Marketplace Features

Remake the Corporation?

We're shedding light on arguments about what's wrong -- or isn't -- with the business world these days. During the past year, calls for corporate and accounting industry reform have echoed from the White House to the anti-globalization street. But Marketplace is testing a pair of more radical notions -- diametrically opposed to one another -- that say mere reform misses the point.

 
Latest forum discussion:
 Scandal has dominated news from the business world lately. How do you feel about this? Would you re-make the corporation to try to end the corruption, or is reorganization of the corporate structure off the mark?"

November 18, 2002 - Remake The Corporation!
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A season of scandal has prompted some scholars of American business culture to blame that very culture for its headline-grabbing problems. In the first of two stories, Steve Tripoli examines the arguments of those who would remake the corporation in the name of "ending corruption." These include reworking the laws and customs that govern business practice to factor in the needs of stakeholders -- the larger community and the environment -- as well as shareholders.

November 19, 2002 - Hands Off The Corporation!
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Public faith in corporations has taken a beating during more than a year of successive scandals. But that has more to do with individual scofflaws than with the structure of corporations, some business observers argue. In the second of two stories, Steve Tripoli looks at those who argue that the glass of corporate governance is half-full: self-correcting and inherently designed to act efficiently and ethically. Because of this, these advocates suggest, proposals for major corporate reform miss the mark..

 

 

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