A New Approach to Firm Governance

Cécile Cézanne (1)

1 CEPN - Centre d'Economie de l'Université Paris Nord (ancienne affiliation)

Over the last twenty years or so, the firm has changed considerably, especially with the growing importance of human capital. Paradoxically, the primacy of the shareholder value model has endured. The aim of this paper is to explore the main theoretical and empirical elements involved to propose a new model of firm governance. We view strategic employees of firms as critical resources because they represent specific human capital. We explain that the inalienable residual rights of control they have over their own human capital are inconsistent with disciplinary models of corporate governance. They rather call for the creation of an internal mode of regulation able to effectively mobilize specific human capital by motivating key employees. This model, which we call the ‘multi-resource model', is composite: we show that it aims to encourage, retain and collectively enrich critical resources by using an original operational system based on complementary instruments of incentive and coordination.

Mots clés: firm governance; motivation; multi-resource model; specific human capital

Domaines: Economies et finances

Cécile Cézanne. A New Approach to Firm Governance: The Multi-Resource Model. 15th World Congress of the International Association for the Economics of Participation (IAFEP), Jul 2010, Paris II University, France. pp.25. ⟨hal-00523915v1⟩