2007 Oxford Business & Economics Conference
ISBN : 978-0-9742114-7-3
Barbara Fryzel
Post-Privatization Corporate Governance
Comparison of evolution patterns in Western and CE Europe
Abstract
Privatization, which started in Western Europe in the early 80s, created a wave of changes in
the corporate ownership patterns, thus affecting a long-established structure of influence
between main actors, i.e. government, management, employees, trade unions.
As privatization processes were designed often through overlapping economical and political
imperatives, they became an interesting scene of evolving power structures shifting from
governments and trade unions towards initially dispersed owners, who eventually started to
consolidate their shareholdings.
In result, a new class of owners was formed while management, freed from governmental
constraints is now subject to scrutiny from the fiduciary rights holders.
These processes shaped the corporate governance systems, defined as a set of mechanisms
controlling and directing the company. [Combined Code, 2003].
This paper analyzes the political, economical and cultural context in which post-privatization
governance was formed comparing Western European and Eastern European firms.
It answers the questions:
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What are the embryonic rules of corporate governance, which are, transferred from
Western Europe to CEE, where privatization is very much still an on-going process?
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Does post-privatization governance depend upon the mode of privatization?
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Does the political imperative of privatization influence the structure of power in
privatized companies?
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What are the determinants for corporate governance system efficiency, i.e. under what
circumstances the formal, legal regulations are more efficient than institutional and
behavioral mechanisms.
The paper presents the comparative case studies of privatized companies in UK and
Poland in the telecom and utilities industry.
The analysis is based on the qualitative data collected in over 50 semi-structured
interviews with senior managers and board members, politicians and civil servants and
June 24-26, 2007
Oxford University, UK
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2007 Oxford Business & Economics Conference
ISBN : 978-0-9742114-7-3
members of regulatory bodies. The interviews cover a time between 1983 and 2006,
therefore the paper presents the evolutionary and longitudinal perspective.
The data is analyzed with the use of a professional qualitative software.
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ISBN : 978-0-9742114-7-3
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