Company boards in both the private and public sectors are in the firing line as never before. Whenever something goes drastically wrong, it is the board that must take the rap, and talk is soon heard about board responsibility and investigation of everything that occurred.
Therefore, it is not surprising that boards spend much of their time making sure that everything is proceeding correctly by focusing on control.
Simultaneously, the boards of companies listed on the stock exchange are under constant pressure to produce even better quarterly results. Often a company’s key financial figures are used as a compass to show in which direction it is going.
Unused expertise
We expend much time and energy on finding board members who have the right expertise. It is therefore paradoxical that this expertise is little used in practice.
“Insufficient use is made of board members’ expertise. We must put more focus on the human aspects in order to ensure that boards play an active part in creating value,” maintains Professor Morten Huse from BI Norwegian School of Management.
Few people are better acquainted with Norwegian boardrooms than Professor Huse, who headed BI’s research programme The Value Creating Board from 2003 to 2007.
In his research he is concerned to penetrate the mystique that surrounds boards’ activities, and succeeded in gaining access to the inside of the boardroom in order to obtain a better understanding of the processes at work.
Focus on creating value
Board researcher Huse has now published a book entitled “Boards, Governance and Value Creation. The Human Side of Corporate Governance” through the international publishing house Cambridge University Press, in which he focuses on the human aspects of boards’ work.
In this, Huse presents new research-based insight developed out of the research programme The Value Creating Board.
He explains that, “The work of a board can be seen as interplay between different actors wishing to achieve their ends. This means that in the interaction between board members we must take into account human aspects such as confidence, feelings, power and influence”.
The board’s work takes place not only in the boardroom but also in informal arenas and interaction with the outside world.
According to Huse, the human and social factors involved in a board’s work are more important than the structural factors, and in his view the chairman has particular responsibility for the development of a good boardroom work culture.
The best boards are highly effective, well-run working groups which are characterised by openness and generosity, maintains Huse.
Culture to encourage better board work
Morten Huse wants boards to operate as teams to a greater extent and to spend time on using their collective expertise to the benefit of the company.
The board expert has produced a list of seven distinctive features of a board’s culture that contribute towards value creation:
1) Critical, questioning attitude and independence
Audun Farbrot | alfa
Further information:
http://www.bi.no
Microtechnology industry is hiring – positive developments of past years continue
09.04.2018 | IVAM Fachverband für Mikrotechnik
RWI/ISL-Container Throughput Index with minor decline on a high overall level
20.03.2018 | RWI – Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung
Physicists at the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics, which is jointly run by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, have developed a high-power laser system that generates ultrashort pulses of light covering a large share of the mid-infrared spectrum. The researchers envisage a wide range of applications for the technology – in the early diagnosis of cancer, for instance.
Molecules are the building blocks of life. Like all other organisms, we are made of them. They control our biorhythm, and they can also reflect our state of...
University of Connecticut researchers have created a biodegradable composite made of silk fibers that can be used to repair broken load-bearing bones without the complications sometimes presented by other materials.
Repairing major load-bearing bones such as those in the leg can be a long and uncomfortable process.
Study published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces is the outcome of an international effort that included teams from Dresden and Berlin in Germany, and the US.
Scientists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) together with colleagues from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and the University of Virginia...
Novel highly efficient and brilliant gamma-ray source: Based on model calculations, physicists of the Max PIanck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg propose a novel method for an efficient high-brilliance gamma-ray source. A giant collimated gamma-ray pulse is generated from the interaction of a dense ultra-relativistic electron beam with a thin solid conductor. Energetic gamma-rays are copiously produced as the electron beam splits into filaments while propagating across the conductor. The resulting gamma-ray energy and flux enable novel experiments in nuclear and fundamental physics.
The typical wavelength of light interacting with an object of the microcosm scales with the size of this object. For atoms, this ranges from visible light to...
Stable joint cartilage can be produced from adult stem cells originating from bone marrow. This is made possible by inducing specific molecular processes occurring during embryonic cartilage formation, as researchers from the University and University Hospital of Basel report in the scientific journal PNAS.
Certain mesenchymal stem/stromal cells from the bone marrow of adults are considered extremely promising for skeletal tissue regeneration. These adult stem...
Anzeige
Anzeige
Invitation to the upcoming "Current Topics in Bioinformatics: Big Data in Genomics and Medicine"
13.04.2018 | Event News
Unique scope of UV LED technologies and applications presented in Berlin: ICULTA-2018
12.04.2018 | Event News
IWOLIA: A conference bringing together German Industrie 4.0 and French Industrie du Futur
09.04.2018 | Event News
Structured light and nanomaterials open new ways to tailor light at the nanoscale
23.04.2018 | Physics and Astronomy
On the shape of the 'petal' for the dissipation curve
23.04.2018 | Physics and Astronomy
Clean and Efficient – Fraunhofer ISE Presents Hydrogen Technologies at the HANNOVER MESSE 2018
23.04.2018 | Trade Fair News