Short Essays on Corporate Governance: New Reflections Towards Well-Governed Organizations

Abstract

This text is a collection of twelve short essays that aim to discuss several recent issues from the corporate governance literature: 1. Anatomy of a disaster: what are the interrelated causes that generate corporate governance collapses around the world? 2. A matter of principles: returning to the roots is the best way of keep advancing on corporate governance. 3. Necessary reflection: reflections that business leaders should make about the central goals of good corporate governance. 4. For a new approach to corporate governance: the human factor should become the focus of the corporate governance literature. 5. Is there a room for Conscience? cultivating the conscience of the people may be just as important as the implementation of incentive and control mechanisms. 6. Independent board members: the quest for the effective director. 7. Rules of thumb: cognitive biases can make boards part of the problem, instead of the solution. 8. Blind obedience: excessive loyalty to a leader can harm organizations. 9. The value of controversy: how the devil’s advocate can improve business decisions. 10. More heads think better: alternative decision-making techniques may enhance the effectiveness of corporate governance bodies. 11. Are many heads better than one? the debate over the quality of group and individual decisions is at the core of the corporate governance prescriptions. 12. Ten years after Enron: the most emblematic case in corporate governance history reached its tenth anniversary, but few lessons have been learned.

Although originally written for market practitioners, the essays may be useful for researchers opened to analyze new perspectives on corporate governance. Previous versions of these texts have been published at my monthly column on Capital Aberto Magazine between 2010 and 2013.

Keywords: corporate governance, corporate scandals, behavioral corporate governance, board of directors, psychological aspects of top managerial decision-making, cognitive bias

JEL Classification: G30, G32