Michelle M.
Bongalonta
DBA 511 – Social Responsibility and Good Governance
Activity 3
Evaluate your current company and discuss which among the elements of corporate
governance is the:
a. most practiced or most evident
b. least practiced or not evident
Sorsogon State College (SSC) is the former Sorsogon College of Arts and Trades
(SCAT), which was founded in 1907 as the Sorsogon Provincial Trade School.
Through the effort of Hon. Salvador H. Escudero III, the school was converted into a
state college by the virtue of RA 7666 approved by Pres. Fidel V. Ramos on
December 30, 1993.
As a state college, it belongs to the “chartered institutions” as defined by 1987
Administrative Code, and by virtue of the provisions of Republic Act 8292, or the
Higher Education Modernization Act, as such, “corporate powers” has been granted
to state universities and colleges. It is because of this powers that the Sorsogon
State College with respect to governance, the board of trustees, exercises the same
role as does a corporate board.
It is fundamental to corporation law that the board can act only collegially, that is, by
deliberation and vote of its members. In fact, members of the board cannot be
represented by proxy at board meetings, because the presumption of law is that
their selection as members of the board rests on their expertise, familiarity with the
corporation and ownership of its mission and goals. The only reason that the House
and Senate chairs of education can be represented by proxy is because the present
rules allow such representation.[ CITATION FrR20 \l 13321 ] Good board practices are
clearly present in the SSC community. Although the university officials govern the
daily affairs of the college.
Least practiced element is the well-defined shareholders’ rights, because state
universities and colleges do not have this so-called shares of stocks offered to the
public. SUCs however have stakeholders who are either internal and/or external.
They are those who are directly or indirectly affected whatever decisions the
management of SUCs makes. As an example, stakeholders include, but not limited
to, the students, the faculty and non-teaching personnel, the community, parents,
etc. They are beneficiaries and partners of the SUCs in giving quality service
towards education.
2. Base on your observation in the decision making practices in your workplace, what
particular theory of corporate governance your current corporation belongs?
Sorsogon State College is predominantly practicing the Agency Theory where
college’s official and employees are its agents. Daily operations are delegated to the
respective officials e.g., administrative decision making is assigned to the Vice
President for Administration; matters relating to academics are tasked to the Vice
President for Academic Affairs, etc.
3. What individual or situational factors influenced you to do ethical or unethical
personal and business decision? You may also use others experience/company’s
issues as an example. Cite one example for:
a. individual factor
I was raised by my family who are known to be strict and decent. They have
influenced me to be ethical at all times and to be morally upright with all my dealings
with others.
There was one time during a campaign period for barangay elections where
candidates bought votes from almost all constituents in our barangay, but we were
one of the few families who did not receive gifts or anything from politicians to buy
our votes. We were being skipped when opposing politicians went from house to
house to try to win the votes of the families in our community. These politicians knew
that we were supportive of the candidates who we knew were good people and were
true to their promises of truly serving our barangay, thus no one tried to bribe us into
changing our minds and vote otherwise.
b. situational factor
In my profession as an academician, I am expected to maintain high standards when
it comes to the grades of my students in the accountancy department. Accountancy
students have to maintain a quota grade of 85 or higher for them to remain in the
Bachelor of Science in Accountancy course, otherwise, they will have to shift to BS
Accounting Information System, which is a non-board course.
There were number of times when I let some of my students make-up for the small
difference in their grades of 84 to become 85. That is, I am giving them a chance to
achieve a grade of 85 so that they will still be part of the BSA program.
4. No organization is perfect. Cite problem/s that your company had experienced or
currently experiencing and how it affects the organization as a whole.
The problem that our school is currently experiencing is system of online classes
wherein we are experiencing problems on the school website as it crashes a lot of
times when we are trying to access it. There is also little to no demonstrations of
lessons. Students more often just submit the requirements without understanding
the lessons prior. Due to this reason, the institution may face problem on achieving
the goal of producing globally competitive professionals.
