Corporate Governance in South Africa: Profit-Sharing and Stakeholder Management

Abstract

Executive compensation and rewards continue to increase at a higher rate than employee income, incentives, and rewards despite prominent growth in corporate earnings and stock valuations. The aim of this study is to determine whether executive compensation policies are aligned with firm performance, and assess how an employee profit-sharing structure could be implemented to minimise the disparity between firm income growth and the level of employee productivity that contributes to such growth. Three firms listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) were selected for this study for the financial period 2014 to 2020. Log-linear models are applied to firm efficiency and growth factors. A classification model relating executive compensation to firm risk and performance is presented. Thirdly, a profit-share model is proposed to analyse profit-share impact on compensation ratios and firm cash flow and net profit. No conclusive relationship be-tween executive compensation and financial performance was found for this sample. Profit-share implementation reduces the average employee-executive compensation ratio marginally and has mixed results on inter-firm cash flows and net profits.