Concepts and Working Instruments for Corporate Governance

Enterprises seem to entirely operate on their management. But behind the scenes directors play a very important role. On a strategic level (in the long term) they will determine the direction of the company.Even though on the level of daily management a great deal of quality instruments and control systems exist, this is not the case on the highest level, the board. It is in this specific area that the idea of corporate governance must be situated.In 2000 the Association of Christian Employers and Executives in Flanders (VKW) facilitated the formation of a consultation committee consisting of leading employers and business executives, having the task to translate this idea of corporate governance into useful working instruments. The author of this paper was the secretary to this consultation committee.One of the main questions in this area considers the ethics of the board. The other way around corporate governance is a very important instrument realising more responsible business, because it depends on the specific business model in the board and the firm.The first results were presented in February 2001. In February 2002 a first update was published, with some new insights, information and working instruments.     

Using Stakeholder-Theory into Case-Method

In order to draw some attention to the subject of business ethics and to achieve the inclusion of business ethics into the official curricula of the sixth form courses in secondary schools in Flanders, the Flemish Network for Business Ethics set up a pilot project. It includes about twelve lessons. The main object is to teach students how to cope with an ethical problem. Therefore an educational map has been edited – titled Ethics ...none of my business? (Siebens, 1998) – in which a procedure to handle an ethical problem is proposed. The procedure rests on the stakeholders-approach (Freeman, 1984). Other theoretical items are: ethical intuition, traditional moral norms and communication, a procedure approach, the limitation of acting, and the metaphysical basis (especially the existentialistic philosophy of Lévinas).

The basic procedure contains four steps. But the map makes a distinction between a procedure for a ‘choice’ directed situation and a procedure for an ‘evaluation’ directed situation. The subject of the project is business ethics, but the organizing commission hopes the students will learn to look at their entire world from an ethical angle. Because real ethical intuition hasn't to do with external hierarchical power and regulation but with selfregulation, argumentative authority and internalized values and principles.

     

Care for Quality

Quality care is more than a technical issue. It has a place among the core values of a company, and is thus an ethical issue as well as being a means and a benchmark for good management. The author is chairman of the Flemish Network for Business Ethics, Europastraat 31, 2850 Boom, Belgium. Tel: 00 31 3 844 00 89.