Long Term Incentive Plans, Executive Pay and UK Company Performance*

Trevor Buck, Alistair Bruce, Brian G. M. Main and Henry Udueni

Journal of Management Studies, 2003, vol. 40, issue 7, 1709-1727

Abstract: ABSTRACT In agency theory, the remuneration packages of executive directors in large companies are seen as an attempt to give them a pattern of rewards that aligns their interests more closely with shareholders as a whole. The sensitivity of total executive rewards to share price performance has become the conventional yardstick for judgements concerning whether reward packages do indeed serve shareholders’ interests or executives themselves. Long‐term incentive plans (LTIPs) introduced in the UK from 1995 have imposed new, firm‐specific performance conditions on senior managers. While LTIPs are designed to increase performance‐pay sensitivity, however, they also give executives new opportunities to manipulate the terms of LTIPs in their own favour, at the expense of shareholders and stakeholders in general. This paper presents the first estimates of UK total executive rewards that include detailed LTIP valuations. It finds that, while increasing average total rewards, the presence of LTIPs is actually associated with reductions in the sensitivity of executives’ total rewards to shareholder return. This raises doubts concerning both the effectiveness of the LTIP instrument and the validity of an agency perspective in this context.

Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (33)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00397

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:40:y:2003:i:7:p:1709-1727

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... s.asp?ref=00022-2380

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Management Studies is currently edited by Timothy Clark, Steven W. Floyd and Mike Wright

More articles in Journal of Management Studies from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().