Board Practices: An International Review

Abstract

The paper considers board practices in the Ukraine and developed countries such as the USA, the UK, Germany and Japan. Investigation on the board practices in the Ukraine is the first ever has been conducted. As a result of investigation undertaken, major conclusions have been made. The most important of them is that the German model is getting spread in the Ukraine from year to year. Major evidences are small number of independent directors on the board, low frequency of meeting of the board, small number of committees on the board, the management board influences the supervisory board. The main reason of closing the board practices in the Ukraine to those in Germany is increase in concentration of ownership that is following with increase in corporate control, violation of the minority shareholders' rights, increase in number of conflicts of interests and decrease in transparency of the Ukrainian joint stock companies.

Keywords: board practices, independent directors, corporate control, committees