A critical view on corporate governance and its performance measurement and evaluation systems

Performance measurement and evaluation systems cannot be taken as “pure” tools because they are the product of a given society. That is why they take their meanings and their sense from this society. They are particularly linked with corporate governance which is also linked with the contemporary developments of capitalism seen as a political order. That is why performance measurement and evaluations sytems in today’s companies are the production of a social game which has to be understood. Key indicators like shareholder’s value and actors like auditing firms play a specific role which has to be evaluated. This paper will introduce the discussion about these systems (and moreover management tools) as the production of their society from a posture taken from Political Philosophy. They will be evaluated in relation which what is capitalism today (which has to be understood in relation with what it was yesterday). That is why notions like shareholder’s value will be linked with the increasing weight of investments funds and with the systematic search for financial surplus. It will be induced that all these “concrete” notions build a system and are reciprocally re‐enforced. A special mention will be made to auditing firms as a cartel. Corporate governance will, as well as auditing firms, be presented as the concretisation of a new social game.