In the corporate form of business organization, an agency relationship problem exists. In agency theory, the agency relationship problem results from a separation of ownership and control. Self-interest on the part of managers acting as agents, and shareholders who are acting as principals exists within the corporate business organization. Agency theory allows us to understand the behaviors and conflicts that exist for corporation stakeholders and the managers of the company, and can allow for designing of effective incentive structures and other monitoring mechanisms to resolve the agency problem. Institutional ownership also plays a part in monitoring, and controlling agency costs within the corporate form of organization.
Nature of Agency
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In an ideal situation, boards of directors would have complete information and therefore be able to detect and prevent the abuse of managerial power directly. Smaller board sizes are typically more organized, and considered more effective in attaining higher levels of monitoring, as they have fewer disagreements among the board members than larger boards. Structuring management compensation to align management and share a common interest can be another method utilized to link the compensation of managers to the performance of the corporation, further including in the rules and policies limits for managers decision-making authority in order to constrain the potential for agent opportunism in manipulating financial results (Michael & Pearce, 2004). Thus, control mechanisms also should play a key role for the board of directors in reducing existing agency issues.
Managerial Ownership May Resolve Agency
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In the business world today, this type of investor group, that includes such investors as banks, insurance companies, and pension funds, owns the majority of stock and thus they are able to exert influence over managers, and often act as lobbyists for investors (Brigham & Houston, 2011). Institutional investors have fiduciary responsibilities that give them strong reasons for making corporate governance increasingly important in making investment decisions, and are often the motivation for their stockholder activism (Chung & Zhang, 2011).
Institutional owners as part of their involvement in a monitoring role can sponsor proposals to be voted on at stockholder meetings, without needing management support. Since the passage of the Dodd Frank Act, owners also have the right to nominate directors to the corporation board, and vote on approval of executive compensation structures (Brigham & Houston, 2011). Although the results are non-binding, these monitoring activities of investors send a clear message to management.
Best Form of Monitoring Including Academic Supporting
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In contrast , the shareholder theory organisations or organisation's decision-makers only have the responsibility to their shareholders by increasing the organisation profits and should only make the decisions to increase as much as possib...
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The article also discussed the two positions on agency theory one that argued that agency theory is revolutionary and a strong foundation, while the other position argued that the theory doesn’t address a clear problem. The key idea of agency theory is that principal and agent relationships should reflect efficient organization of information and risk bearing cost. Agency theory analysis is conducted by the contract between the principal and the agent. The principal is the individual who typically the person who delegates the task and the agent is the individual who is given the task by the principal. Agency theory assumes that the humans involved in the contract have a self-interest, bounded rationality and different levels of risk aversion. The theory also assumes that there is a goal conflict among participants in agency theory, where the principal and the agent aren’t on the same page which effects efficiency and effectiveness. The article also highlights five recommendations for using agency theory in organizational
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Most critical to this discussion is a clear understanding of what a financial manager is and does and how his or her role aids in helping to establish the valuation of a corporate entity in today's global financial market. Quite simply, a financial manager helps to measure a company's market value and its risk, while also helping to systematically reduce its costs and the time necessary to make informed decisions regarding objective driven operations. This is quite a demanding game plan for an individual and most often financial managers, in the corporate world, working in cooperation with a team of financial experts. Each member of that team perhaps having expertise in differing areas of activity, but each however, being no less expert in his or her respective area of endeavors on behalf of the corporation. The team is assembled under the direction of the officer known in the corporation as the Chief Financial Officer who today is becoming increasingly indispensable to the CEO who directs a modern model of action driven, bottom-line oriented corporate activity (Couto, Neilson, 2004).
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