Agency theory is used to develop an approach toward organizational control that elaborates upon the construct underlying strategic human resource management. Additionally, firm risk is examined as a moderator to determine how control orientation affects firm performance. A sample of initial public offering firms is studied, and both short and long-term stock price, in addition to firm survival, are predicted. Results support agency and SHRM notions that incentive alignment increases stock price in high risk firms; however, it negatively affects firm survival. Several explanations for the polarizing effect of risk are discussed