Issues in Corporate Accountability and Governance An Islamic Perspective

Abstract

Introduction
Corporate power in the twentieth century has clearly emerged as a
dominant social institution in the lives of citizens all over the globe. The
joint stock company has been a great invention through its ability to create
wealth, build economies, generate jobs, and even change societies.
The scope of corporate power is considerable. Many modem corporations
have produced income even larger that the gross national products
of some respectable nations. The significance of this power, as argued by
some commentators, is the extent to which the corporation has even
replaced the church as the dominant social institution in the lives of citizens
of industrialized nations.’
However, there are serious concerns over the excessive power of modem
corporations.
Corporate power, clearly, is the predominant power in the society and
the problem is how to limit it. The concern for public policy, summed
up in the phrase “social responsibility”: derives from the growing conception
of a commercial society and the controls which a polity may
have to impose on economic ventures that generate unforeseen consequences
far beyond intentions, or power of control, of the initiating
parties.
Thus, when corporations rape the environment or abuse us as guinea
pigs, suddenly we awaken to the realities of our individual powerlessness
and our dependence on their smooth and presumably benign ...