4.3 Different approaches to corporate governance  (Page 6/9)

Approaches to corporate governance

Agency theory

1. In agency theory, the owners/directors set the central objectives of the corporation. Managers, in turn, are responsible for executing these objectives in the corporation's day-to-day operations. Corporate governance consists of designing structures and procedures to control management, i.e., to keep their actions in line with director-established objectives.
2. Managers cannot be trusted to remain faithful agents, i.e., to stay faithful to the interests and goals of the owners/directors. This presupposes a particular view of human nature. Humans are rational, egoists. They have desires and use reason to devise means to realize them. Since one desire can be checked only by another desire, this egoism is potentially without limit. Agency theory assumes that managers will divert corporate resources to pursue their own selfish ends unless checked by some system of external controls. Thus, another key element of corporate governance under agency theory is to find the most efficient systems of controls to keep manager egoism in check.
3. The owners/directors play the role of principal in agency theory. The principal originates the action and bears primary moral and legal responsibility for it. Most of the time the principal of an action is also its executor. But there are times when the principal lacks the knowledge and skill necessary for executing the objectives he or she originates. In this case, the principal contracts with an agent. The principal authorizes the agent to act on his or her behalf. This requires that the agent remain faithful to the goals and interests of the principal. See Hobbes's Leviathan , Chapter 16 for an important historical account of the agent-principal relation.
4. Managers are agents. Their primary responsibility is to serve as faithful executors of the goals and interests of the principals. This requires, first, that, managers are responsible for exercising their professional judgment in a competent way. Managers are also responsible for remaining faithful to the interests of their principals. To do this they must avoid conflicts of interests and maintain confidentialities (i.e., keep secrets). Agent can also range from being free (unguided by principals) to bound (tightly monitored and controlled by principals).
5. How does ethics enter into corporate governance under agency theory? Primary emphasis is placed on compliance, i.e., enforced conformity to rules that constitute minimum thresholds of acceptable behavior. Compliance approaches develop (1) rule based codes, (2) systems of monitoring to detect violations, and (3) punishments and rewards to deter non-compliance and reward compliance. Trevino and Weaver provide an empirical analysis to the goals achieved through compliance ethics: "[4] the perception that better decisions are made because of the ethics program [5]ethical advice seeking, [6] decreased unethical behavior in the organization...[7]ethical awareness." (Weaver and Trevino, 1999: 333.)