managers and therefore...
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...INTERNATIONAL STRATEGIES (Jay B Barney) Summary International Strategies can be seen as a special case of diversification strategies. Firms implement international strategies when they pursue business opportunities that cross country borders. Like all diversification strategies, international strategies must exploit real economies of scope that outside investors find too costly to exploit on their own in order to be valuable. Five potentially valuable economies of scope in international strategies are: 1. To gain access to new customers for a firm’s current products or services 2. To gain access to low-cost factors of production, 3. To develop new core competencies 4. To leverage current core competencies in new ways and 5. To manage corporate risk. To be a source of sustained competitive advantage, a firm’s international strategies must be valuable, rare and costly to imitate and the firm must be organized to realize the full potential of its international strategies, these strategies can still be rare, for at least two reasons : 1. Given the broad range of international opportunities, firms may not compete head to head with other firm pursuing the same international strategies that they are pursuing and 2. Firms may bring valuable and rare resources and capabilities to the international strategies they pursue. Both direct duplication and substitution can affect the imitability of a firm’s international strategy. Direct duplication is not likely when firms bring...
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...Project governance is the management framework within which project decisions are made. Project governance is a critical element of any project since while the accountabilities and responsibilities associated with an organisation’s business as usual activities are laid down in their organisational governance arrangements, seldom does an equivalent framework exist to govern the development of project’s capital investments ( Sharma, Stone and Ekinci 2009 ). Project Governance extends the principle of Governance into both the management of individual projects via Governance structures, and the management of projects at the business level, for example via Business Reviews of Projects. Today, many organisations are developing models for ‘Project Governance Structures', which can be different to a traditional Organisation Structure in that it defines accountabilities and responsibilities for strategic decision-making across the project ( Crawford, Cooke-Davies, Hobbs, Labuschagne, Remington and Chen 2008 ). This can be particularly useful to project management processes such as change control and strategic decision-making. The decision making framework of the project governance is supported by three pillars ( Klakegg, Williams, Magnussen and Glasspool 2008 ) namely: structure, people and information. 1. Structure: This refers to the governance committee structure. As well as there being a Project Board or Project Steering Committee, the broader governance environment may include...
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...IT Governance A summary of “Ten Principles of IT Governance” (2004, Peter Weill, Jeanne W. Ross) and “IT Governance Framework” (2005, Craig Symons) Coming up with new governance mechanisms and policies should not be reactive (patching up problems), but proactive – using the enterprise’s objectives and performance goals as a basis Mature business governance processes can be used for IT governance Governance redesigns should be undertaken only when strategy is being revised, in such cases IT governance can be used for leveraging the strategic transformation CIO’s and senior management’s involvement in IT governance is crucial for its success, because it ensures better alignment of IT with strategy The exception-handling process must be clearly defined, as short as possible and should enable and encourage organizational learning. The owner of the IT governance must be familiar with all aspects of the enterprise (not only IT) and have credibility with all business leaders. The owner of the IT governance must be made also responsible for its performance A layered structure is often necessary for IT governance (possible layers are: enterprise-wide IT governance – driven by enterprise-wide strategies and goals and IT governance at division and business unit levels) The effectiveness of IT governance is severely affected by the effectiveness of its communication and transparency Coordination in the governance of the all six assets, one of which is IT, is critical for maximizing the...
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...Recently the terms "governance" and "good governance" are being increasingly used in development literature. Bad governance is being increasingly regarded as one of the root causes of all evil within our societies. Major donors and international financial institutions are increasingly basing their aid and loans on the condition that reforms that ensure "good governance" are undertaken. The concept of "governance" is not new. It is as old as human civilization. Simply put "governance" means: the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented). Governance can be used in several contexts such as corporate governance, international governance, national governance and local governance. Since governance is the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented, an analysis of governance focuses on the formal and informal actors involved in decision-making and implementing the decisions made and the formal and informal structures that have been set in place to arrive at and implement the decision. Government is one of the actors in governance. Other actors involved in governance vary depending on the level of government that is under discussion. In rural areas, for example, other actors may include influential land lords, associations of peasant farmers, cooperatives, NGOs, research institutes, religious leaders, finance institutions political parties, the military etc. The situation in urban areas is much...
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...Global Technology Audit Guide Auditing IT Governance Global Technology Audit Guide (GTAG®) 17 Auditing IT Governance July 2012 GTAG — Table of Contents Executive Summary......................................................................................................................................... 1 1. Introduction................................................................................................................................................ 2 2. IT Governance Risks................................................................................................................................... 7 3. Aligning the Organization and IT — Key Considerations................................................................ 12 4. The Role of Internal Audit in IT Governance............................................................................ 15 Conclusion....................................................................................................................................................... 18 Authors and Reviewers.............................................................................................................................. 18 Appendix — IT Governance Risk Assessment/Engagement Planning Considerations............................................. 19 iv GTAG — Executive Summary Executive Summary To support the heightened importance of IT governance and the mandatory nature of the International Standards for the Professional...
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...Executive Summery This report attempts to introduce and analyse an issue in the governance structure module that Octo has experienced. Octo is a company initially started in Italy, and then has successfully expanded globally. The CIO, Giuseppe, adopted several governance modules in order to reach s a stabilised alignment between IT and business, and his role has changed accordingly. Yet, issues still occurring, and the analysis suggests that the governance modules were in appropriate given the organisation’s situation. A recommendation is provided to adapt the federalism governance module as an approach to surmount the issues and effectively align IT and business. Pertinent organisational background Summary of organisation functions and market Octo Telematics, a multimillion value company specializing in providing telematics related services for automotive market. Octo, which was founded back in 2002 by Fabio Sbianchi and Giuseppe Zuco (the current CEO and CIO respectively), has enjoyed a great period of successful growth expanding from Italy its home country to global markets. Within five-year cycle from 2009 to 2013, the company’s financial value tremendously increased 500% attracting equity funds to invest in the promising telematics sector. The secret lays in the technology used by Octo, the core service is a device called On Board Unit (OBU), and the main functionality is to transmit data related to location, time and usage of vehicles in which it is installed....
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...president and CIO of WestJet. She could take WestJet go to “next level” as soon as possible by information technology governance and corporate strategy. This report is talking about the information technology governance and corporate strategy of WestJet Airlines on Business Processes reengineering and Controls. There are four main parts in this report. IT Governance has five specific areas which are considered by responsible of managing IT, and Smith’s plan could relate to these five areas. Then, Smith advised the changes with each of the components of the AS8015 model for IT Governance. After that, list all the risks which could affect WestJet continue its IT operations, and suggest recommendation. Finally, how to Smith’s transformation be managed successfully by WestJet, and give recommendation. Q1, IT Governance Institute lists five specific areas that need to be considered by those responsible of managing IT. Considering Smith’s plan to transform IT, how do her plans relate to these five areas? IT Governance is a new business word in these few years. IT Governance means the responsibility of the CEO, directors, main shareholders and executive management. IT Governance belongs to governance, which include the processes, organizational structures and leadership, to keep and extend the corporate’s objectives and strategies (Richard 2005). On the other side, Governance is different with management about what decisions could get, it pays more attention on how made the decision and...
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...What is transparency in the context of IT governance, and why is it important? The transparency of IT Governance is that it covers the culture, organization, policies and practices. According to the consulting portal in Necessary Frameworks for IT Governance; The Definition IT Governance directs and controls how an IT organization administers necessary IT services to its clients. IT Governance specifies the rights and responsibilities of the parties involved, such as customers, regulators and stakeholders. It defines the policies and procedures under which an IT organization functions, as well as the mechanism to ensure compliance with those rules and regulations. IT Governance also provides the structure through which the IT Organization’s objectives are set, and the means of attaining those objectives and monitoring its performance IT governance is important simple because it guarantees value and eliminate majority of risks and limits future risk. IT determines how well services are provided and how well the company is reaching its customers. Providing service can also expose the business to risk that can interfere with daily operations. Management must be able to make good decision that will minimalize risk. IT governance has the management’s ability to organize, control and direct the company’s IT activities and its objectives. In IT governance organizational structure, leadership and processes are utilized to control the resources and align IT. This also includes...
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...Act fall into three broad categories: s justice and equality; s responsiveness to the needs of the society; and s co-operative governance. An elaboration on each of these provisions is found below. Justice and equality The new framework is designed to meet the educational needs of South Africa through significantly changed national economic, social and political structures.2 It seeks to guide fundamental changes in higher education to correct, redress and overcome the legacies of apartheid, so that higher education becomes more socially equitable and promotes social justice more generally. The government makes a commitment to ‘equity, justice, and a better life for all’.3 The White Paper stipulates greater efficiency in terms of student throughput and output rates and in terms of the success rates of black students. Social responsiveness The national framework seeks responsiveness to address societal interests and needs by producing graduates who are equipped to participate in a globally competitive economy, enabling them to contribute to the reconstruction and development needs of society. Specifically, the White Paper calls for shifting enrolments towards science/technology and career-oriented fields and programmes, and urges the growth of basic and applied research within the framework of a national research plan. Co-operative governance The...
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...Critical Book Review: States and Markets Susan Strange 1993 Susan Strange wrote States and Markets in 1994 and it was amazingly predictive of the future of the Internal Political Economy or Global Political Economy (IPE or GPE). Although there are some blind spots in her theory and mode, and she was not able to predict many things. She was still able to accurately describe the four main structures, which affect structural and relational power structures thereby directly affecting IPE. * The model she proposes in this book is not based on rigid theories of international relations that give no room for debate, which are erroneously based on some preconceived assumptions. First, one must understand how the author defines certain ideas and concepts differently. According to Strange “ Firstly a great deal of social theory is no more then description” (Strange, 10, 1994). She expands with the facts are well known but are arranged in a different order or category (Strange, 10, 1994). Susan Strange’s security structure is not rigid, like most other security models and it does not dictate a set of conditions nor does it bias itself to one nation. It is not a uniquely American perspective that assumes military dominance nor is it a British Empire that demands subjugation. It is more easily applied to developing nations that lack the military might of a super power due to its assumption of conventional forces only and lack of military. She theorizes that without protection...
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