In: Finance
provide an of The conflicts between shareholders and Managers
The conflicts between shareholders and managers exist because of the agency conflict. Shareholders of a corporation are owners (or principals) who appoint managers as their agents to run the day to day affairs of the company on their behalf. Thus the shareholders are the principals and the managers are agents.
The agency conflict between shareholders and managers exist due to their different interests. The shareholders are primarily interested in profit maximization and maximization of returns. On the other hand the managers want to make more money in the form of wages, salaries and benefits that the company pays them. Now the more money the managers make in the form of their compensation the lower will the net profit amount for the company. This leads to a conflict.
The conflict, as mentioned above, gives rise to agency costs for the company. Due to the conflict mentioned above the management team may be more willing to take on higher levels of risk. On the other hand shareholders will not be willing to take risks beyond an acceptable level as they are largely risk averse. This again leads to a conflict.