The impact of uncertainty and monitoring by the board of directors on incentive system design

Executive compensation and incentive packages have received a great deal of attention recently in the professional business literature as well as from the accounting standard setters. Examines the design of compensation systems. Suggests that environmental uncertainty and monitoring by the board of directors are both negatively related to the use of outcomebased compensation systems and that additionally, since this topic has both management accounting as well as financial accounting implications, it may provide a more comprehensive framework for investigating control system designs.