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Aligning the Board: The Chairman’s Secret

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How to Make Boards Work

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Abstract

Whilst government response to corporate scandal and market failure has been to spawn ever greater regulation and/or comply or explain protocol, it has also been long recognised that a formulaic approach to governance codes limits the contribution and value the board can offer the business (Steiner, 1972). Even the proponents of role duality, namely the combining of the CEO and chairman roles, argue that adopting an over-structured, rules-driven perspective to the governance of the enterprise limits the board’s stewardship of the firm (Charan, 1998). Equally, the champions of role separation (Leblanc and Gillies, 2005; Lorsch and Zelleke, 2005; Hossack, 2006) acknowledge that keeping the CEO and chairman as two distinct entities is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for board effectiveness. Both the role duality and role separation schools concur that the contribution of the board to the continued future of the organisation is principally dependent on the behaviour, experience and skills of its members.

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Authors
  1. Nada K. Kakabadse
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  2. Reeves Knyght
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  3. Andrew Kakabadse
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Henley Business School, University of Reading, UK

    Andrew Kakabadse

  2. University of Ghent, Belgium

    Lutgart Van den Berghe

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© 2013 Nada K. Kakabadse, Reeves Knyght and Andrew Kakabadse

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Kakabadse, N.K., Knyght, R., Kakabadse, A. (2013). Aligning the Board: The Chairman’s Secret. In: Kakabadse, A., Van den Berghe, L. (eds) How to Make Boards Work. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137275707_14

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