The World Bank imparts training programmes and seminar for propagation and promotion of global standards on corporate governance. A few extracts from its web-site

"Corporate governance is ... holding the balance between economic and social goals and between individual and communal goals. The governance framework is there to encourage the efficient use of resources and equally to require accountability for the stewardship of those resources. The aim is to align as nearly as possible the interests of individuals, corporations and society. The incentive to corporations is to achieve their corporate aims and to attract investment. The incentive for states is to strengthen their economics and discourage fraud and mismanagement."
[Sir Adrian Cadbury - Preface to the World Bank publication, "Corporate Governance: A Framework for Implementation" .]

Corporate social responsibility and business ethics are closely linked to national governance as well as corporate governance. Corporate practices that promote transparency and ethical values contribute to governance throughout society and to fighting corruption. The World Bank conducts Courses for promotion of Corporate Governance and Corporate Ethics on Global standard

The Corporate Responsibility and Business Ethics Course helps businesses and policymakers develop an integrated approach to learning in the field of corporate responsibilities and business ethics. At the country level, this integrated approach assists with the design and implementation of policy measures and initiatives that support sound corporate responsibility and business ethics, and thus help to promote transparency and ethical values, and to fight poverty and corruption.

"INSIDE TRACK: An acid test for better conduct in business:"

"ETHICS: An ISO standard may make improved behaviour measurable," says Alison Maitland:

Now a completely different approach, creating an International Standards Organisation standard for global business conduct, is being proposed by the US Ethics Officer Association, a non- profit organisation representing 400 mainly US-based multinationals. Its members include General Motors, Microsoft, Pfizer, Philip Morris and Royal Dutch/Shell.

"An ISO standard is all about process, not aspirations or objectives," says Edward Petry, executive director of the EOA. "It provides specific guidance as to what any new management system must include and it hopes to achieve consistency, clarity and measurability of internal processes."

Sergio Mazza, former president and chief executive of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), says that the initiative is radical.

"Good business practice will be built into the culture and management systems of the company in the same way as quality or good financial controls," he says.

Modeled on the ISO 9000 standard for quality management and the ISO 14000 for environmental management, it would set out the internal structures, processes and resources that organisations need to ensure that they adhere to their stated principles. It would require them to draw up a policy for business conduct, implement it, assess how well it is working, make improvements and keep it under review.

The rise of international trade, globalization, and instant communication has led to increasing pressure from various groups for the formation of global business conduct standards. In response to their concerns, different standards have been proposed and created. This has led to many different questions: which standard is the best? Are there any real benefits to compliance with a global standards? Can a global standard be universal? Can compliance with a global standard be audited? If so, who, if anyone, should monitor compliance?

Global standards have typically been proposed by three groups: the private sector, civil society, and the public sector. Some standards, such as the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises,were created in consultation with all three groups.

These standards tend to vary according to the group proposing them. What follows is a general description of the main features of the standards proposed by these groups standards.