A survey of corporate governance practices in shipping companies operating in Kenya

A few years ago the buzzword was Globalization, now it is Corporate Governance. \nCorporate Governance is concerned with the manner which the power of a \ncorporation is exercised in the stewardship of the corporation's total portfolio of \nassets and resources with the objective of maintaining and increasing shareholder \nvalue and satisfaction of other stakeholders in the context of its corporate mission. \nThe purpose of the study was to survey, determine and document the corporate \ngovernance practices employed by shipping companies operating in Kenya .The \nspecific objectives were to determine whether these shipping companies have any \ncorporate governance practices that they practice in the day to day running of their \naffairs. This has come in the wake of many business failures in the corporate global \nworld. \nThe research design used was descriptive design using questionnaire and individual \ninterviews to enable the best responses. The target population of this study was 18 \ncompanies who act as agents of the over 28 shipping lines. The total population was \nexamined. Data was collected through questionnaires that contained both open and \nclosed ended questions, which were administered to the respondents. Data was \nanalyzed by generating descriptive statistics such as percentages. In terms of \npresentation, the data was presented by using 'tables and pie charts. \nThe findings brought out the various practices of corporate governances and how \nsome have refined practices from their principal headquarters to incorporate the \nbusiness challenges of the area they operate in. The study recommended that time had \ncome for the maritime industry to formally come up with a uniform set of corporate \ngovernance practices that every shipping company operating in Kenya should be \nencouraged to comply. It also recommended that efforts are put in place by the \nboards of these companies to come up with measures of effectively manage risk in the \nindustry. It was argued that the benefits of implementing a robust and effective risk \nmanagement system will include greater flexibility, less frequent and severe sudden \nshocks, and greater investor confidence in the market. It is hoped that the research \nfindings will go a long way in provoking further research and discussion in this direction which would result into the long awaited solutions to corporate failures .