To Whom should the Board be Accountable … and for What?

Abstract

A brief analysis of a quoted company’s legal and other responsibilities to various participants is followed by a discussion of the economic function of companies and the pressures exerted on them from the stock market and elsewhere which help to focus the efforts of management at all levels towards profitability. The possibility that these pressures may not be adequate — that managers may pursue interests which are inimical to company profitability or may simply not pull their weight — leads to a consideration of means of better accountability for profit.

From a series of papers published by the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators during 1978/79.