Boards at Work How Directors View Their Roles and Responsibilities

by Stiles, Philip; Taylor, Bernard

• ISBN13: 9780198288763
• ISBN10: 019828876X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-06-07
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This is the first detailed analysis of the internal working and the external relationships of the boards of Britain's leading companies. Responding to calls for greater scrutiny of boards, this book presents an in-depth examination of directors of UK public companies, a survey of company secretaries, and four case studies of UK PLCs (BAA, Burmah Castrol, Securicor, and Allied Domecq), finding boards to be important devices in maintaining the strategic framework of the organization.

Author Biography

Philip Stiles is Senior Research Associate at the Judge Institute of Management Studies, University of Cambridge. He is executive editor of 'Long Range Planning'. Bernard Taylor is Professor of Business Policy at Henley Management College and Head of the Faculty Group in Strategy and International Business. He is the founder and editor of the journal 'Long Range Planning', and founding editor of the 'Journal of General Management'. Director of the European Council on Corporate Strategy, he is also the author of fifteen books on strategy and management developments. He has lectured widely both in Britain and internationally.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	xi
Abbreviations	xii
The Changing Expectations of Boards of Directors	1	(9)
The board's domain	4	(1)
The rise of corporate governance	5	(3)
The structure of the book	8	(2)
Perspectives on the Contribution of Boards of Directors	10	(14)
Theories of boards	11	(8)
Scope and limitations of the theories	19	(5)
Researching Boards of Directors	24	(7)
Methods	24	(5)
Data analysis	29	(1)
Conclusion	30	(1)
The Strategic Role of the Board	31	(29)
Theoretical debates	32	(2)
Models of strategy	34	(3)
Setting the strategic context	37	(3)
Maintaining the strategic framework	40	(7)
Strategic content	47	(4)
Discussion and conclusions	51	(2)
Appendix	53	(7)
The Control Role of the Board	60	(26)
Defining control	61	(2)
The board's use of control systems	63	(7)
Focusing organizational attention: Control as diagnosis	70	(3)
Assessment of senior managers	73	(5)
Discussion and conclusions	78	(2)
Appendix	80	(6)
The Institutional Role of the Board	86	(20)
Relationships with shareholders	87	(9)
Boards and stakeholders	96	(3)
Establishing contacts with the external environment	99	(1)
Discussion and conclusions	100	(1)
Appendix	101	(5)
The Dynamics of Board Process	106	(11)
Relationships within the board	107	(6)
The role of trust	113	(2)
Conclusions	115	(2)
Conclusions	117	(13)
Building relationships within and around the board	117	(2)
The board's strategic role	119	(1)
The board's control role	120	(1)
The board's institutional role	121	(1)
Theoretical debates	122	(2)
Practical implications	124	(2)
Implications for policy-makers	126	(1)
Enhancing accountability	127	(3)
Appendices	130	(8)
References	138	(17)
Index	155