Governance And Governance

Governance
The term ‘governance’ was first introduced by Plato in his influential work, ‘The Republic’ in approximately 380 BC. Plato’s approach was purely theoretical, as his work was about justice, poetry and philosophy. Etymological research reveals that governance has the meaning of steering; presently governance is used synonymously for authority and control. Nonetheless, it encompasses steering, guiding and manoeuvring. It also portrays a mixture of leadership, management, organization, regulation, decision-making, and supervision. The term ‘governance’ was initially used with the same meaning as government and the boundaries between the two terms were not clearly defined. Hence, ‘government’ differs from ‘governance’ as it involves political power and its exercise. The term governance is a broader and rather multi-functional found in the literature of almost all social sciences. In relation, Rhodes (1996) indicated that the concept of governance is used in contemporary social sciences with at least six different

Being the basis for much of the rationale of the Cadbury Report, and also one of the reasons for the detailed illustration in which the board should conduct itself: consistency and transparency towards shareholders are its watchwords. As fundamentally important as these traits are, emphasis was placed on the Cadbury Code and other codes developed (since the Combined Code, and Sarbanes-Oxley (2002), in a wider context to show how its recommendations emerged naturally in the course of a company’s evolution. In an early form of corporate governance definition developed, it consisted of five elements which a board must consider. Later endorsed by Sir Adrian Cadbury, the definition was extended by describing the ‘Five Golden Rules’ by which a system of good corporate governance should be operated. These rules are basically as