It Was More Than a Century Ago That an Engineer

question 385

Multiple Choice

It was more than a century ago that an engineer named Frederick Taylor walked into factories and starting timing workers with a stop watch. He dissected their movements, and organized them more efficiently. The monitoring tool, the 21st century equivalent of Taylor's stopwatch, is the computer. Those of us who use them produce rivers of data describing the hours of our work day. Suppose modern firms pay employees based on the quantity of work completed each day as monitored through computers by managers. How would this solve the principal-agent problem?

• A) through employee incentive pay
• B) through employee ownership
• C) through employee long-term contracts
• D) through employee monitoring

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Definitions:

Depreciation

The process of allocating the cost of a tangible asset over its useful life, representing its decrease in value over time.

Shipping Costs

Expenses associated with transporting goods from one location to another, often considered part of the cost of sales or inventory.

Sales Tax

A mandatory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed upon a taxpayer by a governmental organization in order to fund various public expenditures. In this context, it specifically refers to a tax on sales of goods and services.

Ordinary Repairs

Expenditures to maintain an asset in its normal operating condition without significantly extending its useful life or altering its capacity.