Interest in the way in which corporations are managed is increasing. It is the hot topic of the day. Global Institutions such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) offer advice to governments with regard to corporate regulation. Governments attempt to develop and constrain corporations in the interests of their citizens. Corporations are mindful of the need to regulate themselves, to promote success and avoid scandal. Society demands the products that corporations produce whilst being concerned over the impact of unregulated activity on their communities and the planet as a whole.
This widespread interest derives from the increasing status of the corporation as the central player in the way in which society operates. Corporations generate the products and the wealth that support or facilitate our way of life. They are the heart of the capitalist model.
This status as a central actor in society has not always existed. It is only in recent history that the concept of a body managed by one party on behalf of separate, private citizens, virtually divorced from state control, with a scale to reach beyond a single state’s borders, has existed and therefore needs to be considered by society and a relationship with that entity defined and managed.