ABSTRACT
232Regulation is usually a downplayed, overlooked or hated part of any corporate governance system. Yet its importance is in that it publicly focuses the differences and contradictions between those accepted business values and society’s expectations and aspirations demonstrated by its corporate governance values and personal values. In any organization, “corporate governance” is where the external values of accountability, probity and transparency, plus the seven general duties of directors, meet the reality of its internal accepted business values. Regulation highlights the gaps between what organizations will allow and what the state demands of them. Regulation ensures that consistent and appropriate values and behaviours are upheld on the nation’s “flat playing field”. Regulation comes into play when, to paraphrase C.S. Lewis, people fail to do the right thing when no-one is watching. “Regulation” is the bridge between these two value sets.
