Proceedings of 10th Annual London Business Research Conference
10 - 11 August 2015, Imperial College, London, UK
ISBN: 978-1-922069-81-8
Corporate Governance and Power: A Mental Element
Perspective
Jeremy Pearce*, Michael Segon** and Chris Booth***
Cools (2005) and Collins (2009) share a view that major corporate collapses are most
often caused by hubris. This is echoed by Jennings (2006) and Abdullah and Valentine
(2009) with respect to ethical failures in companies. Accepting this perspective raises
questions about corporate governance and in particular how the traditional governance
response to corporate collapse, additional regulation, is ineffective when dealing with
hubris. By taking an approach that establishes a relationship between hubris and power
within corporations a new understanding of the requirements for corporate governance
emerges.
Keywords: Power, Corporate Governance, Hubris
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* Lincoln University, jpearce@lincoln.ac.uk
** CQ University, m.segon@cqu.edu.au
***RMIT, chris.booth@rmit.edu.au