ROLE OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN THE TIME OF A CRISIS

Businesses around the world have been faced with an unprecedented challenge of keeping their business amidst a sudden outbreak of a pandemic. There have been various restrictions imposed by governments and enforcement agencies throughout the world that directly affected the functioning of the businesses and raised significant challenges pertaining to corporate governance. Corporate governance involves organizing the ownership, management, and control of a corporation while influencing the key decisions and strategies of any company including recognition and allocation of interests of the stakeholders of the company including shareholders, customers, banks, management, and employees.

The global financial crisis back in 2008 set off a huge liquidity crisis that arose from the collapse of prominent banks and financial institutions and governments and institutions across the world scrambled to save financial institutions and businesses. Twenty years down the lane, it appears that the world is once again gripped and paralyzed by a crisis caused due to the COVID – 19 pandemic. Although the COVID – 19 pandemic is a health-related crisis, it has had immense effects on almost economies of all the countries of the world and has also affected the day to day lives of millions of people. The pandemic has unleashed a crisis of a magnitude that mankind has not experienced in recent times. The global COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted businesses and economies all over the world. Several economists predict a worldwide recession as a result of this pandemic.