GOOD CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

GOOD CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

Good corporate governance means establishing a management structure and mechanism within the organization to create relations between the Board of Directors, the management, employees, suppliers, clients and shareholders to serve the best interests of shareholders, taking into account the interests of all stakeholders.

Corporate governance is most often viewed as both the structure and the relationships which determine corporate direction and performance. The board of directors is typically central to corporate governance. Its relationship to the other primary participants, typically shareholders and management, is critical. Additional participants include employees, customers, suppliers, and creditors.

Corporate governance is the control of management in the best interests of the company, including accountability to shareholders who elect directors and auditors and vote on say on pay. How a company is governed influences rights and relationships among organizational stakeholders, and ultimately how an organization is managed, and whether it succeeds or fails. Companies do not fail: boards do.

In broad terms, corporate governance refers to the way in which a corporations is directed, administered, and controlled. Corporate governance also concerns the relationships among the various internal and external stakeholders involved as well as the governance processes designed to help a corporation achieve its goals.

Seven Characteristics/Principles of Good Corporate Governance

Managers must ensure good corporate governance.

To be effective, your company’s leaders must take responsibility for their decisions and the performance of the organization as a whole. For example, the leaders of a company should design and adhere to a code of ethics that helps management promote each of the important characteristics of good corporate governance.

Clear Strategy

Good corporate governance starts with a clear strategy for the organization. For example, a furniture company’s management team might research the market to identify a profitable niche, create a product line to meet the needs of that target market and then advertise its wares with a marketing campaign that reaches those consumers directly. At each stage, knowing the overall strategy helps the company’s workforce stay focused on the organizational mission: meeting the needs of the consumers in that target market.

Effective Risk Management

Even if your company implements smart policies, competitors might steal your customers, unexpected disasters might cripple your operations and economy fluctuations might erode the buying capabilities of your target market. You can’t avoid risk, so it’s vital to implement effective strategic risk management. For example, a company’s management might decide to diversify operations so the business can count on revenue from several different markets, rather than depend on just one.

Discipline

Corporate policies are only as effective as their implementation. A company’s management can spend years developing a strategy to push into new markets, but if it can’t mobilize its workforce to implement the strategy, the initiative will fail. Good corporate governance requires having the discipline and commitment to implement policies, resolutions and strategies.

Fairness

Fairness must always be a high priority for management. For example, managers must push their employees to be their best, but they should also recognize that a heavy workload can have negative long-term effects, such as low morale and high turnover. Companies also must be fair to their customers, both for ethical and public-relations reasons. Treating customers unfairly, whatever the short-term benefits, always hurts a company’s long-term prospects.

Transparency

Managers sometimes keep their own counsel, limiting the information that filters down to employees. But corporate transparency helps unify an organization: When employees understand management’s strategies and are allowed to monitor the company’s financial performance, they understand their roles within the company. Transparency is also important to the public, who tend not to trust secretive corporations.

Social Responsibility

Social responsibility at the corporate level is increasingly a topic of concern. Consumers expect companies to be good community members, for example, by initiating recycling efforts and reducing waste and pollution. Good corporate governance identifies ways to improve company practices and also promotes social good by reinvesting in the local community.

Self-Evaluation

Mistakes will be made, no matter how well you manage your company. The key is to perform regular self-evaluations to identify and mitigate brewing problems. Employee and customer surveys, for example, can supply vital feedback about the effectiveness of your current policies. Hiring outside consultants to analyze your operations also can help identify ways to improve your company’s efficiency and performance.

What is ASSERTIVENESS? (PSYCHOLOGY)

What is ASSERTIVENESS?

Assertiveness is the ability to formulate and communicate one's own thoughts, opinions and wishes in a clear, direct and non-aggressive way. This test determines whether a lack of assertiveness skills may be keeping you from fulfilling your potential and reaching your goals. Please examine the following statements and indicate how often or to what degree you agree with the statement.

It is a style of communication in which individuals express their feelings and needs directly to the other person, while maintaining respect for others and keeping emotions under control.

Assertiveness is the ability to express your emotions and needs without violating the rights of others and without being aggressive.

People who are not assertive do their best to please others while violating their own rights or sacrificing their own needs. For the sake of avoiding rejection those people become overly nice to win their friends but they end up losing their self confidence. 

Assertiveness is not about showing people that you can shout and its not about scaring them but it's something between being aggressive and being passive. Assertiveness is the act of asking for what you want in a confident way that harms no one but in the same time preserves your rights.

why am i not assertive?

Assertiveness is not something that is inherited. Assertiveness is a skill that anyone can learn if he decided to. Lack of assertiveness usually result from the way a person was raised. If a child was constantly told that he must be nice in order for others to like him then he might not become assertive when he grows up.

The good news is that you can learn how to be assertive starting today once you take the decision and decide that you won't let go of your rights anymore for the sake of pleasing others.

But will people like me if i am assertive?

Contrary to common beliefs being assertive will not let people avoid you or hate you, this may only happen with over sensitive people who might get hurt by assertiveness. Here is a guide that will help you (spot a sensitive person from his looks). Normal people on the other hand won't hate you when you become assertive but on the contrary they will like you because you sound more confident.

in order to be assertive you must stick to these rules

In order to be assertive you must stick to these rules and guidelines:

• You have the right to have your own values, beliefs, opinions, and emotions.
• You have the right not to justify or explain your actions to others.
• You have the right to tell others how you wish to be treated.
• You have the right to express yourself and to say, "No," "I don't know," "I don't understand," or even "I don't care."
• You have the right to take the time you need to formulate your ideas before expressing them.
• You have the right to make mistakes.
• You have the right to stand up for yourself and for what you want.
• You have the right to be treated with respect.

If you refused to follow these guidelines and if you insisted on not being assertive then you might end up feeling worthless as your self confidence will be badly affected.

Being assertive is not a hard a task. You just need to change two things, the words that you use and your body language.

What is Dominant Director (Personality)

What is Dominant Director (Personality)

The D Personality Style tends to be direct and decisive, sometimes described as dominant. They would prefer to lead than follow, and tend towards leadership and management positions. They tend to have high self-confidence and are risk takers and problem solvers, which enables others to look to them for decisions and direction. They tend to be self-starters.

What does the D Personality Type contribute to a team?

They think about big picture goals and tangible results. They are bottom-line organizers that can lead an entire group in one direction. They place great value on time frames and seeing results. The D may challenge the status quo and think in a very innovative way.

What are the possible weaknesses of the D Personality Style?

They tend to overstep authority, as they prefer to be in charge themselves. At times they can be argumentative and not listen to the reasoning of others. They tend to dislike repetition and routine and may ignore the details and minutia of a situation, even if it's important. They may attempt too much at one time, hoping to see quick results.

What is the greatest fear of D Personality Types?

The D Personality Type will craves to be in control of the situation, and therefore fears the idea of being taken advantage of by others.

What motivates the D Personality Style?

The D is highly motivated by new challenges, setting and achieving goals, and seeing tangible results. They appreciate receiving verbal recognition from others as well as rewards. They enjoy power and authority to take risks and make decisions. Freedom from routine and mundane tasks is important. Since repetition is frustrating for the D, changing environments in which to work and play can be highly motivating.

What is the ideal environment for the D Personality Type?

They like to focus on the future and the big picture, and like non-routine challenging tasks and activities. They are motivated by projects that produce physical, trackable or tangible results. They enjoy being in charge or having the freedom to make decisions for themselves and may crave freedom from controls, supervision, and details.

What does the high D Personality Style desire?

D personalities desire freedom from others rules. They gravitate towards authority, personal freedom, and opportunity for advancement. They desire recognition, awards, and prestige for their work and ideas. In the work environment, D Personality Types, focus on promoting growth and a "bottom line" approach.

What should one remember to do when working with D Personality Types?

When working with a D, be direct, to the point, and brief. Focus on tangible points and talk about "what" instead of "how". Focus on business instead of social topics and try to be results oriented. Make suggestions for how to achieve the goal instead of talking about why it won't work. Try to thinking like a D, be confident and focus on problem solving.

What should one remember not to do when working with an D Personality Type?

When working with a D, it's important not to focus too much on the problems, the negative points, and the small details. They are big picture thinkers and may perceive you as negative. When speaking, try to speak confidently. Avoid repeating yourself or rambling. Don't make generalizations and make statements without support. Focus on the topic and do not be too sociable, they want to get right to the point.

What is a high D DISC Style likely to do when working with details or when analyzing information?

Because the D Style wants to look forward and think in bigger terms, they tend to ignore the information and analysis of past experiences and the details of what new projects may entail. They may ignore potential risks, not weigh the pros and cons, and not consider the opinions of others. They will likely offer innovative and progressive ideas and systems, but will need someone else to break down the project and work with the specifics.

What positive characteristics does the D Personality Type possess when in teams?

They will likely be very autocratic managers in a team environment and rise to the top during crisis moments. They will provide direction and leadership, push groups toward decision making, will maintain focus on the goals, and will push for tangible results. They can sometimes intimidate groups because of their directness and lack of social interest around others. They are generally optimistic thinkers, but may have personality conflicts with others they perceive as negative. They function well with heavy work loads and when under stress and welcome new challenges and risks without fear.

What are personal growth areas for D Personality Types?

They may be perceived as always speaking and not listening to others. The D may need to strive to listen more actively, be attentive to other team members' ideas, and to strive for consensus instead of making decisions alone. Instead of making only broad, decisive statements, be careful to explain the "whys" of your proposals and decisions. The D can be controlling and domineering at times and will need to watch their tone and body language when feeling frustrated or stressed out. The D can be all business and goals, therefore may need to focus more on developing personal relationships, and recognizing the opinions, feelings, and desires of others. It may take some intentionality to be friendlier and more approachable.

What Is Gestalt psychology?

What Is Gestalt psychology?

Gestalt psychology is a school of thought that believes all objects and scenes can be observed in their simplest forms. Sometimes referred to as the 'Law of Simplicity,' the theory proposes that the whole of an object or scene is more important than its individual parts. Observing the whole helps us find order in chaos and unity among outwardly unrelated parts and pieces of information. The school or doctrine holding that behavioral and psychological phenomena cannot be fully explained by analysis of their component parts, as reflexes or sensations, but must be studied as wholes. 

Gestalt psychology proposes a unique perspective on human perception. According to Gestalt psychologists, we don't just see the world, we actively interpret what we see, depending on what we are expecting to see. A famous French author, Anaïs Nin, who was not a psychologist, framed that idea in an interesting way: 'We do not see the world as it is; we see it as we are.' 

Gestalt psychology encourages people to 'think outside of the box' and look for patterns. In this lesson, we'll explore the basic principles of Gestalt psychology and the laws of perceptual organization using examples. 

Laws of Perceptual Organization

One of the laws of perceptual organization is that of apparent motion, through which the whole is more important than the individual parts. When you view an animated cartoon or any kind of film, you'll perceive motion when the individual frames are strung together. You won't see the individual frames; you'll see action and motion that tells a story. For example, in a cartoon, a character may run off the edge of the cliff and, for a moment, tread air until he looks down, sees his situation and then plummets to the floor of a canyon to become a flat coyote, cat or bunny. 

In reality, all of this apparent motion is nothing more than a sequence of frames strung together and proof that 'the whole is greater than the sum of its parts'. In watching the cartoon, we perceive the motion, but we do not perceive the individual frames that create the illusion of motion.

Some of the other basic laws of perceptual organization include:

• Proximity
• Similarity
• Closure
• Figure vs. ground
• Simplicity

Proximity and Similarity

According to the principle of proximity, when we see objects grouped together, we tend to perceive that they belong together. Look closely at the painting, especially the group of three people sitting on the shaded grass in the left foreground. Do you think the group and the dog belong together?

At first glance, we might assume all three figures and the dog do belong together, but we could be wrong. Notice that the man slumped on his elbows is casually dressed, while the man and woman are formally dressed, which suggests they're a couple. Now, try and identify some other groups in the painting based on the principle of proximity. How many can you see? 

If we apply the principle of similarity, we'll see the slumped figure as a 'loner.' On the other hand, we'll think that the man and woman standing in the right foreground belong together because they're formally dressed and seem to be facing in the same direction. In other words, when objects seem similar, we also tend to perceive that they belong together. 

Here's another example: Imagine you are strolling across a city plaza. Around you, traffic hums, horns blare and people are moving about in every direction. On your right, you notice a police officer walking away from you. To your right, you see another police officer heading off in another direction. Straight ahead, you spot a third police officer talking to a man on the other side of the plaza. 

Based on the principle of similarity, are you likely to see all three police officers as belonging together? Yes. You would perceive each one belongs in the same category, even though they are separated by space. Now, let's move on to closure. 

Closure and Figure vs. Ground

Closure refers to our perception of objects or spaces that are incomplete or not fully enclosed. As a result, we add the missing information ourselves to perceive the whole. For example, on a bright day in May, you approach the intersection of Hill Street and Grissom Lane. You spy a stop sign partly concealed by the leaves of a tree. Will you ignore the signal to stop because the octagonal sign is not entirely visible? Not likely. Under the principle of closure, you perceive the familiar red sign in its entirety.