This 2nd edition offers a coherent and up-to-date text, which provides a synthesis of theory and research. Part 1 discusses business organizations; part 2 looks at the role that accounting can play in decision making; part 3 discusses the role of accounting in activities such as performance measurement and evaluation; part 4 looks at the role of accounting in management control; and part 5 is comprised of case studies. This second edition includes new examples and case studies that link the theory to real life situations, more end-of-chapter questions and increased emphasis on management control. This book should be of interest to intermediate and advanced students of accounting, business studies and management studies on degree, diploma and professional courses.

In this book we show how seemingly ideal boards, those with "best practice" size, composition, and structure, can still fail to provide good governance simply because they fall victim to problems inherent in all groups. While having groups of board members provide corporate oversight is probably necessary, and even advantageous in some respects, groups have a dark side too. Tendencies that occur in group behavior can destroy or obscure the talents even of highly intelligent, energetic, and well-intended individuals, causing collective blind spots, biases, and inefficiencies that can render boards ineffective. Groups often perceive risks differently from the way individual group members do and collectively fail to see problems where they really exist.