The Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Directors-Ghana (IoD-Gh), Mr. Clement Wiredu, has urged organizations to take deliberate steps towards bridging the gap between the Board of Directors (BoD) and worker unions.
Highlighting the relevance of corporate governance to businesses on the March 21, 2023 edition of Sunny FM’s Business Magazine Show, CEO of the professional body, underscored the importance of unions to business growth and good corporate governance, calling on Ghanaian businesses to be more intentional about their interactions with worker unions.
“One thing that people miss increasingly in governance in the corporate world is the role of the Union. And I’ve seen many people talk about governance, and talk about the board, talk about the CEO but even when the organization has a union, they’re not mentioned. And when you go there, they’re not even on the Management Team. While we start to define and get into good corporate governance, we must evolve around looking at unions as part of management”, he said.
He added that recognizing the role of Unions plays a crucial role in the success of the company. “If there’s a union in that organization, then one wants to see that they are part of the governance of the organization and the governance is not just reporting to them, but they are aware of the direction the organization is going and the challenges”, he emphasized.
Speaking on the same program, a Fellow of the IoD-Gh, and Managing Consultant at The Family Office Africa, Mr. Theodore Albright, called on board members to build awareness and knowledge about the organization on whose board they serve.
“At the very least, you should understand the operations because you’re going to give birth to a strategy. Remember, you’re the custodian of the company, you have a fiduciary responsibility to the company and you’re the custodian of the strategy. How can you couch a strategy when you don’t understand the industry?”, he stressed.
The Institute of Directors-Ghana is a professional body committed to the practice of effective Corporate Directorship to champion director professionalism and development through good corporate governance.
21ST MARCH, 2023.
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