Brief Politics and Governance in the Boardroom Background You are required to identify a pure-play natural gas company of your choice in order to undertake this assignment. The chosen natural gas company can be a producer or a pipeline(s) company. For the purpose of this assignment and for the company to be classified as pure-play, at least half of its production must be from natural gas. Examples of producers include Chesapeake Energy, and Southwestern Energy. Examples of pipeline companies include Kinder Morgan, and Energy Transfer Pipelines. Assignment Task Review the company’s 2016 integrated annual report, as well as any additional report(s) that may have been produced by the company for that year such as Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, Corporate Citizenship, Transparency, and so on. In addition, you are expected to research specific news articles relevant to your chosen company and the industry at large, as well as peer-reviewed articles which relate to the themes of this assignment. Through your review and in a 3,000-word Report, critically evaluate the company’s strategic approach towards the following themes: i. Corporate governance: i.e. assess the organisation’s management structure and its influence on hierarchies and board decision-making. ii. Reputation management: i.e. evaluate, using real examples, the organisation’s approach to managing its reputation within and outside the industry. iii. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): i.e. demonstrate clear understanding of the organisation’s reputation management approach by analysing at least two examples of the organisation’s CSR initiatives. iv. Boardroom organisation and management: i.e. critically assess the organisation’s decision-making processes using its approach to the handling of an incident. Whilst evaluating the themes identified above, you are expected to consider the following areas, and/or any others, as appropriate: i. Governance structure of the company (LO1) ii. Similarities and differences between each theme above and those expected in other industries (LO2) iii. Exemplar proactive and reactive measures used by the company (LO3) iv. Boardroom politics (LOs 1 and 3) v. Ethical matters (LOs 2 and 4) vi. Behavioural challenges and potential ways of mitigating them. (LO4) Your ability to link these areas to the relevant themes mentioned above will be assessed.
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