This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Fong, E. A. Articles by Tosi, H. L. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Effort, Performance, and Conscientiousness: An Agency Theory Perspective

Department of Management & Marketing, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL 35899, fonge{at}uah.edu

Henry L. Tosi, JR

Department of Management, Warrington College of Business Administration, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-7165

The authors examine the moderating effects of conscientiousness on the relationships between agency controls and effort and agency controls and task performance. Results show that less conscientious individuals appear to increase effort through incentive alignment and monitoring, whereas conscientious individuals do not shirk with or without agency controls. Furthermore, results show that less conscientious individuals increase task performance through incentive alignment, but not through monitoring. The study confirms that motivation to act opportunistically differs between individuals unlike what is assumed by agency theory. Also, incentive alignment may be more effective than monitoring when attempting to align principal and agent interests.

Key Words: agency theory • conscientiousness • incentive alignment • monitoring

Journal of Management, Vol. 33, No. 2, 161-179 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0149206306298658


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				H. Aguinis, C. A. Pierce, and S. A. Culpepper Scale Coarseness as a Methodological Artifact: Correcting Correlation Coefficients Attenuated From Using Coarse Scales Organizational Research Methods, October 1, 2009; 12(4): 623 - 652. [Abstract] [PDF]