Quick 'cash-outs' fall from favor: survey.

• Position: Compensation - Executive stock holdings

Corporate governance activists put a lot of, er, stock in companies' trying to align executives' interests with those of shareholders. A recent poll finds that executives often feel the same way.

Seventy-six percent of 208 public company executives and employees polled by Clark Consulting think that when an executive receives company stock, either from the vesting of restricted stock or upon exercise of stock options, that they should be required to retain a portion of the shares to create a linkage with shareholder interests.

"Corporations are under tremendous pressure to justify executive pay levels, and also to demonstrate that executives' interests are aligned with shareholders' interests," says Tom Wamberg, Clark's chairman and CEO. "Finding the right formula for executive remuneration is extremely complex, and it is the key not only to retaining talented executives, but also to stabilizing the public market for the company's stock. We will not see a return to the days when executives could cash out quickly."

Wamberg sees this change in attitudes as part of a major overhaul of executive remuneration. "Companies that embrace changes in the manner in...