Corporate Governance Practices And Challenges: A Study Of International Ngos In Kenya

Abstract

Corporate governance has gained a lot of interest in the world today than years ago. Organizational issue hinge around governance in situations of success or failure. Successful organizations are seen to be well governed whereas organizations at the brink of collapse or those that have failed are seen to be poorly governed.

The focus has over the years been on commercial, public and private bodies where governance has been questioned and tested. Very few people look at corporate governance in not - for - profit organizations and the function of its board. It is with this in mind that my interest in establishing the current governance practices and challenges in international NGOs was conceived.

The study targeted 50 respondents but response was received from 35 out of which, 30 were considered to meet the standards set in terms of completion and timeframe. Data was collected through a questionnaire and analyzed using statistical methods and tabulated graphically and usingtables. The findings were summarized and found that international NGOs have functional boardsin place that practice good corporate governance to a large extent. The boards have put in place policies and guidelines to guide operations and they exercise financial control over the organizations' resources. The board and the management both have defined roles and responsibilities and the board chair is not the CEO. Diversity exists in the boards through gender representation and diverse skills in the subcommittees.

The relationships among the 3 key players in the corporate structure exist but communication and consultation with the key stakeholders need to be improved in order to achieve a good balancein the structure. Donor demands were found to cause some challenges in the practice of 'goodcorporate governance as well as the appointment of the directors by the retiring directors.