Links between Ghoshal's article, Agency Theory and the 2008 Global Recession.

We are all too familiar with the mayhem caused by the global financial crisis; we are still recovering from the after effects of this mayhem. In this essay I will try to investigate the relationships between the Agency theory, Ghoshal’s article on how bad management theories are destroying good management practices and the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. I will start off by introducing the Agency theory and looking at some of its pros and cons, then I will go on to relate the theory to the causes of the global financial crisis of 2008 and finally show how some of the actions based on the Agency theory could have been the foundations of the meltdown. I will then talk about how Ghoshal, in his article, talks about the complete amoral education and scientific measurement methods of the new age management schools which are fueling an ever increasing mistrust between the stakeholders and management.
“Agency Theory concerns how two parties in a contractual relationship may interact depending on their attitude towards risks and whether their individual goals align” (Jon Tan, 2009). The agency theory sees two problems that can occur in an agency relationship where one party (stakeholder) delegates work to the agent. The first problem arises when the desired goals of the principal (stakeholder) are not aligned with those of the agent and it is difficult or expensive for the principal to verify what the agent is actually doing. The second is the problem of risk sharing that arises when the principal and the agent have different attitudes towards risk (Eisenhardt, 1989). So in other words, the inherent opportunistic behavior of people is most dominant and the managers cannot be trusted to do their jobs, which of course is to maximize shareholders’ value. To overcome agency problems, managers’