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Media Release

August 22 2008

Big picture or micro-management in the boardroom?

Professor Lee ParkerA fly-on-the-boardroom-wall insight into corporate governance shows that board members tend to slip from their primary role of big picture strategy, policy and control monitoring, to discussing routine day-to-day management issues.

Professor of Accounting at UniSA’s School of Commerce, Lee Parker has been studying international research about the way in which boards operate and comparing that with his own research conducted over the last 15 years from inside boardrooms.

A lot of the research done internationally has involved surveying directors of boards or interviewing them, but not a lot is known about what actually happens within the boardroom. Prof Parker’s research is one of very few studies undertaken from the inside.

Prof Parker will share some of his findings in the seminar Corporate governance and boardroom accountability: lessons from the top on Tuesday evening, August 26 as part of the University’s free Working Links lecture series, Gift of Knowledge 2008.

“The seminar will focus on three areas - how directors make strategic decisions, exercise financial and operational control, and the way in which they govern their own boardroom processes,” Prof Parker said.

“Rather than focusing on just the corporate sector, I will also be reflecting on the unique features seen from the inside of non-profit or third-sector boardrooms. Encompassing everything from sporting organisations to social welfare, these organisations tend to be large and are increasing in size and impact because, internationally, governments have outsourced many of these functions to the non-profit sector.”

Members of the public are invited to register online to attend the seminar on Tuesday August 26 in the Bradley Forum, Level 5, Hawke Building at UniSA’s City West campus, North Terrace, Adelaide from 5:45 – 8pm.

The Working Links seminar series brings together business people, students, academics and alumni – all who want to be excited, challenged and informed by the latest thinking on business issues. The series is presented by senior academics and business leaders whose knowledge and research take you behind the headlines to see what is really going on.

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