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Article: The hidden dangers of governance reform; among the perils: compulsive conservatism, and a corrosive dissolution of trust at the senior levels of management. (Guest Column).
- Article from:
- Directors & Boards
- Article date:
- March 22, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Directors and Boards. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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CORPORATE AMERICA is hurting, and governance reform is the cure du jour. That would be fine, if we were all ingesting reform in measured doses targeted at specific ailments. But we're not.
Instead, we're inoculating one business after another with a massive, all-purpose dose of good governance that carries both the false promise of prevention and some very real hidden dangers. We're already starting to see the unintended consequences of a good idea pushed too far.
The first is that cosmetic compliance with the mandates of corporate reform merely creates a false sense of security. Lots of companies, armed with the best of intentions and aided by herds of ...