How to Improve Governance

How to Improve Governance
Author: David Ferranti
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2009-09-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0815703538

In recent years, the developing world has seen a burst of efforts to reduce corruption, increase transparency and accountability, and improve governance. Needless to say, this is an important and encouraging development. However, the lack of a reliable compass to describe where a country is at a given moment—and where it could be heading in the absence or acceptance of proposed reforms—can result in disastrous missteps. The unfortunate absence of such a guide has helped lead to innumerable failed governments or ineffective regimes. This important book aims to fill that void. How to Improve Governance emphasizes the need for an overall analytical framework that can be applied to different countries to help analyze their current situations, identify potential areas for improvement, and assess their relative feasibility and the steps needed to promote them. A country-specific analysis needs to be comprehensive, in the sense that it includes the four concepts of transparency, accountability, governance, and anticorruption throughout the calculus. Without such an analytic framework, any reform attempt is likely to flounder for lack of a shared understanding of the underlying problems and of the feasible reforms. The book gives special emphasis to the potential for civil society groups to play a stronger role in holding governments accountable for their use of public resources, and to the importance of developing politically feasible, prioritized country strategies for reform. "Whether one looks at how to increase domestic demand for good governance, how to make government more accountable to the public, or how to build democratic processes that deliver results, the underlying issues are essentially the same.... As development actors of various types... seek to help, more and more of them are calling for a clearer conceptual framework to guide their efforts."—From the Introduction

Improving Governance

Improving Governance
Author: Laurence E. Lynn Jr.
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2001-04-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781589013452

Policymakers and public managers around the world have become preoccupied with the question of how their goals can be achieved in a way that rebuilds public confidence in government. Yet because public policies and programs increasingly are being administered through a complicated web of jurisdictions, agencies, and public-private partnerships, evaluating their effectiveness is more difficult than in the past. Though social scientists possess insightful theories and powerful methods for conducting empirical research on governance and public management, their work is too often fragmented and irrelevant to the specific tasks faced by legislators, administrators, and managers. Proposing a framework for research based on the premise that any particular governance arrangement is embedded in a wider social, fiscal, and political context, Laurence E. Lynn Jr., Carolyn J. Heinrich, and Carolyn J. Hill argue that theory-based empirical research, when well conceived and executed, can be a primary source of fundamental, durable knowledge about governance and policy management. Focusing on complex human services such as public assistance, child protection, and public education, they construct an integrative, multilevel "logic of governance," that can help researchers increase the sophistication, power, and relevance of their work.

High Performance Boards

High Performance Boards
Author: Didier Cossin
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2020-06-22
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1119615658

A comprehensive guide to transforming boards and achieving best-practice governance in any organisation. When practising good governance, the board is the vital driver of organizational success, while fostering positive social impact and economic value creation. At all levels, executives around the world are faced with complexities rising from disruptive business models, new technologies, socio-economic changes, shifting political circumstances, and an array of other sources. High Performance Boards is the comprehensive manual for attaining best-in-class governance, offering pragmatic guidance on improving board quality, accountability, and performance. This authoritative volume identifies the four dimensions, or pillars, which are crucial for establishing and maintaining best-practice boards: the people involved, the information architecture, the structures and processes, and the group dynamics and culture of governance. This methodology can be applied to any board in the world, corporate or non-profit organization, regardless of size, sector, industry, or context. Readers are introduced to a fictitious senior board member – an amalgamation of board members from well-known organisations – and follow her as she successfully handles real-life challenges with effective governance. Drawn from the author's 20 years of practice and confidential work with boards across the world, this book: Demonstrates how high-performance boards innovate and refine their practices Discusses examples of board failures and challenges, including case studies from both for-profit and non-profit organisations including international organizations and state-owned agencies or even ministries Provides a proven framework to create best-in-class governance Includes a companion website featuring tools for board assessment and board practice High Performance Boards has inspired more than 3000 board members around the world. This book is essential reading for professionals and managers interested in governance and board members, senior managers, investors, lawyers, and students of governance.

Elements of Effective Governance

Elements of Effective Governance
Author: Kathe Callahan
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2006-09-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1420013424

Elements of Effective Governance: Measurement, Accountability and Participation is one of the first books to explore the relationship between accountability, government performance, and public participation. It discusses two main assumptions: greater accountability leads to better performance; and the more the public is involved in the measu

Executive's Guide to IT Governance

Executive's Guide to IT Governance
Author: Robert R. Moeller
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2013-02-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1118138619

Create strong IT governance processes In the current business climate where a tremendous amount of importance is being given to governance, risk, and compliance (GRC), the concept of IT governance is becoming an increasingly strong component. Executive's Guide to IT Governance explains IT governance, why it is important to general, financial, and IT managers, along with tips for creating a strong governance, risk, and compliance IT systems process. Written by Robert Moeller, an authority in auditing and IT governance Practical, no-nonsense framework for identifying, planning, delivering, and supporting IT services to your business Helps you identify current strengths and weaknesses of your enterprise IT governance processes Explores how to introduce effective IT governance principles with other enterprise GRC initiatives Other titles by Robert Moeller: IT Audit, Control, and Security and Brink's Modern Internal Auditing: A Common Body of Knowledge There is strong pressure on corporations to have a good understanding of their IT systems and the controls that need to be in place to avoid such things as fraud and security violations. Executive's Guide to IT Governance gives you the tools you need to improve systems processes through IT service management, COBIT, and ITIL.

Corporate Governance Matters

Corporate Governance Matters
Author: David Larcker
Publisher: FT Press
Total Pages: 497
Release: 2011-04-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0132367076

Corporate Governance Matters gives corporate board members, officers, directors, and other stakeholders the full spectrum of knowledge they need to implement and sustain superior governance. Authored by two leading experts, this comprehensive reference thoroughly addresses every component of governance. The authors carefully synthesize current academic and professional research, summarizing what is known, what is unknown, and where the evidence remains inconclusive. Along the way, they illuminate many key topics overlooked in previous books on the subject. Coverage includes: International corporate governance. Compensation, equity ownership, incentives, and the labor market for CEOs. Optimal board structure, tradeoffs, and consequences. Governance, organizational strategy, business models, and risk management. Succession planning. Financial reporting and external audit. The market for corporate control. Roles of institutional and activist shareholders. Governance ratings. The authors offer models and frameworks demonstrating how the components of governance fit together, with concrete examples illustrating key points. Throughout, their balanced approach is focused strictly on two goals: to “get the story straight,” and to provide useful tools for making better, more informed decisions.

Digital Governance

Digital Governance
Author: Michael E. Milakovich
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 474
Release: 2021-09-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000456218

The application of digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) to reform governmental structures and public service is widely and perhaps naively viewed as the 21st century "savior", the enlightened way to reinvigorate democracy, reduce costs, and improve the quality of public services. This book examines the transition from e-government to digital governance in light of the financial exigencies and political controversies facing many governments. The chapters concentrate on strategies for public sector organizational transformation and policies for improved and measurable government performance in the current contentious political environment. This fully updated second edition of Digital Governance provides strategies for public officials to apply advanced technologies, manage remote workforces, measure performance, and improve service delivery in current crisis-driven administrative and political environments. The full implementation of advanced digital governance requires fundamental changes in the relationship between citizens and their governments, using ICTs as catalysts for political as well as administrative communication. This entails attitudinal and behavioral changes, secure networks, and less dependence on formal bureaucratic structures (covered in Part I of this book); transformation of administrative, educational, and security systems to manage public services in a more citizen-centric way (covered in Part II); the integration of advanced digital technologies with remote broadband wireless internet services (Part III); and the creation of new forms of global interactive citizenship and self-governance (covered in Part IV). Author Michael E. Milakovich offers recommendations for further improvement and civic actions to stimulate important instruments of governance and public administration. This book is required reading for political science, public administration, and public policy courses, as well as federal, state, and local government officials.

Corporate Governance

Corporate Governance
Author: Ira M. Millstein
Publisher: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Total Pages: 122
Release: 1998
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

This report emphasizes that although corporate governance should remain mostly a prerogative of the companies and industries themselves, governments must provide a regulatory framework that allows them to adapt their governance practices to rapidly changing international circumstances.