Policy Making and Contemporary Governance in the United Kingdom Essay

Policy Making and Contemporary Governance in the United Kingdom - Essay Example Within an organization, it is the board that takes care of the accountability of an organization to its â€Å"owners and stakeholders†. The essence on governance particularly relates to public traded organizations that mainly focus on accountability, responsibility and profitability. Corporate governance has all the more taken a significant position than it had in the earlier times (Jackson, Derose & Beatty, 2003, p.4). It was after the release of the Cadbury report in the year 1992 that corporate governance became a major concern in the UK. The focus of the Cadbury report was quite restricted to the financial parts of corporate governance. However, several other reports followed the Cadbury report and include â€Å"the Greenbury report (1995), the Hampel report (1998), the Smith report (2003), and the Higgs report (2003)†. The reports derived from these cases of UK imply that only particular issues in regard to corporate governance have been dealt that included the rev elations of compensations of directors and executives of the organization, appraisal committees, and the responsibility and efficacy of non executives in the company (Plessis, Hargovan & Bagaric, 2010, p.312). Although governance has been an old concept, however, it is recently that concerns have been given more importance on issues regarding good governance in an organization. Thus policy governance came into play and has been refined and articulated by different authors at different points of time. Policy governance refers to the theory that governs the business of public. The boards of organizations take the responsibilities towards achieving the organizational goals and objectives for which suitable corporate governance is highly necessary (Jackson, Derose & Beatty, 2003, p.5). This report would deal with a study on the approaches to the study of policy making that best help to understand the nature of contemporary governance in the UK. Corporate Governance in the UK: The Early Times: Corporate governance was defined by the Cadbury report as a â€Å"system by which companies are directed and controlled† (Keasey, Thompson & Wright, 2005, pp.22). Cadbury had realized that following good governance within an organization assists the organizational members and the authorities to deliver measures effectively thus driving the companies forward towards success. Failures in corporate governance may occur owing to inefficient performances by the organization which results in decrease in the level of profits. Secondly when an organization earns huge profits there may be a tendency among its members to share some amount of that profit in the way of excess remuneration. Thus to incur corporate management to provide effective and efficient performances, a good governance is a requirement (Keasey, Thompson & Wright, 2005, pp.22-23). It can be said that the governance reforms in the UK particularly started with the establishment of the Cadbury Committee that focus ed on issues relating to exercise of â€Å"creative accounting devices†, failures at the corporate levels, and public dissatisfaction over increasing rates of compensation of the executives of an organization. The recommendations of Cadbury focused mainly on the responsibilities of the executive officers within an organization. Thus the role of executives and non-executives were taken into concern and tried to be strengthened by the Cadbury recommendations along with additional progress (Keasey, Thompson & Wright, 2005, p.5). â€Å"Executive pay arrangements† offer a predominantly appealing argument for confirmation for corporate governance reforms. Several reformers have stressed their efforts on improving the transparency of remuneration process, trying not to affect the executive