Open AccessWhat questions do board members in public service organizations ask about executive compensation?
Author(s) -
Chris Bart,
Kiridaran Kanagaretnam
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
corporate board: role, duties and composition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2312-2722
pISSN - 1810-8601
DOI - 10.22495/cbv10i3art7
Subject(s) - corporate governance , ask price , compensation (psychology) , executive compensation , service (business) , public relations , business , sample (material) , public service , initial public offering , accounting , psychology , political science , marketing , social psychology , chemistry , finance , chromatography
The purpose of this study is to investigate the governance questions that board members in public service organizations ask as they go about fulfilling their responsibilities for the oversight of executive compensation. The research uses 24 of the questions – as proposed by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants - that directors should ask about executive compensation and investigates both their usage and perceived importance by board members. The study is based on a usable sample of 47 board members from public service organizations who were attending a Canadian director training program. The research finds that, insofar as public service organizations are concerned, not all of the recommended executive compensation governance questions were asked with the same frequency nor were they considered equally important. Additionally, the relationship between a question’s usage frequency and its perceived importance was not perfect. However, there appears to be a significantly positive relationship among the number of executive compensation governance questions asked and selected elements of a board’s governance structure.