Title: Applying Stewardship and Agency Theories to Governance Structures inside Organizations
Abstract: We contribute to research on governance structures within organizations by considering how the theoretical assumptions presented in the practice of agency and stewardship theories fulfill the obligations of top-level management to the detriment of employees at lower levels of the organization. We examine these relationships using a sample of 975 employees from universities located in the United Kingdom. As hypothesized, we find that organizations adopt and focus on an overarching governance approach (either stewardship or agency) to meet the prevailing focus of top management. Though, we also reveal that this one-way governance approach that cascades from the top of an organization may misalign with the nature of employment relationships at lower levels of an organization, which consequently engenders adverse consequences for select members of the employment population.
Publication Year: 2015
Publication Date: 2015-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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