Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Executive remuneration in South Africa has continued to attract public outrage and generate much debate among various stakeholders due to the perceived non-alignment of compensation packages awarded to senior executives and company performance. This research examines the relationship between executive compensation and financial performance of South African listed companies. Furthermore, the study investigates the link between executive pay and sustainability performance measures such as environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria. Almost no research has been done in South Africa to examine the link and integration of ESG performance metrics into executive pay as researchers continue to focus on traditional financial measures of performance such as earnings (EBITDA), earnings per share (EPS), return on equity (ROE), return on assets (ROA), total shareholder return (TSR) and share price. The link between executive compensation and sustainability metrics (ESG) has become a topic of much discussion among academics and investors due to the potential influence of ESG factors on companies’ financial performance and sustainable long-term value creation. The research begins by examining the changes in the level of executive compensation during a five-year period and by testing the relationship between executive pay and traditional financial performance measures. The results show that the total compensation of CEOs has been steadily increasing during the five-year period while variable performance bonuses experienced a slight decline during the economic recession of 2007 to 2008. The results provided evidence that there is a statistically significant positive relationship between executive remuneration and company profitability. Findings for the second objective suggest that while executive compensation plans of many companies have been formally tied to ESG performance metrics, few companies in the study have disclosed effective and robust ESG performance measurement systems that tie executive pay to sustainability performance.

Thesis PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: ABSTRACT Chapter 1 investigates teacher wages in the South African labour market, in order to ascertain whether teaching is a financially attractive profession, and whether high ability individuals are likely to be attracted to the teaching force. Making use of labour force survey data for the years 2000 to 2007 and for 2010, wage returns to educational attainment and experience are measured for teachers, non-teachers and non-teaching professionals. The returns to higher levels of education for teachers are significantly lower than for non-teachers and non-teaching professionals. Similarly, the age-wage profile for teachers is significantly flatter than it is for non-teachers, indicating that there is little wage incentive to remain in teaching beyond roughly 12 years. The profession is therefore unlikely to attract high ability individuals who are able to collect attractive remuneration elsewhere in the labour market. Chapter 2 deals with explicit teacher incentives in education. It provides a technical analysis of Holstrom and Milgrom’s (1991) multitasking model and Kandel and Lazear’s (1992) model of peer pressure as an incentivising force, highlighting aspects of these models that are necessary to ensure that incentive systems operate successfully. The chapter provides an overview of incentive systems internationally, discussing elements of various systems that may be useful in a South African setting. The prospects for the introduction of incentives in South Africa are discussed, with the conclusion that the systems in place at the moment are not conducive to introducing teacher incentives. There are however models in Chile and Brazil, for example, that may work effectively in a South African setting, given their explicit handling of inequality within the education system. Chapter 3 makes use of hierarchical linear modelling to investigate which teacher characteristics impact significantly on student performance. Using data from the SACMEQ III study of 2007, an interesting and potentially important finding is that younger teachers are better able to improve the mean mathematics performance of their students. Furthermore, younger teachers themselves perform better on subject tests than do their older counterparts. Changes in teacher education in the late 1990s and early 2000s may explain the differences in the performance of younger teachers relative to their older counterparts. However, further investigation is required to fully understand these differences. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In Hoofstuk 1 word die lone van onderwysers in die Suid-Afrikaanse arbeidsmark ondersoek om vas te stel of onderwys ʼn finansieel aantreklike beroep is en hoe waarskynlik dit is dat mense met sterk vermoëns na die onderwys gelok sal word. Met gebruik van arbeidsmagopnamedata van 2000 tot 2007 en van 2010 word die loonopbrengs op jare onderwys en ervaring vir onderwysers, nie-onderwysers en beroepslui buite die onderwys gemeet. Die opbrengste vir hoër vlakke van opvoeding is beduidend laer vir onderwysers as vir nie-onderwysers en nie-onderwys beroepslui. Netso is die ouderdom-loonprofiel van onderwysers beduidend platter as vir nie-onderwysers, wat dui op weinig looninsentief om langer as ongeveer 12 jaar in die onderwysveld te bly. Dit is dus onwaarskynlik dat hierdie beroep baie bekwame mense sal lok wat elders in die arbeidsmark goed sou kon verdien. In Hoofstuk 2 word na eksplisiete insentiewe in die onderwys gekyk. Die hoofstuk verskaf ʼn tegniese analise van die multi-taak-model van Holstrom en Milgrom (1991) en van Kandel en Lazear (1992) se model van portuur-druk as aansporingskrag, met klem op die aspekte van hierdie modelle wat in Suid-Afrikaanse omstandighede van nut mag wees. Vooruitsigte vir die instelling van insentiewe in Suid-Afrika word bespreek, met die slotsom dat die stelsels wat tans in plek is nie bevorderlik vir die instelling van onderwysersinsentiewe is nie. Daar is egter modelle in byvoorbeeld Chili en Brasilië wat effektief in Suid-Afrikaanse omstandighede sou kon funksioneer, gegewe hulle eksplisiete klem op ongelykheid binne die onderwys. In Hoofstuk 3 word hiërargiese liniêre programmering gebruik om te ondersoek watter eienskappe van onderwysers ʼn belangrike invloed op studenteprestasie uitoefen. Met gebruik van data van die SACMEQ III studie van 2007 is ʼn interessante bevinding dat jonger onderwysers beter in staat is om die gemiddelde wiskunde prestasie van hulle student te verbeter. Verder vertoon sulke jonger onderwysers self ook beter in die vaktoetse in Wiskunde en taal as hulle ouer kollegas. Veranderings in onderwysopleiding in die laat negentigerjare en vroeë jare van hierdie eeu kan dalk die verskille in die vertonings van jonger onderwysers relatief tot hulle ouer eweknieë verklaar. Verdere ondersoek is egter nodig om hierdie verskille beter te verstaan.

This study seeks to determine the institutional uses of the formula system in twenty-two public four-year institutions of higher education in Texas. The study is limited to the areas of faculty salaries and departmental operating expenses. Particular effort is made to determine whether the methods used by the various institutions in allocating funds to academic departments are based upon the number of semester hours taught by each department and therefore upon the amount of funds the departments produce under the state formula system.

Thesis. 1979. M.C.P.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaves 170-176. / M.C.P.

This dissertation investigates the antecedents and consequences to pay disparity between the CEO and non-CEO executives from an equity-based perspective. While the principles of agency theory suggest that CEOs are granted higher compensation packages to better align their motives to those of the firm's shareholders, empirical research has not supported a positive relationship between rising CEO pay and firm performance. Some results even suggest a negative relationship. This dissertation argues that if organizational outcomes are determined by the integrated skills and talents of its dominant coalition, and if the management of a firm's trajectory is a shared process, then, the disparity in rewards between the CEO and those that work closest to him becomes an important area of study. / The dissertation investigates the antecedents of pay disparity and proposes that the quality of a firm's governance marked by independent boards as well as higher levels of blockholders will be more likely to temper and better align the CEO's compensation and thereby reduce pay disparity. Empirical results support the major propositions as firms with independent Chairman of the Board, fewer interlocking directors, and higher levels of blockholders were found to have lower levels of pay disparity between the CEO and non-CEO executives. Pay disparity was tested both at the firm level and at the individual executive level and both were found have a significant effect on non-CEO executive turnover for up to two years. / Central to the dissertation is a moderation model which proposes that pay disparity has a profound effect on an executive team's ability to integrate its diverse experience and educational background, and consequently, its capacity to respond strategically to its changing competitive landscape. The study examines the education, age, tenure and functional background of top management teams of Fortune 500 firms and finds support for the assertion that the positive relationship between heterogeneously composed teams and firm performance is contingent on rewards equality between the CEO and balance of the top team membership. The findings suggest that higher levels of pay disparity attenuate the negative aspects of cognitive diversity serving to impede the firm's competitive performance. / by Seema Pissaris. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, FL : 2008 Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Previous research in organizational theory, labor market economics, and nonprofit studies are applied to churches and their clergy leadership in advancing a theory of clergy executive compensation. The data for this study come from the end of year reports from approximately 800 local churches of the North Georgia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church for the years 2007-2008 and a survey administered in order to glean the personal characteristics of the clergy. The investigation employs a clergy compensation framework and finds that clergy salaries are influenced in part by personal characteristics, human capital, organizational elements, labor market factors, and clergy performance. The results regarding the role of credentialing in stratified labor markets have implications for policy. The present research adds to the nonprofit executive compensation literature by suggesting that denominational churches are analogous to nonprofit franchises and by empirically testing for "dual agency", labor market stratification, and managerial scope.

published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

This thesis investigates how chief executive officer (CEO) equity incentives affect the remediation of material weaknesses (MWs) in internal control. First, we predict that the sensitivity of CEO stock and stock option portfolios to stock price (CEO price sensitivity or delta) has a positive impact on firm promptness in remedying MWs, because CEOs whose personal wealth is tied to stock price suffer losses from negative market reactions to the public disclosure of MWs. Second, we predict that the sensitivity of CEO stock option portfolio to stock-return volatility (CEO volatility sensitivity or vega) has a negative impact on firm promptness in remedying MWs, as firms with internal control weaknesses are associated with higher information and operating risks that manifest in stock return volatility. Our empirical results, based on a sample of firms disclosing MWs in internal control under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) during November 15, 2003 and August 27, 2006, are consistent with the above predictions. We further provide evidence that an effective board of directors could mitigate the undesirable, negative impact of CEO volatility sensitivity on MWs remediation. We measure firms’ promptness in remedying MWs based on their subsequent internal control audit opinions (e.g., Ashbaugh-Skaife et al. 2008; Goh 2009); and CEO price (volatility) sensitivity as the dollar change in CEO stock and option portfolios (option portfolio) from a 1 percent change in stock price (Core and Guay 2002). This thesis is innovative with respect to the prediction and evidence of the opposing effects from CEO price and volatility sensitivities on internal control quality. This new evidence contributes to the literature that examines managerial incentives embedded in stock-based and option-based compensation plans in various economic contexts (e.g., Knopf et al. 2002; Coles et al. 2006; Low 2009; Armstrong et al. 2013). Our findings suggest that when stock constitutes a major part of CEO compensation, the mandatory disclosure requirement of SOX provides a channel for the stock market to discipline CEO. However, when options dominate CEO compensation, volatility sensitivity and the associated risk-taking incentive can cause CEOs to delay rectifying internal control deficiencies. These results have interesting policy implications for regulators and firms concerning mandatory disclosure and compensation design. Moreover, this thesis contributes to the broad literature on corporate governance by documenting an interaction between corporate governance and CEO incentives, namely that strong corporate governance mitigates the undesirable risking-taking incentive caused by CEO option holdings. Overall, this thesis deepens our understanding on mechanisms through which regulators, firm executives, and boards of directors strengthen internal control over financial reporting in the post-SOX era. / published_or_final_version / Business / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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