Few days back a one of my friend raising question about the usage of word governance. Some time it is used every where as jargon than a defined process. This is good enough to irritate people who would need clear & well defined way to execute governance.
I checked in Wikipedia (my favorite place these days find fundamental definition for anything and everything). It defines “Governance relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. It consists either of a separate process or of a specific part of management or leadership processes. Sometimes people set up a government to administer these processes and systems. In the case of a business or of a non-profit organization, governance relates to consistent management, cohesive policies, processes and decision-rights for a given area of responsibility.”
Sounds pretty fair definition. At the same time we need to consider the fact, in a business environment given are of responsibility kept changing with customer demands and market conditions. Both are changing now days with changing market conditions.
I believe in a business environment specifically in payroll (remember my post of “payroll is nota process but a symptom”) governance is more a maintenance of ecosystem as whole than anything else. By these words you can imagine how fluid it can get. But this can get defined by voice of customer and our drive to define what constitute as feed for payroll ROI calculation from CEO’s perspective and what processes impacts quality of payroll.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
I did ask the question "What is governance?"
ReplyDeleteThe answers I got really gave good insight. One I liked most is comment about Governance becoming more Process oriented than outcome oriented.
"The articulation of behavior (work, individual effort, corporate business) within any environment ; presented in a clear manner, configured to be self-developing to remain relevant and fit for purpose...yet flexible to accommodate out-side legal requirements; comprehensively and commonly applied to all facets of business and its’ peoples there within; able to operate and survive independent of the business and its’ people...for the safe being of the business, its’ people and the external communities - which would also be effected. Additionally (for me) its also serves as an informal measure of organisational maturity...i.e. any organisation with an effective and relevant governance in place - signals the organisation has moved out of puberty."
Posted by Vikrant Patel
"The Organizational capacity to control the formulation and implementation of strategy and guide to proper direction for the purpose of achieving competitive advantages for the corporation"
Posted by Richard McLaughlin
"The following comes from a book called "The Will to Govern Well" by Glenn H Tecker, Jean S Frankel and Paul D Meyer. The first chapter begins, "The term GOVERNANCE comes from the Greek work meaning to steer, as in steering a ship or a company strategy. Governance ... refers to the decisions-making units of the organization and the relative powers, authorities, and responsibilities that each posses, as well as to the composition of each unit and how individuals are selected to participate in each. Governance is about oversight, process, independence, and accountability. Its an excellent read, I recommend it."
Posted by Arnie Kennedy
"For me, corporate governance describes the process for making decisions at the highest levels of an organization and answers the question who is authorized to do something? The responsibility for achieving the outcome is then clearly defined by the answer to that question. Having a clear process to allocate responsibility, authority, resources of an organization is essential so that those empowered by the decision can get on with the task at hand and produce the results expected."
Posted by John Paul Lamberti
"Governance is to management what constitution is to law. It is the framework within which shareholders grant managers their powers, as it is derived from law, custom, and the corporate charter. Governance generally defines rules and guidelines about policy and process and may identify some objectives that managers have to meet."
Posted by Dennis Zacharopoulos, PMP
"Governance is the category of administrating or managing an organization that deals with the rules and structures of authority in the form of a philosophy and its appending policies, standards, processes and procedures. Whether dealing with information, human resources/organizational development or business processes, underlying governance is the bases for running an organization of any size or purpose uniformly and successfully."
Posted by Maribeth Achterberg
"I have always tried to think of governance in simple terms. For the corporate environment, all employees are supposed to live by the rules, policies and procesures of that company. Some of those rules may be in the form of outside regulations (HIPAA, Sarbanes, SEC, etc.). I view governance as the mechanism for ensuring that the employees are following those rules, policies, and procedures."
Posted by Ken Cameron
"As wrote Ashley Goldsworthy, Professor and president of the Australian Computer Society, in September 2008, attended a roundtable discussion in Brisbane: "I think governance is a terrible term. I didn’t know what it meant. I guess one of my concerns is that at a corporate level, a board level, we’ve seen a lot of business relating to governance in recent years. (...) And the problem with governance is that it tends to be process-oriented—you check the boxes, such as ‘Have you done this? Do you have a management strategy? Do you have a business plan? Do you have an internal committee?’ All of this doesn’t produce performance. All it does is produce checks in boxes. (...) And at the same time you lose $90 million on a project that doesn’t deliver—it isn’t finished on time and it doesn’t meet the client’s needs. So, as a business person, I have a concern about process vs. outcomes. Governance tends to emphasise the process rather than the outcomes. I think this is something you have to be very careful of. (...)"."
Posted by Marco Pozam
"These are great definitions. I think the "operation" of governance also depends on what you are trying to accomplish. So, for example, governance to ensure compliance is one common approach - validating that required steps or activities have been accomplished. Another "operation" of governance is decision-making. The implementation of a governance approach depends on what you are trying to accomplish."
Posted by Doreen Kostel
"I have worked at SAP as Director of data governance which is one step down. This is my definition. Data Governance is the orchestration of people, process, and technology to enable the leveraging of data as an enterprise asset. It affects all organizational areas by lines of business, functional areas and geographies. It includes policies, procedures, organization, roles, and responsibilities, with associated communication and training required to design, develop, and provide ongoing support for the effort. denis kosar"
Posted by Denis Kosar
Group: Payroll Consultants Network
ReplyDelete"Ok, here is the best answer I could come up with... Hope it Helps !!! **Corporate governance provides a means to protect shareholders' assets and the payroll is one area where companies need to comply with strict guidelines to ensure transparency. Transparency is key to upholding corporate governance and this should be supported through functionality that is built into payroll systems - whether outsourced or managed in-house. Payroll procedures need to be reviewed to ensure that they are both efficient and effective, and in line with principal corporate governance guidelines and principles. For example, each time a salary change is made -- including benefits and deductions - an email should be generated alerting not only the payroll administrator but also the financial manager or director. Technology that supports good corporate governance prevents many a case of payroll fraud within a company. Making sure that your payroll management practices are aligned with industry benchmarks and best practice. Adherence to strict compliance with payroll-related laws and regulations is key to a safe, efficient payroll department. Finally, identifying processes and system improvements that will reduce payroll management running costs will improve an organization’s bottom line. To avoid liability for negligence, directors of organizations need to set clear measures for their CEO, CFO, and HR manager to ensure that they are held accountable for enforcing payroll management industry standards and best practices."
Posted by Janette Guerrero