Prodded by economists in the 1970s, corporate directors began adding stock options and bonuses to the already-generous salaries of CEOs with hopes of boosting their companies’ fortunes. Guided by largely unproven assumptions, this trend continues today. So what are companies getting in return for all the extra money? Not much, according to the empirical data.
In Indispensable and Other Myths: Why the CEO Pay Experiment Failed and How to Fix It, Michael Dorff explores the consequences of this development. He shows how performance pay has not demonstrably improved corporate performance and offers studies showing that performance pay cannot improve performance on the kind of tasks companies ask of their CEOs. Moreover, CEOs of large established companies do not typically have much impact on their companies’ results. In this eye-opening exposé, Dorff argues that companies should give up on the decades-long experiment to mold compensation into a corporate governance tool and maps out a rationale for returning to the era of guaranteed salaries.
Michael Dorff has taught at UCLA School of Law, Rutgers Law School, and the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management. He is currently Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School, where he teaches corporate law and other business law topics.
"Indispensable and Other Myths is a definitive work on the reality of how compensation affects executive behavior and the perils of 'pay for performance.' A must-read for anyone who wants to really understand what’s going on in the boardroom and the corner office.”—Lynn A. Stout, Distinguished Professor of Corporate and Business Law, Cornell University
“A thoughtful, comprehensive, and provocative examination of the toughest and most controversial issue in corporate governance today. This is an academic work with great relevance to the practical world of investing and finance.”—Charles Elson, Edgar S. Woolard Jr. Chair in Corporate Governance and Director, John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware
"Disruptive thinking based on solid research. This book will change your conclusions about CEO compensation structures based on the Pay for Performance mantra."—Carl Albert, Chairman, Boise Inc.
328 pp.6 x 9
9780520281011$34.95|£30.00Hardcover
Aug 2014