ABSTRACT
The shock came from within: a rogue trader called Nick Leeson and the lack of internal checks that could have caught his fraudulent transactions. Many instances were brought about by the global financial crisis and include Lehman Brothers in the United States (US) and Northern Rock in the United Kingdom (UK). The literature shows emphatically that large firms are not all resilient by default. Many collapse despite their size and historically impressive financial assets. Less developed countries actually supported their banks through more prudent lending principles and accountability. The findings showed that firms with works councils&employee board-level representation have lower company value in good times but build a buffer against a loss of value in bad times. During the downward spiral, a combination of factors, such as voluntary departures, the exhaustion of resources or limited resources for attracting executive talent and scapegoating, contribute to team deterioration, which brings about further corporate decline, through either strategic errors or stakeholders' dissatisfaction.
