Global Boards: One Desire, Many Realities – Edited by Andrew Kakabadse and Nada Kakabadse

• Published date: 01 May 2012
• Author: Erica Salvaj
• Date: 01 May 2012
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8683.2011.00894.x

Book Review

Andrew Kakabadse and Nada Kakabadse (eds.), Global Boards: One Desire, Many Realities,

Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2009, 288 pp, ISBN 978-0-2302-1212-1

The current f‌inancial and economic crisis and corporate

frauds of gigantic proportions such as Enron in the

United States, Parmalat in Italy, and La Polar in Chile have

put the role of corporate boards of directors under close

scrutiny by governments, shareholders, and other members

of society. It is from this perspective that the volume edited

by Andrew Kakabadse and Nada Kakabadse is timely. The

authors attempt to answer two research questions of

extreme importance, but that have not found a def‌initive

answer: First, what is the role of corporate boards, their

purpose, and contributions to f‌irms? And, second,do boards

mean the same for all national corporate systems?

The book has a genuine goal to understand and improve

the role of the board in corporate governance. The editors’

main goal is to point boards’ best practices by considering a

diverse range of societies and systems of corporate gover-

nance in 11 chapters written by both academics and practi-

tioners. Using the pioneering works of Myles L. Mace

(Directors: Myth and Reality, 1971) and Jay W. Lorsch and

Elizabeth MacIver (Pawns or Potentates. The Reality of Ameri-

ca’s Corporate Boards, 1989) as their starting point, most of the

chapters included in this volume identify behavioral aspects

and the role of the chairman as key elements to create an

atmosphere of trust, openness, and dialogue in order to

increase board effectiveness.

As often happens with edited collections, though, the

quality of chapters varies widely, including a couple of great

chapters, fair chapters, and some chapters that readers

should just skip. In this review, I assess each chapter to

highlight its strengths within the volume’s aims.

In the f‌irst chapter, one of the best pieces of the volume,

Abigail Levrau and Lutgart Van den Berghe apply both

qualitative and quantitative research methods to a sample of

Belgian companies identifying the four main aspects that

contribute to the effectiveness of the boards of directors.

First, they highlight the importance of a set of behavioral

factors such as the trust between the board and the CEO or

the critical attitude in boardroomdeliberations. By following

this approach they contribute by going beyond the tradi-

tional structural board measures commonly found in the

literature. Second, board diversity seems to play a more

important role than board independence. Third, the better

the directors’ knowledge of the company’s particular

context is, the more effective the board is. And fourth, the

role of the board’s chairperson is pivotal in the effectiveness

of the board.

In contrast to the f‌irst chapter, the second chapter by Chris

Pierce is a descriptive piece that explores the drivers of

board evaluation and explains its growing importance in

Australia, Canada, the UK, the USA, Spain and the Middle

East. Pierce claims that board evaluation is one of the key

areas for developing boards. The descriptions of a typical

board evaluation process also list typical areas of board dys-

function, which a good board evaluation can identify. The

chapter reviews some common reasons directors give for

failing to introduce board evaluations.

Similarly, in Chapter 3, John Cottrell describes Austra-

lia’s institutional environment, the role played by that

country’s main corporate actors and the main characteris-

tics and challenges confronted by Australian boards.

Readers interested in a literature review of the evolution of

Australian corporate world might want to read this

chapter. In another descriptive piece (Chapter 9), Eleanor

O’Higgins, analyzes the role and contribution of the chair-

man of the board. Rather than centering on any particular

country, the author considers the issues associated with the

role of the chair and the best ways to perform this role

for various board structures worldwide. It highlights a

growing trend that favors the appointment of a separate

independent chair.

This volume also includes six qualitative studies. In

Chapter 4, Nada Kakabadse, Andrew Kakabadse, and Chen

Yang pursue an exploratory qualitative study in order to

identify the critical performance dimensions relevant to

Chinese boards and the chairman’s role. They provide an

overview of the corporate boards of Chinese state-owned

f‌irms focusing on the role of the boards, their size and com-

position, the relationship between the chair and the CEO,

the mechanisms of director nomination, and ethical issues.

Chapter 5, by Elina Oseichuck, Nada Kakabadse and

Andrew Kakabadse, explores the internal dynamics and

conf‌licts of the board of directors of an oil and gas interna-

tional joint venture in Kazakhstan. The authors focus on the

board structure and composition, the roles and duties of

directors, and how directors balance divergent issues that

conf‌lict with responsible corporate practices. This study

333

Corporate Governance: An International Review, 2012, 20(3): 333–334

© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

doi:10.1111/j.1467-8683.2011.00894.x