Question

Which of the following actions will help ease agency conflicts and better align managers’ objectives with the firm’s shareholder wealth?a. Pay the manager a large base salary with a huge stock option package that matures on a single date. b. Pay the manager a combination of salary and stock options (phased in over several years) that reward him or her for consistently increasing shareholder wealth. In addition to well-designed executive compensation packages, other motivational forces can align the interests of managers with those of their shareholders. Which of the following actions could be used to reduce the potential for these agency conflicts and ensure that the firm's managers will pursue the long-term wealth interests of their shareholders? a. Let the manager know that he or she will be fired if the company's stock does not reach a certain target by the end of the year. b. Let the manager know that a takeover is possible if he or she doesn't perform well.

Answer 1

1. b. Pay the manager a combination of salary and stock options (phased in over several years) that reward him or her for consistently increasing shareholder wealth

2. b. Let the manager know that a takeover is possible if he or she doesn't perform well.

Step-by-step explanation:

Agency problems arise when the managers who are meant to be maximising shareholder wealth instead begin to act in their own interests to increase their own wealth.

To avoid this, the company should make the manager a shareholder as well so that in maximising shareholder wealth, the manager will be maximising their own wealth as well. When making them shareholders however, it is imperative that the stock is phased over several years so that the manager will keep increasing shareholder wealth.

Another way to ensure that a manager will try their best for the shareholders is to remind them that failure might lead to a takeover from another company. In takeovers, the managers of the ill performing firm are usually retrenched with the logic being that they were the ones that got the company into ruin so they should not be given the chance to do so again.