Compensation and benefits

Using the results of a survey of 380 companies in 34 industries, this author examines three basic types of compensation plans: salary, commission, and combination (salary plus commission). Most companies in the study favored a combination plan, but such plans have some disadvantages to offset their obvious attractiveness. The author sets out the possible reasons […]

For years "risk management" has been characterized chiefly by caution--preventing the business from doing things that would create exposure. Although...

You’ve decided to start a company. Your business plan is based on sound strategy and thorough market research. Your background and training have prepared you for the challenge. Now you must assemble the quality management team that venture investors demand. So you begin the search for a topflight engineer to head product development and a […]

Top female executives usually start out with pay comparable to their male counterparts', but a gap emerges and increases over the course of their tenure....

During his 20-year career as a professional boxer, Sugar Ray Leonard won world titles in five weight classes, became the first in his sport to earn more...

In dealing with exploding high-end incomes, political and moral considerations should probably weigh heavier than economic ones.

With private equity buyouts and acquisitions on the rise, we turned to Harvard Business School professor Josh Lerner, a longtime observer and researcher...

It seems like just about everyone who has ever addressed a graduating class of high school or college seniors have said, "Do what you love, the money...

The personnel benefits outweigh the financial costs.

Thousands of businesses have reengineered work to focus employees on processes that clearly provide value to customers. They have done away with their...

We all need to get paid. But the evidence suggests it undermines our intrinsic motivations.

The publicly held corporation has not outlived its usefulness. Though LBOs release much of the untapped value and correct many of the inefficiencies of...

A surprising chart.

Avoid complaints and ultimatums.

And other important findings from a huge new study of U.S. Census Bureau data.

It's 2008 and Spanish food retailer Superado is on course to miss its financial targets. According to company policy, this means that Superado should...

In appraising performance, designing pay systems, and in organizing and planning work, managers make assessments about the size and importance of jobs. Whether the assessments are accurate deeply affects how well the organization runs. But what do we mean when we say that one job is bigger than another? Bigger in what sense? One way […]

To maximize information exchange among employees, don't reward individual performance.

Stephen Davis is the coauthor of The New Capitalists: How Citizen Investors Are Reshaping the Corporate Agenda. There is a cutting edge to corporate leadership, but you won’t find it at Blockbuster. Here is a board of directors that knew going into its 2007 annual meeting that share-owners were at a boiling point — over […]

In Brazil, where paternalism and the family business fiefdom still flourish, I am president of a manufacturing company that treats its 800 employees like responsible adults. Most of them—including factory workers—set their own working hours. All have access to the company books. The vast majority vote on many important corporate decisions. Everyone gets paid by […]