IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jmgtgv/v4y2000i1p53-67.html

Governance in Organizations: A Cognitive Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Zur Shapira

Abstract

Governance in organizations according to traditionalagency theory is based on the premise that managersand employees do not have identical goals. As aconsequence, employees need to be monitored andcontrolled. If legal contracts are not sufficient forproper control, incentive contracts should be used. This paper argues that incentive contracts are notsufficient to solve governance issues in organizationsdue to problems in measurability and enforceability ofpresumed contract violations. Such problems arecomplicated by asymmetries in power, perspectives andaspirations between managers and employees. Acognitive argument is advanced suggesting that timeconstraints and bounded rationality render the idea ofmonitoring relatively ineffective. Governance ideasthat focus on communication flow and informationsharing are described. The role that other cognitiveelements such as memory play in a more comprehensiveand interdisciplinary framework for understandinggovernance relations is discussed. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2000

Suggested Citation

  • Zur Shapira, 2000. "Governance in Organizations: A Cognitive Perspective," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 4(1), pages 53-67, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jmgtgv:v:4:y:2000:i:1:p:53-67
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1009945503527
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1023/A:1009945503527
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1023/A:1009945503527?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel Kahneman & Dan Lovallo, 1993. "Timid Choices and Bold Forecasts: A Cognitive Perspective on Risk Taking," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(1), pages 17-31, January.
    2. Michael C. Jensen, 2010. "The Modern Industrial Revolution, Exit, and the Failure of Internal Control Systems," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 22(1), pages 43-58, January.
    3. Roy Radner, 1997. "Bounded Rationality, Indetriminacy, and The Managerial Theory of The Firm," Working Papers 97-05, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    4. Canice Prendergast, 1999. "The Provision of Incentives in Firms," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(1), pages 7-63, March.
    5. Gilbert Ghez & Gary S. Becker, 1975. "The Allocation of Time and Goods over the Life Cycle," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number ghez75-1, January-J.
    6. Levinthal, Daniel, 1988. "A survey of agency models of organizations," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 153-185, March.
    7. Holmstrom, Bengt & Milgrom, Paul, 1991. "Multitask Principal-Agent Analyses: Incentive Contracts, Asset Ownership, and Job Design," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(0), pages 24-52, Special I.
    8. Sridhar Seshadri & Zur Shapira, 2003. "The flow of ideas and timing of evaluation as determinants of knowledge creation," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 12(5), pages 1099-1124, October.
    9. Andrei Shleifer & Lawrence H. Summers, 1988. "Breach of Trust in Hostile Takeovers," NBER Chapters, in: Corporate Takeovers: Causes and Consequences, pages 33-68, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Nicolai J. Foss, 1996. "Knowledge-Based Approaches to the Theory of the Firm: Some Critical Comments," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 7(5), pages 470-476, October.
    11. Gilbert Ghez & Gary S. Becker, 1975. "The Allocation of Goods Over the Life Cycle," NBER Chapters, in: The Allocation of Time and Goods over the Life Cycle, pages 46-82, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Gilbert Ghez & Gary S. Becker, 1975. "The Allocation of Time Over the Life Cycle," NBER Chapters, in: The Allocation of Time and Goods over the Life Cycle, pages 83-132, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Patrizia Gazzola & Stefano Amelio & Daniele Grechi & Fragkoulis Papagiannis, 2021. "NPO Funding in Italy: The Role and the Contribution of Corporate Governance," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 15(12), pages 1-1, July.
    2. Cristiana Parisi, 2013. "The impact of organisational alignment on the effectiveness of firms’ sustainability strategic performance measurement systems: an empirical analysis," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 17(1), pages 71-97, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2373-2437 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Sendil K. Ethiraj & Daniel Levinthal, 2009. "Hoping for A to Z While Rewarding Only A: Complex Organizations and Multiple Goals," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(1), pages 4-21, February.
    3. Aleksandar Vasilev, 2015. "Welfare gains from the adoption of proportional taxation in a general-equilibrium model with a grey economy: the case of Bulgaria’s 2008 flat tax reform," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 169-185, May.
    4. Feigenbaum, James, 2008. "Can mortality risk explain the consumption hump?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 844-872, September.
    5. Aydilek, Asiye, 2016. "The allocation of time and puzzling profiles of the elderly," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 515-526.
    6. Yongsung Chang & Mark Bils, 2002. "Cyclical Movements in Hours and Effort under Sticky Wages," Macroeconomics 0204004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Dagmar Brožová, 2010. "Individual Labour Supply Decisions with Respect To Household Production and Over the Life Cycle [Rozhodování o individuální nabídce práce s ohledem na produkci domácnosti a v průběhu životního cykl," Acta Oeconomica Pragensia, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2010(1), pages 21-33.
    8. Philip Trostel & Ian Walker, 2006. "Education and Work," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(4), pages 377-399.
    9. Yoo-Mi Chin, 2008. "A household production model of demand for childcare and meals: theory and evidence from the Philippines," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 47-64, March.
    10. James P. Smith, 1977. "Family Labor Supply over the Life Cycle," NBER Chapters, in: Explorations in Economic Research, Volume 4, number 2, pages 205-276, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Pavel Potužák, 2016. "Fisher and Mises on Zero Interest: A Reconsideration," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2016(2), pages 203-220.
    12. Mark Aguiar & Erik Hurst, 2005. "Consumption versus Expenditure," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(5), pages 919-948, October.
    13. Mark Aguiar & Erik Hurst, 2004. "Consumption vs. Expenditure," NBER Working Papers 10307, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Martha Starr, 2014. "Gender, added-worker effects, and the 2007–2009 recession: Looking within the household," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 209-235, June.
    15. Martha Starr-McCluer, 2000. "The effects of weather on retail sales," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2000-08, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    16. Gómez, Manuel A. & Monteiro, Goncalo, 2015. "Internal habits in an endogenous growth model with elastic labor supply," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 583-595.
    17. Mark Aguiar & Erik Hurst, 2007. "Measuring Trends in Leisure: The Allocation of Time Over Five Decades," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(3), pages 969-1006.
    18. de la Croix, David & Gosseries, Axel, 2012. "The natalist bias of pollution control," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 271-287.
    19. Enghin Atalay, 2024. "A twenty-first century of solitude? Time alone and together in the United States," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(1), pages 1-33, March.
    20. Hairault, Jean-Olivier & Langot, Francois & Portier, Franck, 1997. "Time to implement and aggregate fluctuations," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 109-121, November.
    21. Orazio P. Attanasio & Guglielmo Weber, 2010. "Consumption and Saving: Models of Intertemporal Allocation and Their Implications for Public Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(3), pages 693-751, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jmgtgv:v:4:y:2000:i:1:p:53-67. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.