U.S. Companies’ Scores Reveal Pandemic Fatigue
The 2021 American Corporate Governance Index: Grappling With the Fatigue Factor, developed by The IIA and the University of Tennessee’s Neel Corporate Governance Center, examines strengths, weaknesses, and effectiveness of corporate governance practices and policies for publicly held U.S. companies based on the Guiding Principles of Corporate Governance.
While corporate governance scores in the early phases of the pandemic indicated continued year-over-year progress, the 2021 report highlights that organizations are showing the strain of more than 18 months of operating in pandemic mode and beginning to fatigue. While the overall grade held year-over-year at a B-, this third edition discusses areas of strength, stagnation, and even some regression. However, the report features key insights from CAEs on how to strengthen governance related to ESG-related topics and offers guidance for improvement in each of the eight guiding governance principles.