The Philosophy Research Of Modern Enterprise Agency Relationship

As the primary form of production organization in modern industrial society, the enterprise has been experiencing two organization models. The first is the merging of ownership and management, and the second is the separating of them, which is called enterprise agency model. In the enterprise that takes agency model as the primary form of organization, there is an agency relationship between the owner and the professional manager employed by the former. The establishment of this relationship is more important to the development of modern enterprise, because the professional manager’s professional knowledge and management kill contribute to improving the degree of specialization and certification, to improving the ability of innovation and market competition. But as the reason that there are many contradictions such as having no consistent goal, information asymmetry and unequal responsibility between the owner and the manager, the agency relationship can easily lead to the increasing of agency costs, and lastly harm the interests of the owner, manager and the whole employees. The financial crisis originated in the USA and quickly spreading to the world proves that the enterprise agency model is not at all the perfect one, though it is useful to the developing and grandness of the enterprise. Through thirty years of reform and opening up, the degree of the mercerization and internationalization of Chinese enterprises has been deepening, and many enterprises have also begun to gradually connect with international experience and practice, take the agency model, and thus enter to the rapid road of development and expansion. At the same time, Chinese enterprises have also begun to face the difficulties of agency relationship, as the agency cost problems have become increasingly prominent.The main reason that enterprise agency relationship can lead to the enterprise agency cost problem, is that enterprise agency relationship is basically restricted by the logic of capital. The only purpose of capital is the unlimited proliferation of itself, and the only purpose of business owners hiring business agent is to expand their interests. As the common enterprise employees, the business agent is also the one being deprived surplus value. But unlike the general enterprise employees, enterprise agent who actually owns the right of use and management on the enterprise assets, can try various devices to pursue the maximization of individual interests, which will lead to the increase in agency costs, thereby sacrificing benefits of principal and all enterprise employees, causing serious damage to the whole enterprise. Although the owner hopes that by signing contracts, agent can be encouraged and supervised and the agent costs are reduced as far as possible, the effect is little.The first way getting out of the predicament of agency relationship, is that getting rid of the intellectual thinking that takes the agency relationship as a pure opposition relationship, and using the dialectical thinking toward the agency relationship that takes the agency relationship as a contradictory relationship which includes opposition relationship and unity relationship. According to Marx’s dialectical thinking method and communism wisdom, principal is the personal representative of capital, and agent is the one of labor, and the essential relationship between principal and agent is still the relationship between labor and capital, and still belongs to the contradiction between the labor subject and the capital object. Because the contradiction relationship is a relationship between subject and object, and the relationship between subject and object is not the one between two separate things, but the one between one thing and its own object, which is actually the one between subject and subject. That is to say, if the principal in the agency relationship can take the agent as a subject, the agent can take achieving his own subjectivity as a rule, and the principal and agent can take each other as subject, aim and generate commonly, many problems about agency relationship may be solved, and the agency relationship dilemma is likely to be broken through.The second way getting out of the predicament of agency relationship, is taking the unity of opposites as a goal to solve the contradiction existing in the agency relationship. In the real agency relationship, the opposition of both sides agent mainly expresses itself through their contractual relationship. According to Marx’s communism wisdom, we will find, in those contractual relationships such as mandatory, tacit, psychological or comprehensive contractual relationships, there are not only opposition relationship, but also unity relationship between the two sides, and the trend from opposition to unity, which is the only way getting out of enterprise agency relationship dilemma.The third way getting out of the predicament of agency relationship is to inspire the initiative of various enterprise governance subjects. The agency relationships in modern enterprises are not generally speaking as the principal-agent relationships, but specifically performing as those relationships built by shareholders, creditors, workers and managers of enterprises. The effective corporate governance on the agency relationship therefore is mainly the one conducted by the different governance subjects such as shareholders, creditors, managers, workers, other stakeholders and society governance. Through those governances the agency relationships transform from confrontation to harmonious state.Different from the capitalist market economy, our socialist market economy accepts the provisions of the socialist market economy values. The capitalist values only attach importance to the form of equality, rather than the content of equality.The socialist values while not only attach great importance to the form of equality, but also try to achieve the content of equality, so that each having the particularity of individual can obtain the general welfare. The key to solve our enterprise agency relationship conflicts should be:as paying more attention to interests of agency both sides, to attach more importance to enterprise interests; to strengthen the education on enterprise principals and agents, and let them gradually realize that enterprise is not only the tool serving agent relationship both sides to obtain their own interests, but the stage all the employees realize their own individuality, and the necessary basic stone of the generally harmonious society.