Corporate governance and organisational resilience: the role of boards in managing corporate crises
Keywords:
corporate governance; board of directors; organisational resilience; crisis management; Boeing 737 MAX; safety oversightAbstract
Boards are expected to guide companies through crises, yet few studies follow a single board from the first warning signs to recovery. This article examines how Boeing’s board handled the 737 MAX crisis and how far the company had recovered by 2023–2024. Using a single-case design, it draws on public official documents: a US House committee report, a Delaware court decision, Boeing’s SEC filings and an FAA expert panel report. The board’s functions are analysed through Duchek’s (2020) anticipate–cope–adapt framework, and financial indicators for 2018–2023 were calculated in Stata. The court record, at the pleading stage, supports allegations of weak board-level safety oversight before the crashes. About a year after the first crash the board separated the chair and CEO roles, replaced the CEO two months later, and built new safety oversight structures. Financial recovery remains partial: 2023 revenue was 23.1% below 2018, the cumulative net loss for 2019–2023 was $[verify] billion, and operating cash flow turned positive only in 2022. In 2024 the FAA panel still identified gaps in safety culture. The case suggests that changing governance structures and rebuilding organisational resilience are distinct processes.
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References
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