The book "Pay without performance: the unfulfilled promise of executive compensation" explores how flaws in corporate governance allow managers to influence their own pay, leading to distorted pay arrangements. The authors show that boards are not independent from executives when setting pay, and market forces and shareholder power are not enough to prevent these distortions. They discuss how managerial power affects executive pay practices, such as camouflaging pay amounts and performance insensitivity. The book also examines how managerial influence reduces the link between pay and performance, and suggests ways to improve executive compensation and corporate governance, like adopting board process rules and increasing pay transparency.