Responsibility in The Corporate Governance Framework and Financial Decision Making Process

Many organizations today have realized that if they want to be successful, they must have a sense of responsibility not only for their business activities but also for the development of the whole society. Honesty, fairness, integrity and the people – consumers, customers, clients, community, the public, the company and their needs and interests are gradually taking top ranks in the charts of corporate values. This approach is entirely consistent with the concept of socially responsible business, of which corporate governance (in the economic field) can be considered an integral part.Our main objective is to highlight the importance of applying the principles of governance corporate for companies whose securities are listed on the Bratislava Stock Exchange.The paper uses a correlation analysis to examine the association between corporate governance as a part of socially responsible business and financial decision making process in the area of dividend policy and indebtedness. We measured the level of corporate governance by corporate governance index, which contains information about the disclosure of annual reports, corporate governance information in annual reports, the content of corporate governance statements, boards of companies, remuneration of board members, risk management, audit,remuneration and nomination committee characteristics. We have compiled the first corporate governance index in Slovakia and we found inspiration in foreign studies with respect to the specifics of the Slovak financial market.The most important contribution of this paper is the finding that the application of the principles of corporate governance affects financial decisions of companies. There is a correlation between the responsible application of corporate governance principles and the total debt of companies. And also, there is a correlation between responsible application of corporate governance principles and the amount of dividends paid to shareholders.