Paper Example on Examining TEPCO's 13-Member Board of Directors

Introduction

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO) works towards developing organizational policies and structures to aid in critical decision-making, effective business execution, effective supervision functioning, and efficient decision-making. Therefore, looking into the current governance structure of TEPCO, it comprises of 13 board directors. These directors constitute of 12 men and one woman. The board of directors seek to supervise the execution of businesses with efficiency and effectiveness. The board of directors, therefore, are set to meet once in a month as well as hold special gatherings to make decisions and discuss the essential business performances.

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The board of directors have the role of evaluating, receiving, and reviewing the reports from the executive officers (Kobayakawa, 2019). Through the board of directors, the company has selected the nominating audit and the compensation committee regarding the guidelines. Each set of directors within the company is allotted specific functions. For example, the outside directors establish extensive insight into the essential managerial approaches and supervise business executions through the board of directors.

On the other hand, the executive officers of the company which comprises of fourteen men implement the business operations per the guidelines and policies put in place by the board of directors. The executive directors ensure that the activities of the company run efficiently. They meet once a week to discuss the essential management agendas as well as submit them to the board of directors for further approval. Also, the cross-organizational committee assists the board of directors in making decisions towards the board of executive officers. Below is a diagrammatic representation of the internal corporate governance arrangement of TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, 2019).

Fig. 1 Corporate Governance Arrangement of TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, 2019)

TEPCO's Board of Directors and their Influence to Fukushima Disaster

TEPCO has long been known to carry out their responsibilities and functions effectively. This was evident in their internal control systems and how they evaluate the progress of the development system. For example, they support and assess the duties of the committee through appointing an audit committee that looks into determining the responsibilities of the company and assigning the necessary personnel to carry the specified tasks. The company has set out systems that execute duties and ensure that all activities comply with the rules, regulations, and laws of the company. Nevertheless, a few flows within the corporate governance of the company highly contributed to the Fukushima catastrophe. The little comprehension of the engineering measures within the company minimized the chances of protecting Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant from facing the accident.

Most importantly, the company should have shifted the emergency diesel controlled generators and other emergency power sources to a raised ground on the plant site. Secondly, the company should have installed seawall and dykes to protect it from a severe tsunami (Naciri, 2019). If only the company had introduced the seawalls, then there would be an assurance of additional robust infrastructure and ultimate emergency heat sink. The company, therefore, should have checked on the disaster mitigation approaches. The company could have installed emergency power equipment and cooling pumps within the bunkering, watertight, and dedicated compartments within the company. Therefore, if better safety measures were put within the organization, then the impact of the disaster would have been less severe.

Stakeholder Capitalism

Stakeholder capitalism is one of the standard corporate governance models that Japan companies use. It refers to an ideal where the system of a market gets to be treated with the interest of all the significant stakeholders equally rather than in favor of the investors. (Kobayakawa, 2019). In Japan, the stakeholder capitalism model used in the government denies the managers a chance to be in control of the fiduciary responsibilities of the shareholders. The directors are given obligations in a manner that they become liable for any performance negligence while in the governance of the companies. Corporate governance varies between nations and therefore Japan is uniquely described by its common inclusion objective of parties into the organizations for the decision-making processes. Stakeholder capitalism theory might not have had a contribution to the TEPCO's crisis; in fact, stakeholder capitalism theory has proved to have numerous advantages to the company. The theory has helped the company to stick to its objectives and taking into considerations the ethical and economic questions. Also, it has helped the company to maintain fairness and give the directors a common aim of working for the benefit of the stakeholders of the company (Kobayakawa, 2019). Therefore, stakeholder capitalism theory is an advantageous combination of TEPCO's ethics and economy.

TEPCO's Weaknesses and their Influence on Fukushima Crisis

TEPCO's extreme imperfections in the facilities and equipment of the nuclear power stations highly facilitated to the Fukushima crisis. The company should have operated facilities and equipment that would greatly aid in the shutting down and cooling of the nuclear reactor that led to the Fukushima crisis. Conversely, according to the report that TEPCO issued to the government, nearly all the machines ceased to operate as a result of the crisis. (Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, 2019). After the crisis, the government was able to put into place several measures that would help in reducing the weaknesses of the company. Specific reformations, including the management of the company, were initiated. The company management was reformed in a manner that it became more conscious of the risk within the nuclear power (Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, 2019). Efficient leadership was also highly recommended to satisfy the objectives of the company. Other mitigation measures included enhancing the support and the oversight of the management and ensuring the well-proposed defence in depth. More fundamentally, the Japanese government increased the risk communication procedures of the company.

Impact of Actions and Inactions of the Board of Directors on the Stakeholders Interest

The decisions that are made by the TEPCO's corporate governance comprise of actions and reactions that highly influence the stakeholders. The stakeholders of the company sort to receive the best from corporate governing management. It is in this direction that the company seeks to ensure that it creates occasions in which there are maximum interactions with the stakeholders (Naciri, 2019). For example, the customers benefit from the company's actions through the improvement of the services. Also, the shareholders and the investors are provided with the acquisition of all the information within the management. Increased job satisfaction is another benefit that the employees enjoy. TEPCO cares about the future generation, and therefore, the company continues to educate individuals with knowledge on the energy and the environment. The business partners as well as benefit from having their business terms and conditions optimized (Kobayakawa, 2019).

Conclusion: Lessons Learned from TEPCO's Case

The stakeholder constructive dialogue policies are the key lessons that are derived from the case. The basic view policy is one of the primary teachings and the focus on increasing the transparency of the management. TEPCO's management often reflects companies; therefore, through the basic view policy, the company should develop means through which it can promote prompt and accurate information within the management (Kobayakawa, 2019). Secondly, all companies should seek to implement the approach to dialogue policy. TEPCO seeks to enhance its efforts towards ensuring and enhancing easy comprehension of information to promote dialogue with the stakeholders. I learned that the regulation and control of the risks within the system is all left in the hands of the board of directors and its subordinates. The directors seek to establish and evaluate the risks that the company is likely to encounter and thus develop means of mitigation (Goghlan, 2016). The internal regulations and rules of the company are, therefore, created to ensure that risk management is enabled and the entire company is carried out with respect and dignity. TEPCO's management policies also indicate that all the risk that is likely to involve more than one corporate should sort to be managed with appropriation, and all the discussions should be cross-organizational. Justification for choosing these lessons is because the above-discussed policies are the governing elements of an organization.

The findings differ from the previous studies since the essentiality of corporate governance within the progressive and aggressive business environment is undeniable. Its importance is identified in some ways; for instance, the corporate governance allows the management of an organization to put all their positive characters on display. Developing positive aspects makes it easy to account for the actions and behaviors of a company. Corporate governance focuses on enhancing managerial ethics, and therefore the management of an organization strives to maintain and build trust. This is achieved through an ethical commitment to ethical actions and behaviors. Thus, the major limitation of the study case is that corporate governance lacks a unique management of an organization that is important at affecting and dictating the internal functionality and morale of an organization.

References

Coghlan, A. (2016). TEPCO under fire over handling of Fukushima crisis. New Scientist, 210(2807), 10. doi: 10.1016/s0262-4079(11)60774-4

Kobayakawa, T. (2019). Corporate Governance Report. Retrieved from http://fs.magicalir.net/tdnet/2018/9501/20180611461742.pdf

Naciri, A. (2019). Corporate Governance around the World | Compliance Online Dictionary. Retrieved from https://www.complianceonline.com/dictionary/Corporate_Governance_around_the_World.html

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings. (2019). Corporate Governance Report | TEPCO. Retrieved from https://www7.tepco.co.jp/about/ir/management/governance/report-e.html