How to govern …

… concerns the way we direct and control the organisations, associations and states we depend upon.

[not like that] …

… is often, and sadly, the other half of the story.

This “stack” contains observations of a seasoned student of such matters, Donald Nordberg, an award-winning governance scholar who has worked as a journalist, strategist, management consultant, and academic. He’s lived in four countries – Britain, America, Germany and Switzerland – and worked in a few dozen more. Economics, politics, political economy have been the mainstay of his journalism, all of which point to how to govern. What institutional arrangements work. The role of ethics in politics, and of politics in ethics.

Background

Journalism: Bureau chief, chief correspondent, financial editor, news editor for the Western hemisphere at Reuters; regular contributor to The Economist from Germany

Business: Strategy consultant to National Westminster Bank, News International, Dow Jones, others

Academic: professorial roles at City, University of London, in journalism, and at Bournemouth University in strategy and governance, where he is now Emeritus Professor

He’s also a governance practitioner, chairing boards and working as a non-executive director

Books

• Corporate Governance: Principles and Issues (Sage, 2011)

• The Cadbury Code and Recurrent Crisis (Palgrave, 2020)

• (I’ve also written a novel, The Fleetwood Half-Orphan Asylum. It’s available at “Don Nordberg (is/on) writing” and booksellers including Amazon.)

Selected articles and book chapters

Nordberg, D. (2026). Who cares? For whom? How the ethics of care might inform boardroom governance, and beyond. Philosophy of Management. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40926-025-00365-z

Nordberg, D. (2024). Filling empty vessels: Accountability, responsibility and corporate leadership. Strategy & Leadership, 52(5/6), 41-56. https://doi.org/10.1108/SL-08-2024-0076

Nordberg, D. (2024). Governing corporations with ‘strangers’: Earning membership through investor stewardship. Philosophy of Management, 23(2), 85-107. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40926-023-00237-4

Nordberg, D. (2023). A pragmatist case for thoughtfulness and experimentation in corporate governance. In T. Talaulicar (Ed.), Research Handbook on Corporate Governance and Ethics (pp. 310-327). Cheltenham, Glos.: Edward Elgar.

Nordberg, D. (2022). Liminality, purpose, and psychological ownership: Board decision practices as a route to stewardship. In O. Marnet (Ed.), Research Handbook on Corporate Board Decision-Making (pp. 41-62). Cheltenham, Glos.: Edward Elgar.

Nordberg, D. (2021). Art in corporate governance: A Deweyan perspective on board experience. Philosophy of Management, 20(3), 337–353. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40926-020-00152-y

Nordberg, D. (2021). Who’s in charge, in whose interest? The experience of ownership and accountability in the charity sector. Management Research Review, 44(3), 460-476. https://doi.org/10.1108/MRR-04-2020-0190

Booth, R., & Nordberg, D. (2021). Self or other: Directors’ attitudes towards policy initiatives for external board evaluation. International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, 18(2), 120–135. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41310-020-00094-x

Zeitoun, H., Nordberg, D., & Homberg, F. (2019). The dark and bright sides of hubris: Conceptual implications for leadership and governance research. Leadership, 15(6), 647-672. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715019848198

Nordberg, D. (2017). First and Second Drafts of History: The Case of Trump, Foucault and Pre-Modern Governance. Geopolitics, History, and International Relations, 9(2), 107-117. https://doi.org/10.22381/GHIR9220175

McNulty, T., & Nordberg, D. (2016). Ownership, Activism and Engagement: Institutional Investors as Active Owners. Corporate Governance: An International Review, 24(3), 346–358. https://doi.org/10.1111/corg.12143

Nordberg, D., & McNulty, T. (2013). Creating better boards through codification: Possibilities and limitations in UK corporate governance, 1992-2010. Business History, 55(3), 348-374. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2012.712964

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