Corporate Governance and Corporate Illegality: The effects of board structure on environmental violations

This paper examined the effects of corporate governance structures on the incidence of corporate illegality by analyzing the relationship between environmental violations and several dimensions of corporate board structure. Results demonstrated that the value of stock owned by corporate officers and directors was positively and significantly associated with serious environmental violations. Outsider dominance, joint CEO‐Chairpersons, social responsibility committees, and attorneys on boards were not significantly related to corporate illegal behavior. The control variables of size, industry profitability, firm profitability, and industry concentration were all significantly related to environmental violations. The findings involving board structure cast doubt on the efficacy of many popular corporate governance reform proposals

Religion in the Workplace: New Perspectives and Laws

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act has for 41 years been the law that governs religious discrimination in the workplace. For some Michigan employers, that may be about to change. On November 2, the Michigan House of Representatives passed Bill 972, known as the Conscientious Objector Policy Act. The bill will now go to the Senate, where is it also expected to pass. It is not known whether the governor will sign the bill

An Innovative General Education Program

In a recent survey of 110 graduating Seidman School of Business students, only 28% reported that they found it useful to take business courses outside their major and 21% said it was useful to take courses outside the business school. Eighty percent said that the applicability of any course to future jobs is one of the most important factors when they choose their courses. These perceptions, coupled with other results from the survey, indicate that our business school students have a very utilitarian approach towards education; i.e., they see their years at GVSU primarily as an avenue to earn a credential that will eventually secure them a job. I think it is fair to state that most of our professional students resent having to take general education courses and view such requirements as a hindrance to the important task of completing the business curriculum

Cheating During the College Years: How do Business School Students Compare?

When it comes to cheating in higher education, business school students have often been accused of being the worst offenders; if true, this may be a contributing factor in the kinds of fraud that have plagued the business community in recent years. We examined the issue of cheating in the business school by surveying 268 students in business and other professional schools on their attitudes about, and experiences with, cheating. We found that while business school students actually cheated no more or less than students in other professional schools, their attitudes on what constitutes cheating are more lax than those of other professional school students. Additionally, we found that serious cheaters across all professional schools were more likely to be younger and have a lower grade point average. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007academic dishonesty, cheating, cheating attitudes, cheating behaviors, cheating in business schools, cheating in professional schools, ethics,