Final Exams in Good Governance

and Corporate Social Responsibility

Prepared and submitted by: Diether O. Manalo

Submitted to: Prof. Carolina C. Guerrero

1. What are the good governance (GG) practices and how these support in the
existence of organizations, whether private, gov't or GOCCs?

Let me start off by asserting that good governance practices are a business
imperative and contributes humongously to the overall performance, stability, and
long-term viability of a business organization. Regardless of the organizations size,
age, complexity or whether it is private or governmental, good governance is of
vital importance to its success.

The following are the practices that will positively impact a companys overall
performance:

Build a strong board of directors those who are knowledgeable,

competent, has expertise in the line of business the organization is
involved in, are independent of managers, and most of all those who
have a diverse skill sets to be able to adapt to the ever changing
business environment. An organization can ensure they have strong
directors by maintaining a list of ideal board directors to fill possible
future vacancies, thru continuous education, and of course by
performance evaluation.

Roles, resposibilities, and expectations must be clear. Develop written

position descriptions for the Board Chair, Board committees, the CEO
and executive officers. For example: the Chair leads the Board and
ensures its acting in the companys long-term best interests; the CEO
leads management, develops and implements business strategy and
reports to the Board.

Integrity and ethics must envelope the entire organizational culture. To

entrench this, conflict of interest policy must be adapted as well as a
code of business conduct setting out the companys requirements
and process to report and deal with non-compliance, and a
Whistleblower policy.
 Establish measurable performance targets from employees up to the
executive officers (including the CEO), regularly assess and evaluate
their performance against them and tie compensation to
performance.

Risks should regularly be identified and assessed, including financial,

operational, reputational, environmental, industry-related, and legal
risks.

These practices, when consistently implemented, will bring forth benefits such as
high performance Boards of Directors, accountable management and strong internal
controls, increased shareholder engagement, better managed risk, and effectively
monitored and measured performance.

2. Give examples of CSR strategies. How are these abused and how should these
abuses be prevented?

Among some of the most widely known CSR strategies are the following:

Philantrophy, which is the act of giving benevolent gifts without any

expectation of receiving anything in return;
Corporate Citizenship, which describes companies' commitment to
communities where they operate and/or where their employees are
located; and
Stakeholder Engagement which is similar to corporate citizenship but
implies a more focused approach to engaging stakeholders without
implication of focusing on any specific community/ies.

In my opinion, of these strategies, the most abused is Philantrophy. We

studied about this particular term whitewashing, wherein a company uses its
charitable or humanitarian endeavors with the primary intention of uplifting its
public image up to a level that is no longer truthful, or in order to cover up its
scandals through biased presentation of its CSR programs.
 In order to prevent this abuse, I believe companies should maintain a
strong policy outlining how to assess if their CSR activities are still genuinely
aiming for social contribution and not for twisted agenda. At the end of the day,
it all boils down to integrity and ethics.

3. From the reported R.A. topics (because there are many others) How do these laws
contribute to the exercise of GG & CSR?

These laws serve as a very useful guide for business organizations, which
especially in the modern tines, are ensnared amidst concerns relating to human rights,
labour standards, environmental protection and other ethical issues. The laws we
studied in this course as well as other statues help a company in ensuring that they are
in line with the countrys overall social development goals, especially because
corporations are considered engines of economic development and prosperity.