Strategies to Resolve the Principal Agent Problem

The principal agent problem refers to difficulties of motivating one party the agent to act for the best interest of the other party the principal. In a company, the owners of the assets (the stockholder) are the principals and the managers of the company are the agents. The stockholders of the company authorize the managers to manage and use their resources to make profit for the stockholders. The cause of the principal agent problem is that the information asymmetry between the principal and the agent and the principal and agent have different interests. Generally, the Agents are the managers of the resources and have more information than the principals. In a company, the managers of the company will have more information about the company than the stockholders of the company. The agents may use this asymmetric information to get interest for themselves rather than the principals. In general, the principal Continue reading

Disadvantages/Drawbacks of Television Advertising

Television advertising does have some disadvantages as well. Some of the limitations of television advertising are: Costs: Though television offers unsurpassed creativity and reaches large audiences, it is an expensive medium to advertise. Besides the high cost of media time, the cost of producing good quality commercials is quite high. Besides the airtime costs, considerable costs were involved in producing that the commercial. Even local ads can be expensive to produce and often are not of high quality. High costs associated with TV advertising discourage small budget companies. Lack of Selectivity: Advertisers, who are interested in delivering their message to a very specific, narrowly defined, often small, target audience, find that TV leads to overexposure, reducing its cost effectiveness. For example, it would be difficult to reach only a particular group in the entire population. Any TV commercial is bound to extend far beyond the target audience. Though, advertisers are Continue reading

The Impact of Bureaucratic Structure in Organizations

A  bureaucracy  is a form of organisation based on logic, order, and the legitimate use of formal authority. Bureaucracies are meant to be orderly, fair, and highly efficient. Max Weber, a German theorist, was the first person to introduce many of the concepts of bureaucracy. During the 18th and 19th century period many employees worked only for themselves and in a workplace environment that was primarily focused on getting the job done in whichever way possible unconcerned with efficiency. Weber’s idea was to use regulation by rules, policies, supervision, reward systems and other mechanisms to make sure that the behavior and standards of the employees are always met and making the contemporary workplace more organized. The six key principles of bureaucracy that Weber identified were; division of work, hierarchy, promotions, record-keeping, business as a separate legal entity and rules and regulations. Many businesses today have benefited from Weber’s work. Division Continue reading

Producer’s Equilibrium

Given the Isoproduct map, the producer would like to ride on the highest possible Isoquant because any point on it would yield maximum possible output. But the producer’s desires are limited by his budgetary constraints. Before he selects a certain combination of inputs he has to take into consideration the size of his investment outlay and the prices of the factors of production. The Isocost Line Let us assume that the investment fund is given and the prices of factors X and Y are also known. On the basis of these assumptions let us suppose that the firm were to spend the entire amount on employing units of only input X. Then it could hireOB units of factor X. On the other hand if the producer wants to allocate his entire investment outlay in employing factor Y then he could hire OA units of Y. We have now obtained the Continue reading

Control in Multinational Enterprises (MNEs)

There are various methods of classification of management control in Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). By levels of control here it is meant whether the parent / corporate level managers or subsidiary/country-level managers are involved. The former might be called higher level and the later lower level control. Depending on the sphere of focus we have two types of control called Strategic control and Operational control. In the MNE’s context, strategic control is the responsibility of parent and operational control is the preserve of the subsidiary. Another way puts ‘management control, tactical control and transactional control’ as the 3 levels of control respectively carried out by the corporate top management, collectively by corporate & subsidiary management and subsidiary management in the case of MNEs. Of course, whether an MNE’s structure is ethno-centric, geo-centric, multi-domestic/poly-centric or region-centric is another factor that influences the exact distribution of responsibility. The forward looking information is provided Continue reading

Difference Between Authority and Power

Authority and Power Authority may be defined as the right to guide and direct the actions of others   and to secure from them responses which are appropriate to the attainment of the goals of the organization. According to Barnard, ”Authority is the character of communication(order) in a formal organization by virtue of which it is accepted by a contributor to, or member of the organization as generating the action he contributes, that is, as governing or determining what he does or is not to do so far as the organization is concerned.” Power refers to the ability or capacity to influence the  behavior  or attitudes of other individuals. A manager’s power may be considered as his ability to cause subordinates to do what the manager wishes them to do.  Power is an important means to enforce obedience to the rules, regulations and decisions of the organization. Power may be Continue reading