1 A company is referred to an artificial person that has a separate entity in the eyes of the law; this entity provides rights and liabilities to a company based on which it can sue third parties or get sued by them as well. However, it did not have the capability to take business decisions on its own; therefore, the board of directors of the company is responsible for making business decisions on behalf of the company. The board of directors has many roles and responsibilities towards the company such as establishing mission, vision, and values, setting strategy and structure, delegating to management, exercising accountability to shareholders, ensuring proper maintenance of books of accounts, and others (Van den Berghe, 2012). However, the most significant role of the board of directors is to maintain a balance between the interests of stakeholders to ensure that the company conducts its operations in an ethical manner. The board should develop and implement an effective corporate social responsibility (CSR) structure in the company to increase their accountability towards stakeholders and maintain transparency in operations (Frias-Aceituno, Rodriguez‐Ariza & Garcia‐Sanchez, 2013). The reason why this is the most significant role is because cases involving unethical practices of companies have increased substantially in the past which highlights the importance of compliance with corporate governance principles. Enron, WorldCom, Satyam, and Volkswagen Emission scandal shows the negative implications faced by stakeholders of a company due to the failure of the board to act in an ethical manner (Bhasin, 2013). The negative implications are suffered by customers, shareholders, government, local communities, and the environment. Therefore, the most significant role of the board is to adopt effective CSR structure to discharge their duties ethically.
2 References Bhasin, M. L. (2013). Corporate accounting scandal at Satyam: A case study of India’s enron.European Journal of Business and Social Sciences,1(12), 25-47. Frias‐Aceituno, J. V., Rodriguez‐Ariza, L., & Garcia‐Sanchez, I. M. (2013). The role of the board in the dissemination of integrated corporate social reporting.Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management,20(4), 219-233. Van den Berghe, L. (2012).International standardisation of good corporate governance: best practices for the board of directors. Springer Science & Business Media.