The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which, in 1999, published its Principles of Corporate Governance gives a very comprehensive definition of corporate governance, as under:
"a set of relationships between a company's management, its board, its shareholders and other stakeholders. Corporate governance also provides the structure through which the objectives of the company are set, and the means of attaining those objectives and monitoring performance are determined. Good corporate governance should provide proper incentives for the board and management to pursue objectives that are in the interests of the company and shareholders, and should facilitate effective monitoring, thereby encouraging firms to use recourses more efficiently."