Generally Accepted Management Principles (GAMP) - functions, first proposals, and acceptance among German top managers

Judging the quality of top management is a pivotal aspect of good corporate governance, Such an evaluation requires standards which can be applied to the work of top management. In the German stock corporation this is particularly important for the Supervisory Board (Aufsichtsrat), because its main task is to control the quality of the Management Board (Vorstand). The development of generally accepted management principles seems to be a promising attempt to facilitate a fair management evaluation. These management principles are supposed to put in concrete form the top management's duties of care. They thus can help to assure a certain management quality as well as to protect managers against exaggerated demands. After elaborating on these basic thoughts, a system of standards is outlined and the results from a first survey investigating the acceptance of the proposed standards among German top managers are reported.