Cases in Corporate Governance and Business Ethics

The authors and contributors of this unique textbook understand that corporate governance and ethics are interrelated issues when it comes to leading and managing organisations. Responding to the demands of a growing number of combined/interrelated modules on governance and ethics in universities, colleges and professional institutes, this casebook brings the two disciplines together. The cases are presented on a ‘spectrum’, with a focus on corporate governance at one end and ethics at the other. In many of the cases, the issues involved require the use of both ‘lenses’.

Designed for the business leadership element of the Chartered Accountants Ireland education programme, and students of corporate governance and business ethics at third level, the book is in two parts: Part I provides overview chapters on the background to, and general principles of, corporate governance and ethics, encouraging and enabling students to consider and apply these principles in a business context.

In Part II, the cases themselves are multifaceted yet concise, and range from those allowing a more straightforward, ‘rules-based’ approach to more complex cases where there may not be a single ‘right answer’.

Contributions from multiple authors and contributors offer alternative perspectives, and the combination of their extensive experience in, and observations of, corporate governance and ethics in a business context brings a practical dimension to the theoretical concepts.

Contents

• Part I: Introduction to Corporate Governance and Business Ethics
• Chapter 1: Corporate Governance
  • 1.1 What is Corporate Governance?
  • 1.2 Corporate Governance Codes and Recommendations
  • 1.3 Company Boards of Directors and Board Committees
  • Appendix 1.1: Summary of Roles and Responsibilities
• Chapter 2: Ethics
  • 2.1 What is Ethics?
  • 2.2 Ethics is Moral Philosophy
  • 2.3 Branches of Moral Philosophy
  • 2.4 Normative Ethical Theories
  • 2.5 Approaches to Resolving Moral Problems
• Chapter 3: Business Ethics
  • 3.1 Introduction
  • 3.2 Free-market System
  • 3.3 The Corporation and the Ethics of Corporate Behaviour
  • 3.4 The Individual in Business
• Part II: The Cases
• Part III: Teaching Materials (Online and available to adopting lecturers only). These include short summaries of each case, the learning outcomes addressed, questions for discussion and matters to be discussed

The Authors

Collette Kirwan FCA, BBS, PhD is a lecturer in accounting at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT). Having trained as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, where she also worked as a manager, Collette first joined WIT in 2005; between 2012 and 2016, she was a lecturer in accounting at University College Dublin. In 2013, Collette was awarded her PhD from UCD, which examines the role of non-executive directors on the boards of private family firms.

Hugh McBride ACMA, GCMA, B.Comm MBS is a senior lecturer in business at Galway–Mayo Institute of Technology, and a member of its Academic Council for 20 years. Hugh has also lectured at Dublin City University and NUI Galway, as well as overseas in Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania and Austria. He has a long-standing interest in the areas of corporate governance ethics, and has integrated ethical issues into undergraduate modules in financial management, management accounting and management control systems.

Chris O’Riordan FCA, BA, MBA, PhD, is a lecturer in accounting at Waterford Institute of Technology since 2004. Prior to this he worked in a variety of financial and managerial roles in family businesses, SMEs and multinational companies, having first trained as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Chris is Course Leader for the Higher Diploma in Business in Management, and the Accounting Stream Leader on the Bachelor of Business (Hons) programme at WIT.

Contributors

• Prof Niamh Brennan, FCA, University College Dublin
• Anthony Burke, ACA, Waterford Institute of Technology
• Dr Richard Burke, Waterford Institute of Technology
• John Casey, FCA, Waterford Institute of Technology
• Dr Margaret Cullen, University College Dublin
• Clare Kearney, FCA, Waterford Institute of Technology
• Dr Rosemarie Kelly, FCA, Waterford Institute of Technology