Module overview
The level and extent to which corporate executives, especially those of large multinational corporations pay themselves has, and continues to be, a hot and sometimes, controversial re-occurring issue of major interests to governments, regulators, media and the general public worldwide. Indeed, the past decades have witnessed a rapid emergence of good executive compensation and corporate governance practices as crucial parts of running any successful corporation. In particular, one reason for the increased interests in the level and composition of executive pay is that it has implications for corporate performance, ethics and risk-taking. Reckless risk-taking often motivated by greed and excessive compensation motives of executives’ of large global banks, financial institutions and corporations were, for example, implicated as part of the causes of the 2007/08 global financial crisis. In a similar vein, the pay packages of senior managers (e.g., vice-chancellors, presidents, principals, directors and chief executive officers) of public sector and non-profit organisations, such as higher education institutions and universities, NHS trusts, local governments and charities have come under severe public scrutiny recently. Therefore, the central aim of this module is to provide students with a thorough grounding in a range of advanced topics in executive compensation. In particular, the module seeks to introduce and develop students’ ability to critically evaluate a wide of range of contemporary concepts, disclosures, issues, markets, measures, measurement, mechanisms, metrics, performance, pricing/valuation, principles, options, reforms, regulations, research and theories in executive compensation. The module is delivered with a strong international or comparative emphasis and targeted at postgraduate students in financial management, accounting, finance, business and management. The ultimate rationale is to provide students with international view of, and knowledge in, executive compensation theory, research and practice. In particular, explicit efforts will be made at striking a fair balance between theory and practice in the delivery of the module. Delivery is made up of lectures, seminars and independent studies. Seminars involving a selected set of questions will provide students with opportunities for formative assessment and feedback. Students joining the module will be expected to be willing and ready to engage in a wide range of independent reading, writing, questioning and seeking explanations.