The Corporate Board Confronting the Paradoxes [Hardcover]

Written for practitioners, this book addresses corporate governance and the role of the board of directors in multinational corporations. Throughout the world, corporations are experiencing the second major transition in corporate governance of this century. The nature of the relationship between the corporation and the rest of society is changing fundamentally. The corporate board has unique responsibilities during this transition, but as it tries to respond directors are faced with destabilizing paradoxes: resolving who is in control--management or the board, achieving critical judgment while maintaining detachment, and avoiding becoming either a cozy club or a collection of all-stars. This book, based on interviews with 71 directors serving on more than 500 boards in eight countries, shows the nature of the challenges and suggests ways to analyze and confront them. This major international study compares the experiences of board members in Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Venezuela.

1. Assessing the Discomfort
2. Corporate Governance: Lifespace and Accountability
3. The Job of the Board: Defining the Portfolio
4. Whose Responsibility: The Board or Management?
5. Commitment and Depth Versus Detachment and Breadth
6. Cozy Club Versus Independent Personalities
7. Dealing with Board Performance
8. Imperatives for the Twenty-first Century
Name Index
Index

A comprehensive international survey of how boards work and the problems they face....The discussion of the paradoxes, and the various solutions to them, is comprehensive, well-structured and illuminating....Fascinating and important. --Long Range Planning

A breakthrough in management research. --The Financial Times

Merits highest recommendation for its unique perspectives and for its ambitious approaches to fundamental issues in management. --Choice

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