Corporate Governance and Accountability (RCGA) 688
Corporate Governance and Accountability

Permanently closed. Effective 2020.
Delivery Mode: Residential
Credits: 6
Prerequisites: Students must have successfully completed Phase 1 of the MBA program before taking this course.
Faculty: Faculty of Business
Program: Master of Business Administration
Manager: Aris Solomon, PhD
Course Overview
This elective covers three broad areas: for profit corporate governance, nonprofit corporate governance, and corporate social responsibility in the for profit sector. It is designed to provide students with a thorough grounding in a number of key introductory and advanced topics of corporate governance theory, research and practice, including associated reporting and regulation. Students will become familiar with and critique the academic literature in the area, as well as develop their ability to integrate and synthesize between topics in order to appreciate current debates and explore potentially fruitful avenues for development.
Students will explore course concepts through readings, case studies, documentaries, research and discussions, both online and during the in-residence week. The in-residence week will also include presentations by academics and industry representatives. By the end of the course, students should be able to relate knowledge gained from the elective to their own organization, and will be required to demonstrate this in their final assignment.
Course Objectives
On completion of this course, students will be equipped to:
- List, describe, explain, relate, compare, and contrast:
- alternative definitions/conceptualizations of governance
- different contexts, rationales, and drivers for corporate governance
- alternative paradigms in governance research
- different mechanisms for corporate governance
- alternative corporate governance frameworks and requirements
- the different elements of economic, social, environmental, and ethic responsibility
- the different elements and aspects of corporate disclosure
- alternative mechanisms for executive compensation
- Cite, explain, select, and apply appropriate models to suggest solutions to problems in:
- development of corporate governance frameworks and requirements
- case (company) specific corporate governance and disclosure issues
- the cost and value relevance of corporate governance
- Derive, critique, and challenge models for:
- development of corporate governance frameworks and requirements
- evolution of corporate governance frameworks in comparison to evolution of financial accounting and reporting requirements
- Develop powers of research in the academic literature and texts
- Develop powers of academic literature criticism
- Apply and criticize models
- Develop powers of integration and synthesis to suggest potentially fruitful questions
Course Outline
The course is divided into six parts, as follows:
- Part 1: Corporate governance: Introduction
- Week 1:
Corporate governance: What is it?
- Week 1:
- Part 2: Corporate Governance: For Profit
- Week 2—4:
Codes
Board
Models
- Week 2—4:
- Part 3: In-Residence
- Week 5:
Group presentation
Corporate governance: The institutional investors
Corporate governance: Transparency & internal control
Nonprofit governance: Introduction & trends
Nonprofit governance: International comparisons
- Week 5:
- Part 4: Corporate governance: Nonprofit
- Week 6—7:
Codes
Board
- Week 6—7:
- Part 5: Corporate governance: For profit accountability
- Week 8—9:
Corporate social responsibility: What is it?
Corporate social responsibility: Current trends
- Week 8—9:
- Part 6: Corporate governance: The future
- Week 10:
Governance: the future
- Week 10:
Athabasca University reserves the right to amend course outlines occasionally and without notice. Courses offered by other delivery methods may vary from their individualized-study counterparts.