This study of decentralization of managerial authority looks at the nature of authority and its relationship to organizations; factors which indicate a basis for greater decentralization of managerial authority; case studies of corporations that decentralized managerial authority; and the human relations aspects of decentralization of authority.

In recent decades, Sweden has seen a rapid increase in the share of health care, education and social care that is delivered by privately-owned companies. Such privatisation of welfare state services has by some of its advocators been viewed as a means to enhance gender equality in labour market outcomes; one of them being access to managerial positions. This thesis uses Swedish registry data to examine how the underrepresentation of female managers differs between public sector and private sector providers of welfare state services. Moreover, the analysis pays close attention to how employees’ family statuses – partnership and parenthood – influence careers in each of the sectors. The result shows that the gender gap in managerial authority is narrower in the public sector than in the private sector. However, family responsibilities are shown to have a smaller and more gender-equal influence on managerial authority among employees in the private sector. The thesis’ conclusion is, thus, that even though career opportunities might be more gender-equal in the public sector than in the private sector, the theoretical assumption that women’s careers are better off in the public sector because it is more “family-friendly” does not receive support.