Executive compensation and ethics. Perspective of the financial crisis

Executive compensation is one of the most important corporate governance mechanisms which plays an incentive function suggesting the adequate size, structure and various components of the pay. Despite the fact that the evidence of executive remuneration motivational function is viewed as the crucial solution to the principal agent conflict, its pre-crisis practice indicated severe shortcomings. The inefficiencies of executive compensation practice related to the package size, bonus policy, incentive programs and the proportion of the variable component are viewed as the significant contributor to the outbreak of the financial crisis. The aim of the paper is to identify these elements of executive compensation which proved to be detrimental for shareholders and to relate them to business ethics. The article intends to show that that the misuse of executive remuneration is not only the corporate governance problem but incorporates severe ethical dilemmas questioning the fundamental assumption of the company functioning.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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