Proceedings

Table 4. The codes of corporate governance in world’s frontier economies
Period Frontier economies and corporate governance codes
2001 Malta has adopted the first code of CG
2002 Cyprus has adopted the first code of CG
Kenya has adopted the first and the second (last) code of CG
2003 Cyprus has adopted the second code of CG
Ukraine has adopted the first and the last code of CG
2004 Slovenia has adopted the first code of CG
2005 Malta has adopted the second and the third (last) code of CG
Slovenia has adopted the second code of CG
2006 Cyprus has adopted the third and the last code of CG
2007 Slovenia has adopted the third code of CG
2008 Serbia has adopted the first and the last code of CG
Tunisia has adopted the first and the last code of CG
2009 Croatia has adopted the first and the last code of CG
Slovenia has adopted the fourth and the last code of CG
2010 -
As we can notice, the codes were issued in the first decade of the 21 st century, and
Slovenia was the most prolific in developing and improving a national corporate
governance code (four codes), being followed by Cyprus with three codes and Malta
with also three codes.
6. THE FAIR TREATMENT PRINCIPLE. THE DIRECTORS’
PERSPECTIVE ON THE SHAREHOLDER-STAKEHOLDER DISPUTE
Another approach on the principles of corporate governance is through the principles
which were given more importance over time. In our opinion, one is the fair treatment
principle, whether it is about stakeholders or shareholders.
Directors and manager need to be aware of the interests of stakeholders in corporate
governance; however their responsibility towards them is valued and questioned.
According to OECD, which presented a condensed list of stakeholders in corporate
governance, they include the follows (Frémond, 2000):
• Employees: There is widespread agreement that they are a prime stakeholder.
Their internal position, their direct role in business development and
productivity, the dependence of a company on their knowledge, abilities, and
expertise are the main arguments in this direction;
• Shareholders: Some would say that shareholders are the first stakeholder,
hence the controversy over the main concerns of directors, presented in this
paper;
• Management: Controversial, but some believe that managers are
stakeholders, because they help maintaining and developing company’s
capital, establish strategies, based on known data;
• Creditors: Creditors’ rights are often protected under contract and backed by
collateral so they are seldom treated as “owners” as the shareholders are;
• Trade unions: Some argue that this group is redundant with the employee
group;
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