Introduction
This essay aims to examine the history, meaning, practical function, legislation and development of corporate governance in the United Kingdom. Corporate governance is a subject that has become increasingly important over the last few decades and looks set to continue with continuing corporate failures pushing corporate governance to the forefront.
To fully understand the subject of corporate governance in the United Kingdom we must first define corporate governance and understand it's meaning. Schleifer and Vishny (1997) give a succinct, if rather narrow definition that "corporate governance deals with the way suppliers of finance assure themselves of getting a return on their investment". A broader and more functional definition is given by the OECD (1999).
"Corporate governance is the system by which business corporations are directed and controlled. The corporate governance structure specifies the distribution of rights and responsibilities among different participants in the corporation, such as the board, managers, shareholders and other stakeholders, and spells out the rules and procedures for making decisions on corporate affairs. By doing this, it also provides the structure through which the company objectives are set, and the means of attaining those objectives and monitoring performance."
Corporate governance is a wide and important subject that covers a range of issues from accountability and transparency and the relationship between shareholders, stakeholders and the company's management to the external and internal system of controls of companies to ensure that the best interests of the shareholders are being pursued and met.
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