Corporate Governance and Accountability Assignment

Rationale

 1. Rationale: The aim of this assignment is to evaluate students’ understanding of critical issues which have an impact on accountability of a firm particularly with reference to the effect of compliance or non-compliance of corporate governance principles.  A secondary aim is to develop and assess students’ critical appreciation of how globalization impacts the accounting and auditing profession.

2. The learning outcomes being assessed:
 
ILO 1: A critical awareness of the concepts, principles and regulatory requirements governing the production of financial statements

3. Overview of assignment

 1. Does the geographical location of the two businesses mentioned above have an impact on their corporate governance structures? If yes, critically review these differences. You may want to refer to the UK and German Corporate Governance Codes

2. Critically discuss the impact of their corporate governance structures on board accountability, board diversity and board effectiveness. (You are required to discuss both companies citing specific examples supported by critical  review of extant literature)  
This assignment is an individual assignment and accounts for 20% of your total mark. The word count for this assignment is equivalent to 600 words (You may split the word count in any way between the two questions mentioned above) and must be electronically submitted via Turnitin. Your feedback will also be provided electronically.   
                                               
Your arguments should be based on your analysis of the case company, backed up by academic references. Saying that something is good or bad without giving your reasons and supporting these by reference to relevant literature is not acceptable. Additionally, the assignment should be well presented and referenced showing a logical structure and good grammar and spelling. The Referencing must be put into the poster either as a footnote or in any other format that matches the poster presentation. Word limit 600 words

As this submission is a Poster artefact there will be no word limit checks but the overall presentation must be legible and well organised so that it can be displayed to an audience.. This number of words excludes references and must be indicated on the cover page. Please note that the submission deadline is the final time you can submit – not the time to submit! Late submission will receive capped mark. Your feedback and mark for this assignment will be provided via generic comments on Brightspace and individual comment on Turntin.

Assessment guidelines

• Remember that you are trying to demonstrate to the marker how well you understand and can make use of the relevant knowledge. This requires careful explanation on your part. Pay attention to communicating your knowledge and understanding of the subject and do not just assume that it will be obvious anyway.

• Wide reading on the subject: read widely and undertake some of your own research. Good work always shows signs of extensive reading and some research. It is important to demonstrate both an understanding of core principles (theories) and their application to reality.

• A list of references is essential for the marker to provide suitable feedback to you. Papers without a bibliography will be penalised with a deduction of marks.

• You should avoid the inclusion of irrelevant material in your written work. Given that your paper is limited to 600 words any irrelevant material will mean that you are excluding something of relevance.  For example, you should avoid an excessively long introduction, an unnecessary history of the firm or definitions. Instead, you are required to review relevant theory and apply it to the firm. Therefore, you should only include that information which is deemed relevant for this task.

• Avoid plagiarism at all costs.  Unattributed copying or paraphrasing of the work of published authors or of other students is a serious offence. Properly attributed quotations and references to others are, however, important for a good essay .