preview

Essay On Agency Theory

Decent Essays

Agency theory is a widely known term in the field of businesses. This theory has to do with a problem that occurs in certain fields of a company and as a result, it affects the function and the performance of the firm. In this paper, we will discuss about the agency theory and the methods which will help us to deal with this problem.
Agency theory concerns the conflicts between people in the same company. Agency relationship is defined as a contract under which one or more persons (the principals) engage another person (the agent) to perform some service on their behalf which involves delegating some decision making authority to the agent (Jensen and Mackling, 1976). This theory explains the relationship between principals, such as between …show more content…

The principal is not sure of the agent’s work because he has not the expertise so it is very possible to make a wrong decision on appointing a person as an agent.
The solution to the agency problem in order to minimize it is corporate governance. There is not only one accepted definition for corporate governance because there are many different views on this matter.
According to Cornelis de Groot (2009), corporate governance is the regulation of the corporate form that- by rethinking corporate law with purpose of guaranteeing the enhancement of shareholder value in the long term- addresses the roles of the corporation’s centralized administration (the unitary or dual board and the managers) and of the corporation’s shareholders, by specifically taking into account elements like integrity, transparency, proper supervision and accountability.
In other words, corporate governance is a set of regulations with which a company is administrated and controlled. The need for corporate governance stems from the loose commitments which determine the relationships between the principal and the …show more content…

In order to achieve this goal we use three mechanisms.
The first mechanism is the board of directors and the number of them is related with the effectiveness of the board. On one hand, Yermack (1996) is evaluating a proposal for limiting the size of the board of directors in order to improve their effectiveness. On the other hand, Dalton et al (1999) mention that a larger board provides better environmental links and more expertise. This means that a larger board will have members from many departments of the company or people outside the company. In this way, different opinions will be heard which may help the company to function

Get Access