Discussion Post Reply

In response to your classmates, comment on their description of leadership duties regarding managing and balancing governance and decision-making processes for their impact on stakeholders and corporate culture. Do you agree or disagree with their evaluation? Cite specific examples supporting why you agree or disagree.

Post #1 

Leaders manage and balance the duties of corporate governance, compliance and regulatory issues with the needs of their stakeholders while also satisfying competitive demands of the marketplace by utilizing the stakeholder and issues management approach. This approach tends to view organizations as a legal entity and as a collective of individuals and groups. (2014. Weiss) Companies that use this approach will have an advantage over competitors in their market. The approach suggests that using ethical behavior will allow the company to gain a competitive advantage. Leaders utilizing this approach will strive to achieve “win-win” outcomes. Leaders balance the wants of the organizations owners and shareholders with all identifiable risks. Leadership must assist in the understanding between the organization and its internal/external stakeholders. The main aspect of this approach is its development of strategy. For a strategy to be identified then the issues management piece must be utilized. The mapping of the situation/potential risk and how it affects the organizations is important for all internal stakeholders to understand and see.

It is the CEO’s responsibility to get a firm understanding of the situation to help approach and mediate concerns from affected stakeholders. So, identifying stakeholders is another important aspect of this approach. Stakeholders can be listed as primary. Issue management can predict the actions to take for newly identified factors that will have an impact on the company and its stakeholders. The issue management process purpose is outcomes and requires; 1. Identifying the issue 2. Issue analysis; 3. Evaluation of the issue; 4. Implementation of the Resolution and 5. Monitoring/review of the resolution.

Post #2

“Governance of public corporations continues to move in a more shareholder-centric direction. This is evidenced by the increasing corporate influence of shareholder engagement and activism, and shareholder proposals and votes. This trend is linked to the concentration of ownership in public and private pension funds and other institutional investors over the past 25 years, and has gained support from various federal legislative and regulatory initiatives. Most recently, it has been driven by the rise in hedge fund activism.” (Gregory,2014)

“It remains unclear whether, over the long term, greater shareholder influence will prove beneficial for shareholders, corporations and the economy. In the near term, however, there is reason to question whether shareholder influence is the panacea that some posited, or whether the current focus on shareholder value and investor protection is at the expense of other values that are central to the sustainability of healthy corporations.” (Gregory,2014)

Its difficult for any company to keep everything in check, however it always takes a village to raise a child. By that I am saying that it takes more than just a CEO to take charge of a company. That is why there are VP’s, managers, people with fresh eyes to help with the process.

The stakeholders can be rather hard, as long as there are boundaries set so then no company politics take place. With that in mind its also important to know what the customers want to keep up in the market place. By doing surveys, research, intrapreneurs, and so on to keep up is always key. Its sometimes key to make sure the company moves forward instead of backwards otherwise it can be swallowed up by the competition and lose in the industry shakeout.