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Roles and responsibilities of boards of directors (BoDs) in contemporary organizations are continuously changing as a result of global or local increased regulations, as well as a response to financial and ethical scandals, irregularities in management, heightened societal expectations, demands for stakeholder engagement and shareholder activism. BoDs are widely varied - they can be of one tier type or two tiers type; they can demand separation between CEO and the Chair - or not; they can include or exclude employees' participation; and they can vary in many other ways. This confusing reality is further complicated by findings that two core managerial groups - directors and senior managers - have only a limited understanding of boards' roles and responsibilities and do not share unified expectations from the board and its activities. It is suggested that this reality might impair the ability of the board to contribute to improved level of management, accountability and social responsibility (SR) of the organization. It is further suggested, that there is need for a new comprehensive framework for BoD's conduct, in which the familiar roles of monitoring and advising management will be strengthened with wider and overreaching roles that will enable boards to take active part in the improvement of market conduct and SR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Board-level participation (BLP) is a formal and indirect way of employee participation. BLP can be found mostly in Europe, and it is drawing growing interest as a practice, which allows employees to have impact on organization management, decision-making, identity and culture. BLP can become a trustworthy way for employees to receive first-hand information about the organizational operations, ensure better flow of information and turn employees into authentic partners in the management of the organization. According to stakeholder theory, employees are a central stakeholder group and should be represented in boards. It is argued that employees' interest in the long-term success of the organization can be more powerful than that of shareholders, who can decide to sell their shares and put their money somewhere else. All these characteristics can turn BLP into a central way for SR implementation in organizations. SR is the integration of economic, environmental and social considerations in management and decision-making. Research on SR issues focuses mainly on economic and environmental issues. When dealing with the social aspect, most works focus on philanthropy and volunteering - activities that might contribute to the reputation and public relation, but are not viewed as core business practices. This paper explores how managers in an organization, which integrates SR in its management systems, evaluate the contribution of BLP to leading the organization and to SR implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 21st century organizations have to cope with a variety of challenges, that might become more and more demanding as time passes by. They will have to work in a rapidly and growingly global competitive environment, where the competition for customers and clients will be harder, new competitors will emerge all over the world, and the chances to succeed will not be very good. They will also have to face knowledgeable and demanding customers, as the global public can achieve knowledge and information very easily and very cheaply. They will have to answer to civil society, which is growing in size and impact, and becoming a legitimate actor in the economic market arena. And they will have to work with a variety of stakeholders, that in the past were limited in their ability to influence the organizations, but this has changed by now. These stakeholders may include employees, customers, nearby communities, but also the media, the local and regional government and even global organizations, such as OECD, UN, World Bank and so on. This paper suggests that the developing school of CSR will provide the most effective tools and management systems to cope successfully with this new reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]