Assignment Details:
ACCT20080 Ethics & Governance: Individual Capstone Project
Capstone: The what, why and how
This capstone introduces you to researching and interpreting the voluntary disclosures of a publicly listed company to determine its governance and ethical outlook. The knowledge you have gained from modules 6–9 are of high importance to this exercise. These skills are highly valued by business specialists such as:
Corporate governance practitioners and consultants Business and investment analysts Auditors Corporate accountants and Investment funds looking for companies to invest in.
Remember that it is a company’s stakeholders who determine what is acceptable and not acceptable for that company to do. Therefore, to determine where a company is looking to for its guidance (for example, shareholders, powerful stakeholders, all stakeholders) is an important step in identifying a company’s likely ethical outlook. A bank that is focused upon its most powerful shareholders will talk to them directly in their voluntary disclosures, and this will manifest itself in how the company conducts itself in society. In contrast, a company that is vitally concerned about how society views its actions relating to the environment will disclose information suitable to that audience, and will probably conduct its affairs in a complementary manner.
Investors seeking to invest in companies committed to sustainable operations may choose the latter company over the former (however, there are many other considerations such as the company’s return on investment record that cannot be ignored), while an investment fund that needs to grow its own return on investor funds might choose the former to invest in.
This capstone project is not about making judgments concerning the likely ethics of a company; we simply do not have enough information on hand to make such a judgment. And remember that a company wholly focused on profits and returns to shareholders can be just a ethical (in the eyes of its stakeholders) as one who takes an interest in its environmental “footprint”. What is of interest to us is that each company is different and can be ethical in different ways. This capstone is about investigating and coming to a conclusion about a company’s likely ethical and governance outlook. You will read the company’s own disclosures, apply appropriate theories and come to reasonable conclusions, all of which you will report upon.
The following steps are about how you will undertake this assessment.
Requirements
You have been provided with an ASX company code. You can go here to locate it. You should then go to this ASX site at https://www.asx.com.au/prices/company-information.htm to locate your company's name and further details such as the company's web address. You may even find the company's latest financial report located there.
If you are studying ACCT20074 or ACCT20075 this term, you will notice that you have already been allocated the same company.
Once you have your company, you are required to research and report on the company, its industry and its likely governance and ethical outlook. You are to provide a report in the following structure:
Title sheet: Must contain your name and student ID, the Unit name and code and the assignment title.Executive summary: A brief overview of the report in no more than two paragraphs. The reader should understand the scope, reason and outcomes of the report by reading the executive summary.Introduction: Provide a more detailed “road map” of the report, including: The purpose of the report What research you have done What theories you have applied What the essential outcomes are. Report: Your responses to the following four requirements go here - 2,500 words.Conclusion: Your overall conclusion on the company’s likely governance and ethical outlook, and briefly how your conclusion was supported by evidence and theory.Reference list: Use APA. Every document and theory must be referenced.
The four requirements for your report are as follows:
1. Introduce and summarise the company (500 words, 8 marks)
In this section, please tell us about the company, the industry it is in, and its recent history.
2. Summary of corporate governance at your company (500 words, 8 marks)
Please locate the latest annual report published by your company. Locate the following and provide a summary of what they say:
Composition of the board, including the ratio of independent to non-independent directors. Is the Chairperson of the board an independent director?The reports from the Chairperson and the CEOThe remuneration report—summarise how directors and executives are remunerated.
Provide an overall summary of the report stating what immediate priorities of the company are and what plans might be in place to achieve them.
You are not expected to provide a financial analysis of the company unless it supports any of the points above.
3. Board orientation (1,000 words, 16 marks)
Review your company’s most recent annual report and its web site. You should also read any media releases it might show on its web site. Analyse what you find and determine the most likely orientation of its board. You will find the table on page 11 of the Module 7 Study Guide very useful, as well as the supporting discussion.
Make sure you justify your conclusion with reference to whichever theories are most applicable.
4. Interpretation of company communications using Legitimacy Theory (500 words, 8 marks)
You might want to start preparing for this section by locating and reading the three academic journal articles referenced on Page 7 of the Module 8 Study Guide. They are excellent examples of how you might look for evidence of a company concerned with its legitimacy.
Assessment Criteria
You will be assessed on:
Quality of your report (80%)Quality of your English expression (10%)The readability (presentation) of your report (10%).
Proper referencing is expected. Failure to accurately and consistently apply the APA referencing standard will result in up to 5 marks being penalised off your overall grade. If in doubt, you can find the APA standard here.
Ethics & Governance: Individual Capstone Project
Executive summary
The purpose of this report is to understand the relevancy of ethics in a business organization. The report will firstly discuss about the values and ethics that a company should work on. After that the report will proceed to analyze the evolution, generation and origin of the values of REG Company. This will be followed by the introduction and background o the company, it social regimes, summary of the corporate governance of the company, its board orientation, etc. the scope is to find out the ethical and social values of the company.
1. Introduce and summaries the company
With the changes in the economic condition, ethical business practice has become integral part for the business success of the organization in long run. According to me business ethics is a study that helps the business organisation to make appropriate polices, rules and regulations that guide to brim public trust and also to gain public approval. The practice of corporate governance is not easy to apply as they are multidisciplinary in nature like laws, politics, accounting, economics and finance. The companies have to face challenges in the application of the same. In this report, Regis Health Care has been chosen for this paper. In order to align the ethical and sustainable business practice, CSR code of conduct, ethical business practices and other business program have been used. It can be done by applying sustainable practices within the Regis Health Care. The research will be done on various theories and practices and also their effective outcomes on the company. From past years, these ethical policies and governance in coming into picture due to that fact that they help the organizations to protect and secure the interest of the stakeholders also ensure sustainability in the company (Robinson, 2011). In the starting of this report, key information and details about the Regis Health Care has been taken into consideration. After that, Summary of corporate governance of company has been analyzed. Afterward, board orientation of the Regis Health care has been given. There is a summary of the board of directors, distribution of the directors, the orientation of the same, etc. at last; there is an interpretation of the Regis health care communication using the legitimacy theory (Giroud, & Mueller, H2010). In the end, interpretation of the company communication using the legitimacy theory has been assessed.
Background of the Regis Health Care and summary
Regis Health Care is one of the biggest health care service provider in Australia which provides its services for the betterment of the patients in Australia. It is diversified residential aged care service provider and indulged in offering health care service accompanied with the 6,753 Operational Places across 60 facilities located in Victoria, Queensland. The aim of the company is to push the health care services to its maximum quality for the betterment of the health of the people in Australia. The Regis Aged Care Pty Ltd, Regis Group Proprietary Limited are the subsidiaries companies of the company. Currently all the shares of the Regis Health care is traded at AUD $ 3. Company has been operating its process more ethically aims to provide clear patient aged care services (Regis Health Care, 2019). The company is using simple method which is also cost effective in nature. The business ethics of the company focuses on the recycling of the wastage and keeping the environment clean. The company is doing this by transforming its wastage products to the recycling process and reducing the garbage arise from its business process (Ciulla, 2009).
< align="justify" style="text-align:justify;">2. SUMMARY OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE OF REGIS HEALTHCARE
The corporate governance is a program by which companies set their objectives and try to pursue the same in context with the society, regulations and the environment in which the company is dealing. It is a system that assists the companies to control and direct them. It is applied on all the companies, financial corporations, banking institutions and aligning its business interest with the suitable future and economic development at large (Regis Health Care, 2019).
Regis healthcare ltd is a company which acquired the principle and rules of 3rd edition of the Australia stock exchange corporate governance. They have also recommendations that were related under ASX in March 2014 (Nortvedt, Hem, & Skirbekk, 2011).
The company Regis health care give priority to the need of the stakeholders so that they can make decision efficiently and effectively for them like allocation of resources, distribution of the profits, strategic planning for the same, and so on. The aim is to promote a climate and environment of ethics in the organization. It comprises of diligence and duties of the directors, tightening the responsibilities of the employees and other members, bringing ethical nature among the broad of the directors, etc.
The company has fulfilled all the requirements listed in the ASX listing rules. it is identified that the company has a good framework which has been settled to deal with the various corporate matter come in the way. The company has a proper program that has structured in way to meet all the requirements of corporate governance. It basically reinforced the policies and also the procedures to guide the top level management for their daily duties. The company has a guide that clearly mentions the operations of the business and the corporate governance. The boards of directors keep watch on the routines of decision making of financial and other aspects. They also maintain the standards of the corporate governance in different sectors too (Koggel, & Orme, 2010).
It has been found that the board meeting and the management of the company is under the corporate governance as the roles and responsibilities are distributed according to the ASX principles.
Overall, there is a responsible environment in the company as they also follow the continuous disclosure policy + the company that shows high level of integrity and standards in the ethics applied on all the business practices. The board of the directors has adopted proper code of conduct that ultimately reflects the honesty and integrity within the organization. The employees are also encouraged to work according to the ethics of the company (Regis Health Care, 2019).
3. Board orientation
The appointment and composition of board of the directors is done by the committee that is established by the board assists. The election takes place in annual general meeting of the company. The share holders and many of the stakeholders are being informed for the same.
Key Executives For Regis Aged Care Pty Ltd
| Name | Board Relationships | Title | Age | |
| Ross J. Johnston | 9 Relationships | MD, CEO & Director | -- | |
| David Noonan | No Relationships | Chief Financial Officer | -- |
Source: (Regis Health Care, 2019).
Graham Hodges is an independent non executive chair man of Regis health care. Ross Johnston is the managing director and also the chief executive officer of the company. The board of the company works on identifying the interest and position of the other members so that they can determine all the terms of the company whether qualitative or quantitative. The board of the company is comprised of the directors in which two are the executives and ix are non executives. This helps the company in fair division of the responsibilities and other work. These CSR practice and set code of conduct practices help the company to stay for a longer period of time. However, directors of the company has set vision to achieve the ethical behaviors and values helps Regis Health Care Company with the growth and development
Source: (Regis Health Care, 2019).
The other directors are non executive one who can take other decisions related to the audit, risk management, compliances of the company. Remuneration, etc. they are s Mark Birrell, Sylvia Falzon, Trevor Gerber, Graham Hodges, Christine Bennett and Matthew Quinn. They are free to take decisions, and to provide independence decision for the activities take place in the company. The company has board of directors, company secretary, senior executives, and also the board committee. There are many skills, knowledge and also the experience that must be there is the board of directors. There are leadership skills, good relations with public and government of the country, a good management of stakeholders, a proper risk management, good strategies, a good knowledge of information technology, human resources skills, accounting and finance, etc. (Barnes, & Brannelly, 2015). In order to satisfy the requirements of the company related to the society, and corporate governance the company most have adopted some more policies other than the polices suggested by ASX. It will help the company to have proper ethical behaviors and disclosure. It is recommended by the board of the directors in the annual report that the company must promote the wellbeing, maintains transparency, fair transactions, disclosures, etc. the impact of adoptions of effective corporate governance and ethic in the company will help to lead the company. There should be proper code of conduct in the company that will help in bringing integrity and standards in the ethics. It is applied on all the business practices. The board of the directors has adopted proper code of conduct that ultimately reflects the honesty and integrity within the organization (Regis Health Care, 2019). The employees are also encouraged to work according to the ethics of the company. The board of directors reveals that business ethics and governance plays a vital role. It has been discussed by the board of directors in their board meeting that company need to give priorities to its stakeholders due to which they have disclose all the changes take place in the company. It is also relevant to maintain good relations in the future with the same.
After assessing the board of director’s plans and mission, it is found that company has been focusing on increasing the number of the employees around more than 10,000 committed professionals who would be indulged in offering the age care services in organization. Nonetheless, new set of code of conducts and policies will be designed with a view to set priority for the employees and align the business interest with the organizational growth. It is analyzed that the number of new programs are implemented to set up strong culture of the continuous learning and development which will allow the business process to be more transparent towards its stakeholders. It will also be helpful for the organization to set up sustainable future and make its business more ethical (Regis Health Care, 2019). The board of directors of company has focused on proposing a good stakeholder model to make them satisfied as it will consist all the requirement of the same. The company should adopt the policy of complete disclosure that will assist them to have good relations with all the members associated with the company. The adoption will also help them to expand the social and environmental aspects (Adams, Hermalin, & Weisbach, 2010).
4. Interpretation of company communications using Legitimacy Theory
The theory of legitimacy is one of the most discussed theories that explains the elements of the voluntarily disclosures of environmental and social communication of the companies. Under this theory, the company tries to repair, maintains and gains the legitimacy by reporting the social and environmental disclosures to the stakeholders and other member’s related o the company. The aim of legitimacy theory is to provide relevant insights of the social norms and corporate social behaviors. However, most of the companies are unable to complete the gaps in the legitimacy theory. Some are not being able to address the gaps or some do not know how to do it. the company Regis health care is a company which is very close to achieve a proper communication using the legitimacy theory in their company., the paper is all about how the company Regis health care is able to apply appropriate contents of legitimate theory in their business organization. The company has acquired the conceptual framework of the legitimacy theory so that they can disclose the environment and social norms and make their performance better in the society (Wintoki, Linck, & Netter, 2012).
The aim of company is to maintain good relations between the company and its environment. As the company share values with the society, they also feel the need to share the social and other norms with the same. Regis Health care follows two theories named legitimacy theory and theory of political economy together in order to explain the corporate. It can be done by setting effective communication with the stakeholders, share holders, government bodies, and other people. The annual report of the company has also showed the data related to the stakeholders which is a good medium to share things (Kirkpatrick, 2009).
The company tries to utilize the theory so that they can evaluate the efforts putted by the members of the company to disclose the environmental data shows in the annual report. There are many ways by which it can be achieved by intimating people about the changes taking place in the rules and regulations. It can also be done by addressing the issues of the stakeholders and make better communication with them. The company can also use media as a medium to disclose the matters related to the environment and ethics (Tricker, & Tricker, 2015).
5. Conclusion
The outlook of the company ethics showed that it is a company with high ethical values. It has been observed in the study that the company Regis use two theories that is legitimacy theory and theory of political economy together in order to explain the corporate. Now in the end, it is concluded that there should be proper code of conduct in the company that will help in bringing integrity and standards in the ethics if company wants to align its business interest with the economic growth and society development.
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