1st Edition

Directors’ Decisions and the Law Promoting Success

By Alice Belcher Copyright 2014
    240 Pages
    by Routledge

    240 Pages
    by Routledge

    Directors are key decision-makers in any organisation, whether it is in the public sector, a family business or a transnational company. The UK Companies Act 2006 codified directors’ duties for the first time and describes the director as the ‘most likely to promote the success of the company for the benefit of its members as a whole’.

    This book addresses key tensions and problems involved in the duties and responsibilities of the director in promoting success, including corporate culture and credibility, trust, risk and uncertainty, collective responsibility, and the degree of control. The book considers directors’ decision-making in both private and public sector organisations and explicitly examines aspects of decision-making during periods of financial distress. The book compares the legal contexts of director’s decisions in the UK to those of the USA, Germany and Australia, and takes an interdisciplinary approach in its combination of management theory, economic theory and behavioural studies. In doing so the book addresses issues key to the understanding of corporate governance in light of recent financial crises.

    Part 1: Contexts  1. Introduction 2.  Directors in the Private Sector  3. Directors in the Public Sector  4. Directors of Organisations in, or close to, Financial Distress  Part 2: Themes  5. Trust  6. Risk and Uncertainty  7. Corporate Culture and Climate  8. Communication and Credibility  Part 3: Levels  9. Individual Responsibility

    Biography

    Alice Belcher is a Professor at the University of Dundee, UK and a non-executive director of NHS Education for Scotland.