Corporate Governance and Social Accountability
| Module Convenor: Christian Herzig |
| Module Content: The aim of this course is to acquaint students with the theory and practice of corporate governance particularly relating to social accountability and reporting. This module examines theories of corporate governance, evaluating the evolution of traditional governance systems to provide incentives to managers. In this module, this theoretical framework is extended to address the "triple bottom line", in light of increasing demands for accountability, transparency, and social responsibility of managers and business. Issues such as sustainability management accounting/control, reporting, auditing, and verification are also examined and discussed, and the role of drivers such as reporting/governance codes and the investment community in enhancing organizational change toward a sustainable development are critically evaluated. The course uses case study illustrations from research carried-out in various corporate contexts in South-East Asia, Germany and the UK. It provides insights into the implementation and use of new accounting and accountability tools, and imparts awareness of the role of these tools and practices in supporting managerial decision making on environmental, social and sustainability performance. Guest lecturers include Dave Owen and Richard Evans. Dave published extensively in a wide range of professional and academic journals on topics such as social investment, corporate social audit and corporate social and environmental disclosure practice. He was Professor of Social and Environmental Accountability at Nottingham University Business School and has held previous appointments at the universities of Huddersfield, Salford, Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield. Richard worked for 12 years in industry and then 20 years in two development agencies, 'Intermediate Technology' and 'Traidcraft plc.' and was responsible for developing the methodology for the UK's first independently audited social account (Traidcraft plc, 1993). He was a founding member of AccountAbility and chair of its board and has been involved in developing sustainability accounting and auditing methodologies and standards with AccountAbility and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) since 1990. He set up 'ethics etc.' as an independent consultancy in 1997. Readings include: 'Corporate Governance and Accountability' (by J Solomon), 'Sustainability Accounting and Accountability' (by J Unerman, J Bebbington and B O'Dwyer), 'The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility' (by A Crane, A McWilliams, D Matten, J Moon, D.S. Siegel) |
| Module Aims: To acquaint students with theory and practice of corporate governance particularly relating to social accountability and reporting. |
| Module Assessment: Case study (4000 words) (100%) |
