M-VB-2 Corporate Governance & Compliance

Learning Outcomes:

After successful completion of the module, students will be able

  • to describe the topic of corporate governance and apply it as a regulatory framework for the governance and supervision of companies, which significantly influences the decision-making processes in the company,
  • to identify the fundamental conflicts between economic and ethical actions at both the individual and corporate decision-making levels,
  • to explain different models and stakeholders of corporate governance and to correctly assess their dependence on social, regulatory and cultural conditions,
  • to distinguish the complex coherences in today’s issues of the actions of companies in the areas of corporate values, compliance and risk, sustainability, diversity and social responsibility,
  • to identify current problems in the actions of companies in view of corporate governance-related concepts and to analyze them in a solution-oriented manner, and
  • to develop potential solutions for concrete examples based on the discussed theoretical constructs and approaches, and to present and evaluate them in an argumentative manner.

Course contents:

1. Development of corporate governance

  • Historical development
  • Overview of content

2. Theories of corporate governance

  • Agency Theory
  • Transaction Cost Theory
  • Stewardship Theory
  • Resource Dependancy Theory

3. Regulatory models for corporate governance

  • US model
  • UK model
  • Japanese model
  • German model (DCGK)

4. Corporate governance protagonists and partners

  • Investors
  • Company
  • Directors
  • Employees

5. Corporate Risk Management

  • Legal requirements
  • Risk policy and risk principles
  • Risk identification, analysis and assessment
  • Risk management strategies and methods
  • Risk reporting

6. Corporate compliance and corporate values

  • Requirements and contents
  • Codification, monitoring and sanctioning
  • Organizational integration

7. Corporate Social Responsibilty

  • Sustainability Management
  • Diversity & Gender Management
  • Stakeholder engagement
  • Reporting

30 Hours | Activities Include: Metrocard, Orientation (coffee + baked goods), 1 Group Activity (Yankee Stadium or Bowling, etc), New York Landmark Views Building (One World Observatory, Empire, etc), Farewell Lunch, One Company Visit or Guest Speaker (subjective to change and availability)
Assessment: Group Project: Group assessment of governance examples and compliance issues