Bakgrund: Flera organisationer runt om i Sverige använder sig idag av en prestationsbaserad lön för att motivera sina anställda att prestera bättre. I dagens samhälle har en rättvis lön blivit ett allt mer relevant område då priserna på livsmedel, drivmedel, el samt räntor har stigit markant. Inom Human Resources är det viktigt att veta hur de anställda motiveras för att de ska prestera i arbetet. Tidigare forskare har konstaterat att det finns en påverkan på individers motivation samt prestation när det kommer till prestationsbaserad lön. Det finns däremot en avsaknad av forskning som belyser hur motivationen och prestationen påverkas hos individer i en organisation som använder sig av ett löneupplägg med dels fast lön samt dels prestationsbaserad lön. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att förklara hur prestationsbaserad lön samt fast lön kan påverka motivationen hos individer i en organisation som använder sig av båda löneuppläggen samt huruvida detta kan bidra till klyftor inom en organisation i Sverige. Metod: Studien har ett konstruktionistiskt och objektivt förhållningssätt samt en deduktiv forskningsansats. Forskningen har sin grund i två centrala teorier som är SDT samt Agency theory. Studien har vidare en kvantitativ forskningsdesign som baseras på en fallstudie. Insamlingen av empirin har samlats in med hjälp av en kvantitativ enkät, där vi har samlat svar från 72 respondenter. Svaren från enkäten analyseras sedan med tre olika analysmetoder i statistikverktyget SPSS. Slutsats: Studiens resultat förklarar att i en organisation som använder sig av dels en prestationsbaserad lön och dels en fast lön kan detta bidra till att de anställda med fast lön upplever en orättvisa kring lön samt bonusar inom organisationen. Detta i sin tur leder till minskad inre motivation hos dessa anställda. Resultatet förklarar även att den yttre motivationen hos dem med prestationsbaserad lön är högre. Det finns dock ingen tydlig indikation på att detta bidrar till klyftor inom organisationen. / Background: Several organizations around Sweden today use a performance-based salary to motivate their employees to perform better. In today's society, a fair wage has become an increasingly relevant area as the prices of food, fuel, electricity and interest rates have risen significantly. Within Human Resources, it is important to know how employees are motivated to perform at work. Previous researchers have established that there is an impact on individuals' motivation and performance when it comes to performance-based pay. There is, on the other hand, a lack of research that sheds light on how motivation and performance are affected in individuals in an organization that uses a pay structure with part fixed pay and part performance-based pay. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to explain how performance-based salary and fixed salary can affect the motivation of individuals in an organization that uses both salary arrangements and whether this can contribute to gaps within an organization in Sweden. Method: The study has a constructionist and objective approach and a deductive research approach. The research has its basis in two central theories which are SDT and Agency theory. The study also has a quantitative research design based on a case study. The collection of empirical evidence has been collected using a quantitative survey, where we have collected answers from 72 respondents. The answers from the survey are then analyzed with three different analysis methods in the statistical tool SPSS. Results: The results of the study explain that in an organization that uses partly a performance-based salary and partly a fixed salary, this can contribute to the employees with a fixed salary experiencing an injustice regarding salary and bonuses within the organization. This in turn leads to reduced internal motivation among these employees. The result also explains that the extrinsic motivation of those with performance-based pay is higher. However, there is no clear indication that this contributes to divisions within the organization.

The objective with this study was to find what limitations and challenges there are when creating a new development and design on internal systems at a governmental agency. Developing a system within a governmental agency is dependent on defined requirements to develop an approved system. The “Regleringsbrev”, required aspects and the government constitutes the decision support at an agency. A governmental agency offered to be part of the inquiry of this thesis with a system utilized by caseworkers that was investigated. The method used was a concept study and a design study which included a survey of the agency’s requirements and a User-Centered Design approach to merge users in the design process. Based on the results from the concept study a prototype was created and evaluated. The prototype had four functions that would satisfy both the users and the agency's requirements; handling submitted paper applications, viewing tax percentage data when making a decision, text proposals, and the number of clicks. The study provides insight of the process in making a development within a governmental agency. Suggestions to the appointed problem shows potential in further investigating the system, and also how other agencies cope with developing new systems. / Målet med denna studie har varit att hitta vilka begränsningar och utmaningar som uppkommer när man skapar en nyutveckling och design på interna system hos en myndighet. Att utveckla ett system inom en statlig myndighet är beroende av definierade krav för att möjliggöra ett godkänt system. Regleringsbrevet, nödvändiga aspekter samt regereingen utgör beslutstödet hos en myndighet. En av Sveriges myndigheter erbjöd sig att delta i denna undersökning med ett system som används av handläggare på myndigheten. Metoden som användes var en konceptstudie och en designstudie som inkluderade en kartläggning av myndighetskrav samt en användarcentrerad strategi för att involvera användarna i undersökningen. Baserat på resultaten från den genomförda konceptstudie skapades och utvärderades en prototyp. Prototypen hade fyra funktioner som skulle tillgodose både användarnas och myndighetens krav: Hantering av inlämnade pappersansökningar, visning av skattebeslut, textförslag samt antalet musklick. Studien ger inblick i processen att göra en utveckling inom en statlig myndighet. Förslag på det utsedda problemet visar potential i att ytterligare undersöka systemet samt hur andra myndigheter sköter utveckling av nya system.

This thesis analyzes the conceptualization of agency as a form of resistance against dehumanizing slavery discourses present in the narrative The Underground Railroad (2016) by Colson Whitehead. For the historical contextualization and the theoretical background, the scholarly work Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi is used. This serves to better illustrate how Whitehead’s novel, despite being fiction, draws on themes and topics that are real to the experience of millions of black people, particularly in the context of American slavery. The analysis demonstrates how the main black characters, particularly Cora, challenge and invert dehumanizing slavery discourses on brutality and sexual violence, mobility, community and bodily autonomy. They do so by reclaiming agency to humanize themselves and their people, reject captivity by escaping, reject isolation by forming and nurturing relationships with one another, and taking ownership over their bodies and minds with every possible means available. Black female characters such as Cora also reject hegemonic masculinity, which is linked to the system of slavery being understood as patriarchal. Such rejection occurs by defying power dynamics which guarantee the subordination of femaleness and blackness, to maleness and whiteness. Another finding of the thesis is the way in which racism, constructed and used to perpetuate racist policies that benefit the interests of white people, leads to a number of black people in the narrative developing a sense of self shaped by racist notions of inferiority, leading them to sabotage themselves and their people. This could be understood as assimilationism, which ranges from a severe self-sabotage, to fighting for acceptance of white people’s approval, buying into the false notion that something was wrong with blackness in the first place. This thesis is unapologetically antiracist and rejects dehumanizing slavery discourse in its writing. / Denna avhandling analyserar konceptualiseringen av agens som en form av motstånd mot dehumaniserande slaveridiskurser i The Underground Railroad (2016) av Colson Whitehead. För den historiska kontextualiseringen och den teoretiska bakgrunden används Stamped from the Beginning av Ibram X. Kendi. Detta tjänar till att bättre illustrera hur Whiteheads roman, trots att den är fiktion, bygger på teman och ämnen som är centrala i miljontals svarta människors erfarenheter, särskilt i samband med USAs slaverihistoria. Analysen visar hur de svarta huvudkaraktärerna, särskilt Cora, utmanar och inverterar avhumaniserande slaveridiskurser kring brutalitet och sexuellt våld, mobilitet, gemenskap och kroppslig autonomi. De gör det genom att återta friheten att humanisera sig själva och sitt folk, vägra fångenskap genom att fly och, isolering genom att bilda och vårda relationer och hävda äganderätt över kropp och sinne med alla tillbuds stående medel. Svarthet kvinnliga karaktärer som Cora avvisar också hegemonisk maskulinitet, vilket är kopplat till att slaverisystemet förstås som patriarkalt. Sådant förkastande sker genom att trotsa maktdynamik som garanterar underordnandet av kvinnlighet och svarthet, till manlighet och vithet. Uppsatsen visar öckså att det sätt på vilket rasism, konstruerad och använd för att vidmakthålla en politik som gynnar vita människors intressen, leder till att ett antal svarta människor i berättelsen utvecklar en självkänsla som formats av rasistiska föreställningar om underlägsenhet, vilket leder dem att sabotera för sig själva och sitt folk. Detta kan förstås i termer av assimilationism, som sträcker sig från ett allvarligt självsabotage, till att kämpa för vita människors godkännande, att köpa in sig i den falska föreställningen att något är fel med svarhet. Den här uppsatsen är antirasistisk och avvisar avhumaniserande slaveridiskurser.

Michael Tillotson’s Agency Reduction Formation theory is designed to expose, situate, and explain ideological trends that are intended to compel African people to distance themselves from their collective identity (Tillotson 2011, 62). Identity provides African people the internal construction to seek self-determination that allows them to strive for agency, the ability to provide the psychological and cultural resources necessary for the advancement of human freedom (Asante 2007, 40-41). In this study, I have added an agential location dimension to the discourse of “identity names” utilizing Afrocentric analysis to interrogate whether those specific “identity names” position African people toward victorious consciousness, an attitude which reflects a commitment to Africana history, values, and culture. In addition to exploring why it is problematic for African people to identify with terms such as “Nigga”, “Bad Bitch”, “Savage” and “Trap Queen” given the controversy sustained by their overuse as racial epithets and radical forms of misnaming, I also address how such “identity words” are aggressive forms of Agency Reduction Formation. To demonstrate how the use of the previously mentioned “identity words” is an agency reducing activity, I analyzed the words and photographs of African men and women featured on the social networking platform Instagram. Through content analysis, I claimed that African people identifying particularly as a “Nigga”, “Bad Bitch”, “Savage” and “Trap Queen” within their profiles and posts create an environment for dis-empowerment, identity dislocation, and internalized oppression. If tendencies to use these “agency reducing identity words” continues in this manner, African people will experience ongoing cultural dislocation that diminishes their “need for a collective agency that fights against oppression.” / African American Studies

The purpose of this study was to analyze student-selected library books for how, if at all, agency is enacted by the characters. This study uses tenets from critical multicultural analysis (CMA) and elements of visual analysis (VA) to guide a critical content analysis of enactments of agency in the most circulated books from three school libraries during the 2019-2020 school year. This study builds on and extends the existing research on agency development in children and demonstrations of agency in children's literature. Data revealed a variety of characters, genre, and contexts within the identified books. Analysis provided evidence that characters in these child-selected books demonstrated enactments of agency in varying ways and degrees across all titles. Following a discussion that is organized around the themes created from the findings, characters are identified as belonging within one of the following agentic groups: activists, survivors, problem solvers, and friends. Implications for practice and research include further study of agency in characters of popular books, how children perceive enactments of agency of the characters, and the need for school librarians and other educators to understand agency development and acknowledging the agency of children as they make choices in the literature they read.

Study project (MAcc)--Stellenbosch University, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The most basic principle of agency theory is that an individual will always serve his own interest best. According to Eisenhardt (1989) agency theory describes individuals as rational, risk averse en motivated by egotism. Agency theory also deals with the conflict that exists between different parties in an organization due to people's egoism. This self-interest can lead to goal incongruence if a person is placed in an environment where he has to serve somebody else's interest. Ownership and management vested in the same party until about 130 years ago. These roles were however separated with the development of the modem organization. The principal or owner is now represented by the shareholder and management serves as the agent. The principal thus appoints the agent to serve and manage his interest in the organization optimally. The principal's goal is the maximising of his shareholders' wealth. The agent's goal to carry out his task with the minimum effort and or to obtain maximum benefit for himself. It is thus clear that the goals of the principal and agent might often differ and this will give rise to goal Incongruence. This goal incongruence may give rise to some managerial actions which will be detrimental to optimal value of the company. The agency conflict, which is caused by man's self interest, manifests in the modem organization in a number of ways. These are referred to agency problems in this assignment. Agency problems are found both on a micro- and macroeconomical level. Agency cost is the sum of the difference between the real and optimal value of the company, the monitoring costs of the principal and the bonding costs of the agent. This cost is to the disadvantage of the principal and might even be to the disadvantage of the agent. It is thus essential that agency conflict and agency costs are reduced to a minimum. A number of measures are taken to address the agency problems and to reduce their negative effect on the organization. None of these measures will be efficient enough ifused in isolation. An optimal combination of solutions will depend on the company's specific circumstances. An empirical study was conducted to determine to what extent the agency problems manifest during the demutualisation of a big insurance business. The measures taken to address these problems were also investigated as well as the extent to which these were successful. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die basiese aanname van agentskapsteorie is dat die individu sy selfbelang altyd eerste sal stel. Volgens Eisenhardt (1989) beskryf agentskapsteorie individue as rasioneel, risikoongeneigd en gemotiveer deur selfbelang. Agentskapsteorie handel verder oor die konflik wat tussen die verskillende belanghebbende partye binne 'n organisasie as gevolg van persone se selfbelang ontstaan. Hierdie selfbelang van die mens kan lei tot doelwitinkongruensie, indien die persoon in 'n omgewing geplaas word waar daar van hom verwag word om 'n ander se belange te dien. Eienaarskap en bestuur was tot ongeveer 130 jaar gelede gevestig in dieselfde party. Met die totstandkoming van die moderne onderneming, is hierdie rolle egter geskei. Die prinsipaal of eienaar word nou verteenwoordig deur die aandeelhouer en die bestuur dien as die agent. Die prinsipaal stel dus die agent aan om na sy belang in die onderneming om te sien en dit optimaal te bestuur. Die prinsipaal se doel is die maksimering van sy aandeelhouerswelvaart. Die agent poog om sy taak met minimale inspanning te voltooi en of uitsonderlike voordeel vir homself te behaal. Dit is duidelik dat die prinsipaal en agent se doelwitte meermale sal verskil en doelwitinkongruensie ontstaan dus. Hierdie doelwitinkongruensie word vergestalt in sekere aksies wat bestuur soms neem en wat daartoe lei dat die optimale waarde van die firma nie bereik word nie. Die agentskapskonflik wat as gevolg van die partye se selfbelang ontstaan manifesteer in die moderne onderneming op 'n verskeidenheid van wyses, wat in hierdie werkstuk as agenskapsprobleme gedefinieer word. Agentskapsprobleme kom op 'n mikro- sowel as op 'n makro-ekonomiese vlak voor. Die verskil tussen die werklike en optimale waarde van die organisasie, plus die prinsipaal se moniteringskoste en die agent se gebondenheidskoste, verteenwoordig agentskapskoste. Hierdie koste strek tot die nadeel van die eienaars en meermale ook tot die nadeel van die bestuur. Dit is dus noodsaaklik dat agentskapskonflik en die gepaardgaande agentskapskoste tot 'n minimum beperk word. Daar word van 'n verskeidenheid van maatreëls gebruik gemaak ten einde die agenskapsprobleme aan te spreek en hul negatiewe impak op die onderneming te versag. Nie een van hierdie oplossings kan in isolasie gebruik gemaak word nie en afhangend van die onderneming se spesifieke omstandighede, sal daar hoogstens 'n optimale kombinasie van oplossings ontwikkel kan word. Daar is vervolgens in hierdie werkstuk 'n empiriese ondersoek uitgevoer ten einde te bepaal in hoe 'n mate die agenskapsprobleme tydens die demutualisering van 'n groot versekeringsonderneming manifesteer. Die neem van regstellende stappe om hierdie probleem aan te spreek is ondersoek, sowel as die mate waartoe hierdie maatreëls suksesvol was al dan nie.

This paper contributes to the literature by presenting a detailed summary of existing problems with credit rating agencies and proposing a model of a European Rating Agency that acts as a competitor and benchmark to the established credit rating agencies. European Rating Agency (ERA) as a new entrant will make a difference by increasing rating transparency and reputation cost for rating agencies at the same time. A vital point when developing the idea of an independent rating agency was the minimization of regulation changes. This will help shareholder to better orientate and understand the functionalities of the European Rating Agency which will make its establishment process easier. Reputation cost (capital) are assumed to be the building blocks that support the unique position of current rating agencies. ERA is modelled specifically to target this information and use the fragile concept of trust and reputation to the benefit of all stakeholder.

Master's thesis deals with the issue of temporary agency work of manual workers in the Czech and Slovak Republics. The aim of this thesis is to identify the benefits and potential risks of temporary agency work and formulate measures to strengthen identified advantages and eliminate the potential risks from the perspective of the Czech labor market. The theoretical part describes the basic concepts and applicable legislation on this issue. The practical part is focused on analysis of selected economic and legislative factors of temporary agency work in the Czech and Slovak Republics. Based on the results of the analysis are identified the benefits and potential risks and recommended steps to improve the status of this form of employment in the labor market.

Tidigare finanskriser har resulterat i ett större fokus på bankers risktagande. Kriserna har påvisat hur bankers kris kan få förödande effekt på den globala marknaden vilket har föranlett olika konsekvenser (bland annat i form av nya regelverk) för att hantera bankers tendens mot ett för högt risktagande. Bankers inställning till risktagande kan förklaras utifrån dess ägarstruktur där ägarna kan ha olika riskpreferenser.   Forskningsstudier har påvisat att ett samband existerar mellan ägarkoncentration och bankers risk, dock utan någon konsensus om sambandets utseende. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur ägarstruktur påverkar bankers konkursrisk, där banker inom EU-länder har undersökts. Vidare har karaktären på bankernas största aktieägare tagits i beaktning för att se om sambandet mellan ägarkoncentration och risk skiljer sig beroende på vilka ägare bankerna utgörs av. Därtill har sex hypoteser formulerats som syftar till att undersöka relationen mellan ägarstruktur, agentkostnader och konkursrisk utifrån agentteorin och teorier om bolagsstyrning. För studiens undersökning har  en kvantitativ metod använts tillsammans med en deduktiv ansats.   Undersökningen visar, likt andra studier, att det existerar ett samband mellan ägarstruktur och bankers risk. Mer specifikt visar vår studie att sambandet ser olika ut för olika ägartyper. För vissa ägartyper har vi identifierat ett positivt samband mellan ägarkoncentrationen och bankers konkursrisk medan för andra ägartyper har vi istället identifierat ett negativt samband. Avslutningsvis visar studien att agentkostnader föreligger i större grad när aktieägarna har mindre kontroll över ledningen. / Previous financial crises have resulted in a greater focus on bank’s risk taking. The crises have shown how the bank’s instability may create a devastating effect on the global market, which has given rise to several studies focus on bank’s risk. Bank’s attitude towards risk taking can be explained by its ownership structure where the owners may have different risk preferences.   Research studies have found a relationship between the concentration of ownership and bank risk, but without any consensus on the sign of the relationship. The purpose of this study is to investigate how ownership concentration affects bank’s default risk. The study has been performed on banks within the EU countries. Furthermore, the nature of the bank’s largest shareholders has been taken into consideration to distinguish whether they have an impact on the relationship between ownership concentration and risk. In addition, six hypotheses were formulated which aim to investigate the relationship between ownership concentration, agency costs and the default risk, based on the agency theory and theories on corporate governance. For this study’s survey a quantitative method has been used in conjunction with a deductive approach.   Our findings show that there exists a relationship between ownership concentration and bank risk. More specifically, our study shows that the relationship is different depending on the nature of the owner. For some types of owners, we have identified a positive relationship between ownership concentration and bank’s default risk, while for other types of owners we have instead identified a negative relationship. Finally, this study shows that agency costs are greater when shareholders perform a lower degree of monitoring of the management.

This thesis examines the use of various osseous raw materials in craft activities in the Mälaren region during the Middle Ages. Places studied are: Birka, Sigtuna, Nyköping, Strängnäs and Uppsala. The aim is to capture both chronological and spatial changes in the use of osseous raw materials. Species and materials used reflect regional as well as international networks and how they change during time. The spatial distribution of waste from craft activities, its materiality and temporality mirror activities in different social contexts.  Quantitative and qualitative changes in the handling and exploitation of raw materials reflect varying and changing views of its value and how craft and exchange is affected by both a social and economic agency. In Birka, osseous waste material associated with craft was collected by Hjalmar Stolpe in the 1870s. An examination of the assemblage shows that imported material comprises a significant part of the collection. About a third of the waste consists of imported antler of red deer and reindeer. Red deer is particularly abundant (21%), signifying the importance of southern trading networks. The presence of whalebone can also be linked to south-western trading routes. The waste material collected during excavations in Sigtuna and representing the period c. 980-1300 has a different composition, reflecting different networks and perhaps different means of trade and production. As in Birka, elk antler constitutes the main bulk of the raw material used. Red deer antler is extremely limited, forming less than 1% of the material, appearing continuously though in small amounts from c. 1020-1300.  Reindeer antler is distinctly present in the oldest phase, c. 980-1000. This occurrence might represent a relic of the northern network manifested at Birka. An isotopic study indicates an origin in a forested biotope. After this initial phase the use of reindeer antler becomes as rare as that of red deer until the second half of the 12th century, indicating that the antler craft operated on a minor scale without any demand for long-distance trade in raw materials. A change occurs in the last quarter of the 12th century when large quantities of reindeer antler appear once more. Isotope signatures indicate an origin in more mountainous regions. This coincides with the introduction of another traded raw material of an arctic origin: walrus tusk. The craft had become more marked oriented. This is manifested in larger deposits of debris, a wider range of materials used, including bones from various domestic animals, but also the handling and exploitation of the material changes indicating a different view of production, trade and the value of raw materials than previous. This shift coincides with the introduction of minted silver. Western influences are evident both in the material culture and in the faunal assemblage. It is likely that a majority of the reindeer antler as well as the walrus tusk present in these later phases have a Norwegian origin. In the late 1100s and early 1200s craft in osseous material occur in other towns that emerge in the region but it seems to appear in new social contexts. Small assemblages of antler debris have been found in Uppsala, but the activities they represent lack the spatial continuity that exist in contemporary environments in Sigtuna and Strängnäs, indicating short lived occasional activities in a loosely regulated urban environment. Craft activities dependent purely on bone from domestic animals appear in the 1200s in Nyköping, Uppsala and Strängnäs. They represent craft activities in a new social context outside the private sphere of the local elite and instead subordinated other craft activities where domestic animals have been exploited on a large scale beyond the domestic household. Antler craft represents a social practise in the realms of the local elite with a continuity stretching back to the Iron Age. Monetization and an increasingly feudal society redefine social relations and practise. This can be seen in the occurrence of craft in new contexts in the late 1100s and 1200s, reflecting heterogeneity in social and economic functions in and between the towns in the region.