The US IS IN A DEEP RECESSION!!!!

With the US IN DEEP RECESSION!!!! (http://www.financialpost.com/ story. html?id=326071)
Dr. Rookmin Maharaj’s Corporate Governance Model may be one of the solutions to bringing the US economy back on tract. Dr. Maharaj’s research work examines the characteristics (knowledge, groupthink, and values) and tools (interconnections, evaluations and skill matrices) can be used to select candidates to be nominated to the board to improve corporate governance Qualitative interviews with chairs, board members, CEOs in the leading energy, coal, pipeline, and chemical industries in Canada were conducted. The Quantitative phase included a survey questionnaire, which was sent to 1200 US and Canadian executives, data were collected and statistically analyzed. The findings indicated a temporal linkage between board characteristics, and tools, on decision-making, the Formal rules (SOX related rules) had no significant relationship with decision-making. Dr. Maharaj’s research is unique, as this is the first time that board characteristics have been operationalized and a model developed to test the effectiveness of directors serving on boards. “Boards and Management can no longer expected to be decorative, but are expected to exercise more influence and power and become more engaged with management, other board members and all stakeholders of the organization”(Maharaj, R., 2008).
Dr. Maharaj’s articles and blogs are a must read.
1) International Journal of Disclosure and Governance - Corporate Correspondence: ... I thank Dr James Gillies, Professor Emeritus of Policy, and founding ...www.palgrave-journals.com/jdg/journal/v5/n1/full/2050074a.html
2) http://corporategovernancesoxboards.blogspot.com/
3) Corporate Governance - Critiquing and contrasting “moral” stakeholder theory and “strategic” stakeholder: implications for the board of directors Rookmin Maharaj (pp. 115-127)
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/14720700810863751
Purpose – This paper aims to critique moral stakeholder theory (MST) and to contrast it to earlier strategic stakeholder approach (SSA). Design/methodology/approach – Interview data were gathered from top executives at 12 companies in the energy sector in Canada and an in-depth literature review was conducted on MST and SSA. Findings – “Value” for shareholder and stakeholder may not be mutually exclusive in some instances. MST may hold the key to giving the board a more useful, comprehensive framework of the firm's utility and purpose to society. Practical implications – Organizations may be selected on their ethical performance by investors. Depending on whether ethical criteria are included in the definition of “firm's value”, decisions about which stakeholder theory to use become an issue of strategic importance to all organizations. Originality/value – The paper illustrates how the board of directors as the governing body of the organisation may find that continuous assessment of the company's stakeholders is valuable in reducing risks.
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContainer.do;jsessionid=AFFFA9B264B7619EFFD296FC452108FB?containerType=Issue&containerId=6012734
Critiquing and contrasting “moral” stakeholder theory and “strategic” stakeholder: implications for the board of directors Rookmin Maharaj (pp. 115-127) Keywords: Boards of directors, Decision making, Market value, Stakeholder analysis
There are several references to the management/boards refusal to be fair to their stakeholders, for example,
1) “Senator Obama has made frequent reference to the spread between CEO compensation and average worker pay…..We have a [moral] deficit when CEOs are making more in ten minutes than some workers make in ten months."
2) According to David Rosenberg, “The U.S. economy has landed in recession, according to an economist at brokerage firm Merrill Lynch. David Rosenberg, Merrill Lynch's chief North American economist, said Friday’s employment report — which showed the U.S. jobless rate jumped to a two-year high of five per cent in December on weaker-than-expected job creation — "strongly suggests that an official recession has arrived." 'To say that the backdrop is "recession-like" is akin to an obstetrician telling a woman that she is "sort of pregnant."
References:
Dr. Rookmin Maharaj, 2008: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/14720700810863751
http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2008/01/08/merrilllynchrecession.html
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/04/obama_ceo_pay_and_the_politics.html