Recent years have seen a number of scandals that have revealed sometimes shockingly poor standards of corporate governance in well-known companies - and exposed some directors had regard only to their own interests while others were hopelessly ineffective. Managers may run a company but it is the job of directors to make sure it is well run and run in the right direction. This clear and lively guide to the role and responsibilities of directors is aimed not only at those on the board, but also at managers and stakeholders in every kind of organisation. Including case studies that illustrate poor standards of corporate governance in companies the A-Z entries cover such concepts and terms as: Agency theory, Audit Committee,Corporate veil, Deep pocket syndrome, Disclosure, Ethics, Games directors play, Helicopter vision, Keiretsu, Log rolling, Mentor, Non-executive director, Poison pill,Shareholder value, Stakeholder theory, Tokenism, Two hat dilemma, Unitary board,War room, Yakusa, and Zaibatsu.Extensive appendices provide codes of best practice and checklists that will be of immense practical help to those involved in setting and raising standards of governance in their organisations.