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Women are paid less than men in comparable occupations when human capital factors are controlled for. This gender pay gap is particularly prominent in upper management where on average female leaders are allocated 30 per cent less pay than male leaders. This thesis examines the underlying causes and the consequences of the gender pay gap in managerial positions by considering the organisational context (i.e., company performance) and social context (i.e., women’s experiences in the workplace) in which these differences emerge. First, three studies identify and examine gender disparities in the way in which performance-based pay is allocated as a function of company performance. Second, a survey study takes the perspective of leaders themselves by considering gender differences in pay-related attitudes and their relationship to distinct gendered experiences in the workplace. An archival study (Study 1, N = 192), an experiment (Study 2, N = 201), and a survey (Study 3, N = 180) investigated the role of gender in the relationship between managerial bonuses and company performance. In studies 1 and 3 the bonuses awarded to men were larger than those allocated to women. Moreover, while the compensation of male leaders was sensitive to performance, such that they received greater bonuses the better their company performed, the bonuses awarded to female directors were not sensitive to performance across all three studies. The psychological processes related to this phenomenon were explored in Study 2. It was found that, for a male leader, increasing company performance simply led to larger performance-related bonuses. However, for a female leader, the allocation of a bonus was based on perceptions of her charisma and leadership ability rather than resulting directly from company performance. v Study 4 examines gender similarities and differences in attitudes towards pay and pay negotiations. In a sample of 180 employees with managerial responsibilities, no gender differences in attitudes about the importance of pay were found. However, while female participants felt less confident than men about asking for pay rises, this was, at least in part, explained by their negative workplace experiences, such as feeling to have to invest more time and effort in order to achieve a pay rise and fearing negative responses when making pay demands. The importance of integrating the organisational and social context in the analysis of the gender pay gap is discussed in light of the limitations of a primarily individualistic approach. The role of the organisational context in moderating the attributional dynamics surrounding pay and evaluation patterns is explained within the framework of literature on the romance of leadership and gender stereotypes. The social context is considered in terms of the role of societal beliefs which may influence women’s decisions to opt out of top managerial jobs and their lack of confidence with pay negotiations. Finally, these findings are used to critique the tendency to blame women themselves for gender disparities in pay and their under-representation in managerial jobs, and instead I argue that it is organisational indifference towards women that perpetuates the gender pay gap.

Increasing compensation disclosures mandated by the Securities Exchange Commission provide transparency that allows more shareholders to question the results produced by highly compensated executives. The popular business press often decries the apparent imbalance between executive pay and firm performance. Published academic research has responded with hundreds of studies attempting to explain executive pay in terms of firm performance. The preponderance of these studies focus on Chief Executive Officers. This study empirically examines executive compensation for team effects on future firm performance.Applying a firm specific fixed-effects model to a sample of 13,021 firm-year observations from ExecuComp, the current study regresses top management team compensation and control variables on firm performance averaged one, three, and five years following the year of compensation. One accounting based measure of performance (return on assets) and one market based measure of firm performance (shareholder return) is examined over the one three and five year horizons.Consistent with increasing concerns raised by investors regarding excess executive pay, this study finds evidence that higher top management team pay is associated with companies experiencing lower rates of return in the future. However, higher management team pay is associated with higher profits and market value measured in dollars. Theses effects are significantly different between the short-term and long term components of compensation. Although compensation of the team is highly correlated with the CEO, the compensation of the executive team has incremental effects on future firm performance of the company.This study contributes to the executive compensation literature by providing evidence that the compensation of the top management team affects future company performance. The observed impact of management team compensation on company performance is: incremental to CEO effects noted in prior studies, differential between short- and long-term components of compensation, sensitive to the proxy used for company performance, and attenuates over time. These findings suggest that further research on executive management team compensation is merited in order to address an interesting gap in the extant literature.

This thesis examines short- and long-term decision making, CEO-remuneration and its effects on company performance measured as return on assets during a time-period containing market up- and downturns with regards to company resilience. We examined this in a Swedish context by looking at listed companies on the Stockholm stock exchange during the period 2004 to 2014. The research was conducted using a multiple regression analysis to capture relationships between the dependent variable, the independent- and control variables over the observed time-period. We measure short-term action as decreases in R&D-spending, CapEx and number of employees, that can create short-term profits, whilst long-term actions is the opposite which are expected to generate a high level of company performance in the long run. In our observed population we find that companies who balance short- and long-term actions have a higher company performance, thus deviating from previous research. We also find that an increase in CEO-remuneration will not yield higher company performance when regarding firm size. The results of the study indicate that the companies in our sample have a goal alignment between the CEO and owners, although it shows tendencies of risk adversity in decision making. We find there is a more complex relationship between decision making, the CEO, and company performance than first expected.

Είναι γεγονός, ότι η Διοίκηση Ολικής Ποιότητας είναι μια έκφραση της Οργάνωσης και Διοίκησης των Επιχειρήσεων και έχει υιοθετηθεί σε μεγάλο βαθμό από επιχειρήσεις παγκοσμίως, αποτελώντας ένα ισχυρό εργαλείο για τη βελτίωση των παρεχόμενων προϊόντων και υπηρεσιών. Η ποιότητα αποτελεί έναν από τους σπουδαιότερους ανταγωνιστικούς παράγοντες για τη μακροπρόθεσμη ικανοποίηση των πελατών. Ως εκ τούτου, η αποτελεσματική διοίκηση της ποιότητας των προϊόντων-υπηρεσιών, ξεκινάει από την αξιόπιστη και ακριβή μέτρηση της συνεισφοράς της ποιότητας, τόσο στον οργανωτικό σχεδιασμό όσο και στην οργανωτική απόδοση. Σκοπός της παρούσας εργασίας είναι μέσω τόσο μιας θεωρητικής ανασκόπησης όσο και ενός ερευνητικού κομματιού να αναλυθεί η σημασία των πρακτικών Διοίκησης Ολικής Ποιότητας στον τομέα των ξενοδοχείων, ώστε στη συνέχεια να αποφανθούμε κατά πόσο αυτές σχετίζονται με την βελτίωση της απόδοσης των ξενοδοχείων. / It is a fact that TQM is an expression of Organization and Management of Business and has been adopted widely by businesses worldwide, providing a powerful tool for improving products and services. Quality is one of the most important competitive factors for long-term customer satisfaction. Therefore, the effective management of quality of products and services starts from the reliable and accurate measurement of the contribution of quality, both in organizational design and in the organizational performance. The purpose of this work is through both a theoretical background and a research track to analyze the importance of TQM practices in the hotel, so then to judge whether these relate to improving the performance of hotels.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze how major transnational firms adjust their corporate visual identity (CVI) when entering foreign markets and to determine whether there is a relationship between firmand market-level factors and CVI adjustments as well as an impact on a company’s performance. Methodology/approach: A deductive approach was applied utilizing triangulation with quantitative research through a content analysis of websites of transnational firms (n=329) and qualitative research through semi-structured interviews with six firms. Findings: Out of all observed companies, 46.2% adjusted at least one element of their CVI when entering a foreign market, with most changes being incremental and the slogan being adjusted most often. The greater the international experience of a firm, the less likely are CVI adjustments. Out of the qualitative analysis, a major impact of global branding strategies arose, which often sets strict guidelines for local managers. There are positive relationships to the industries of food processing and restaurants and a negative relationship to the industry of automotive & truck manufacturers. Whether B2B or B2C markets are targeted is, however, not significant. The firm’s performance is not affected by CVI adjustments as no significant relationship has been found. Managerial implications: Managers cannot follow one general conclusion with regards to CVI adjustments found within literature, they should rather take the individual firm- and market-level factors of their business environment into account and use this study as well as additional scientific evidence as the starting point for their own decision-making process. Research limitations/implications: Limitations include the number of items and the convenience sample, as well as the limitation to only one foreign market per company for the analysis. The empirical data represents a certain point in time and does not reflect any developments that may have occurred over time. Further research may include a statistical analysis of the factor of global brand strategy and an investigation on how CVI adjustments and with it a firm’s performance change over time. In addition, a follow-up study could take into account all foreign markets a multinational firm operates in. Originality/value: This paper is one of the first to analyze adjustments of CVI elements and theirrelationships with firm- and market-level industries on a global scale, not limited to few companies or countries. Thus more general conclusions can be drawn.

Literature on the divorce of ownership from control has emphasised the declining proportion of shares owned by salaried managers who control large companies. Because these salaried managers have negligible proprietarial interest in the companies they manage, some writers have suggested that they will have different motives to owner-managers. In particular, managers' direct pecuniary interests may cause them to pursue company growth at the expense of profit, for managers' salaries tend to be related to the size of the companies which they manage rather than the profitability of those companies. These alternate motivations were incorporated in various managerial theories of the firm developed in the late 1960's which emphasised company growth as a key objective. An investigation of the shareholdings and salaries of the directors of major British companies confirms that the proportion of total shares held by company directors has fallen over the years, though it is argued that shareholdings are still large enough to allow directors to exercise effective control over their companies. In addition, while the proportion of total shares held by directors is small, these shareholdings are often large in absolute terms and constitute a significant source of directors' income, though the size of directors' shareholdings varies considerably between industries. Combined dividend income and capital appreciation of shareholdings match the remuneration which directors receive as salary income. It is argued that these profit-related income elements are sufficiently large to cause directors to attach priority to profitability goals. This proposition is explored through statistical analysis of the relationship between directors' remuneration and company performance. Regression results show that as the definition of directors' remuneration is broadened to include dividends and capital appreciation as well as salary, company size variables diminish in importance as determinants of remuneration and profitability variables predominate. Managers do have an incentive to pursue profitability.

Diss. Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2007.

Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2009.

presente trabalho tem o objetivo de analisar o desenvolvimento das orientações e escolhas estratégicas, ao longo de dez anos, em empresas brasileiras de performance superior. A partir de uma abordagem longitudinal, de natureza qualitativa, foram analisadas duas empresas em posição de destaque no cenário mercadológico nacional. As empresas estudadas foram o Grupo Gerdau e a Natura Cosméticos S. A. Para acessar as orientações e escolhas estratégicas, optou-se por uma triangulação de fontes primárias e secundárias, que incluiu entrevistas com Diretores, Presidentes e Executivos, análise de relatórios anuais e análise de campanhas publicitárias, pelo período dos dez anos. Os resultados revelam que as orientações estratégicas norteiam o desenvolvimento de estratégias, que possuem um forte componente cultural e que embasam as práticas gerenciais das companhias. As contribuições da tese aqui apresentada incluem a identificação das interações entre as orientações estratégicas desenvolvidas para responder às mudanças no mercado, bem como a indicação de algumas das iniciativas desenvolvidas pelas companhias no sentido de estender suas crenças, valores e competências a seus fornecedores e clientes.Ademais, foi possível observar como evoluem, nas grandes companhias que foram analisadas, as escolhas e caminhos estratégicos, ao longo de um continuum de tempo. Outro importante resultado da pesquisa aqui apresentada foi a identificação do caráter estável e constante da orientação estratégica central de uma dada companhia. Além disto, foi possível identificar os componentes das diferentes orientações estudadas o que fornece insights e auxilia na demarcação dos conceitos para futuros trabalhos que possam ser realizados sobre o tema. / The present work aims to analyze the development of strategic orientations and of strategic choices along a period of ten years, in Brazilian companies which present superior performances. Employing a qualitative longitudinal approach in the present study, were analyzed two different companies which posses a standing out position on national marketing scenery. The studied companies were Grupo Gerdau and Natura Cosméticos S. A. In order to access their strategic orientations and choices, it was made an option for a triangulation technique, which included interviews with some of their directors, presidents and other executives in charge, and the analysis of annual reports and of publicity campaigns made throughout this selected period of ten years. The results of this research gave evidences of the facts that the strategic orientations lead the development of the company strategies, and that they possess a strong cultural component, and that they base the managing practices of the companies. The contributions offered by the here presented thesis include the identification of the main interactions between the strategic orientations developed by the firms to propose an answer to the changes observed in the market, as well as the indication of some of the initiatives which were developed by the companies, aiming to extend their beliefs and values and competences to their suppliers and clients. Additionally, it was possible to observe, in the analyzed companies, how do evolve the strategic choices and the strategic routes, along a continuum of time. Another important result brought out by the same here presented research was the identification of the standing and constant character of the core strategic orientation in a specific company. Moreover, it was also possible to identify the components of the different studied orientations, and this aspect offer important insights and helps on the establishment of concepts and constructs for future works to be made on the same subject.