Business Ethics and Corporate Governance, Second Edition

OECD PRINCIPLES

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) was one of the earliest non-governmental organizations to work on and spell out principles and practices that should govern corporates in their goal to attain long-term shareholder value.⁵ The OECD Principles were oft-quoted and have won universal acclaim, especially of the authorities on the subject of corporate governance. Because of the ubiquitous approval, the OECD Principles are as much trend-setters as the Codes of Best Practices associated to the Cadbury Report. A useful first step in creating or reforming the corporate governance system is to look at the principles laid out by the OECD and adopted by its member governments. In summary, they include the following ...