The inequality of the labour market has long been a discussed and studied topic and today we know that women earn less than their comparable male colleagues. Many studies have been conducted to find out if there is a glass ceiling effect for women in the labour market but most of these have used wages as their outcome variable. We wanted to see if women in the labour market face a glass ceiling when looking at the probability of holding a managerial position. We also wanted to see if there was any difference in the glass ceiling when comparing different countries so we studied the glass ceiling in Sweden, France and Great Britain. In order to study the glass ceiling, we use two separate probit regressions. The variable of interest in the first regression is the gender variable while in the other it is also an interaction term that shows the difference in the gender gaps between the private and public sector. The results show that there seems to be a glass ceiling effect in both France and Great Britain since the gender gap increases further up in the workplace hierarchy while the results for Sweden show that there is a gender gap throughout the workplace hierarchy. We also find that the gaps differ in the public and the private sector indicating that where you work can affect the probability of holding a managerial position.

Legal status of managers when terminating employment This thesis deals with the topic of the legal status of a manager when terminating employment. The first chapter outlines the gradual evolution of a job position of an employee- manager in between the years 1918 to 2006 and shows conditions under which it was possible to terminate employment with an employee in a managerial position. The next chapter introduces the individual participants to the employment relationships that is an employee, manager and employer. The third chapter describes the two possible ways how to commence employment in case of a manager which is the appointment or the employment contract and defines all the requirements necessary to comply with so the employment is valid. The following chapter concentrates on the rights and obligations of ordinary employees and managers and the obligations of employers. Managers have the same rights and obligations as ordinary employees, but as they also have to fulfil the role of an intermediator between employer and ordinary employees, they enjoy additional rights and obligations. The fifth chapter focuses on the termination of employment of both managers and ordinary employees. The chapter illustrates in detail three ways how to terminate employment. Employment may be terminated by legal...

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the outcome of mergers and acquisitions are perceived from different managerial positions in the acquiring firm and how managerial expectations can affect the perception of the outcome. Empirical data were gathered through an explorative multiple case study of five acquisitions at three companies by interviewing eight managers at different positions as well as reviewing secondary data. The data was analyzed and cross-case compared in order to detect possible differences between managers at different positions. The findings shows that financial and non-financial aspects are deemed important for how the outcome is perceived by different managers. The findings further indicate that financial aspects are more prominent for managers occupying a position with financial responsibility. The non-financial aspects are on the other hand perceived as important regardless of managerial position. Lastly, the empirical findings indicate that expectations held by individual managers are more dependent on the organizational motive of the acquisition rather than the position held by the manager and that not all expectations have to be fulfilled in order for the acquisition to be perceived as successful.

The thesis is concerned with finding potential obstacles women must overcome in building a professional career. I analyze legal documents that guarantee the principle of equal treatment for women and men. I go through secondary statistical data to ascertain the cause of the existence of the difference in employment rates between women and men. In the empirical part, through personal interviews with women managers I analyze the sources of motivation, which led them to build a career.

Using cross-sectional data from EU-SILC for the Czech Republic this thesis shows existence of gender gap in workplace authority at the Czech labor market. Controlling for human capital, job attributes and household characteristics reduced the gender gap in workplace authority but not at full range. It implies the existence of discrimination at the Czech labor market. This thesis also shows that gender differences in earnings returns to authority also exist, and men have these returns significantly higher compared to women.

Kvinnliga chefer är ett omdiskuterat ämne i samhället i relation till jämställdhet. Diskussionerna kring vad som bidragit under kvinnans resa för att lyckas nå chefspositioner kan beskrivas utifrån individuella egenskaper och olika organisatoriska faktorer. Utifrån en problemdiskussion landade vi in i studiens syfte som är att beskriva individuella egenskaper och organisationens bidrag till kvinnans resa till chefsposition. Studiens har genomförts via en kvalitativ datainsamling i form tre steg. Steg ett semistrukturerade intervjuer med kvinnlig chef. Steg två telefonintervju med kvinnlig chefs respektive samt steg tre uppföljning via mail med kvinnlig chef. Datainsamlingen ledde till en empirisk dataanalys som i sin tur bidrog till identifiering av individuella egenskaper i form av motivation, organisations kompetensförsörjning samt den kollektiva resan. Genom en analys resulterade de individuella egenskaper i form av motivation utifrån tre former som samspelar med varandra vilka är intern motivation, extern motivation och motivation som rörelse/energi. Samspelet vi identifierat är för att motivation skall uppstå krävs en rörelse/energi mellan individen och intern/extern motivation. Om bara en rörelse/energi finns men ingen riktning är utstakad ser vi att motivationen inte leder till ett resultat. Samt att organisationens kompetensförsörjning utifrån tre faser. Fas ett attrahera och rekrytera, fas två behålla och utveckla samt fas tre avveckla och omställning bidrar till kvinnans resa. Utifrån analysen resulterade det i svar på studiens syfte som visar att kvinnans individuella egenskaper i form av motivation tillsammans med organisationen kompetensförsörjning bidrar till kvinnans resa till chefsposition. / Female managers are a debated topic in society in relation to gender equality. The discussions about what contributed during the women's journey to succeed in reaching managerial positions can be described on the basis of individual characteristics and different organizational factors. From a problem discussion, we landed in the purpose of the study, which is to describe individual characteristics and the organization's contribution to the women's journey to managerial position. The study has been conducted through a qualitative data collection in form of three steps. Step one semi-structured interviews with female managers. Step two telephone interview with female managers partner and step three follow-up by mail with female managers. The data collection led to an analysis, which in turn contributed to the identification of individual characteristics in the form of motivation, organizational competence provision and the collective journey. Through an analysis, the individual characteristics resulted in motivation based on three forms that interact with each other which are internal motivation, external motivation and motivation as movement/energy. The interaction we have identified is that for motivation to arise, a movement/energy between the individual and internal/external motivation is required. If only movement/energy exists but no direction is outlined, we see that motivation doesn´t lead to a result. And that the organization's competence provision is based on three phases. Phase one is attracting and recruiting, phase two retaining and developing and phase three dismantling and conversion contributing to the women's journey. Based on the analysis, it resulted to the study's purpose which show that the women's individual characteristics in the form of motivation together with the organization's competence provision contribute to the women's journey to the managerial position.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between attribution related to acquisition of managerial position by women, attitudes toward women managers, sexism and sex differences. 201 workers from various positions in various firms participated in the present study. Findings indicated that male participants exhibited more negative attitudes toward women managers than did female participants. Participants who were high on hostile sexism revealed more negative attitudes toward women managers than participants who were low on hostile sexism. Additional analysis further revealed that unique contributions of sex and HS were found as predictive factors to explain the reason of both negative and positive attitudes toward women managers. Also, findings indicated that the main effects of sex difference and positive attitude toward women managers on ability and effort attributions were not found significant. However, there were significant main effects of sex difference and negative attitude toward women managers on task difficulty and luck attributions. That is to say, men attributed women managers&amp / #8217 / success more to task difficulty, whereas women attributed women managers&amp / #8217 / success more to luck than men. In addition, participants who were high on negative attitudes toward women managers attributed women managers&amp / #8217 / success more to task difficulty than participants who were low on negative attitudes toward women managers. The major contributions of this thesis were (1) investigating the relationship between hostile sexism, sex difference and negative attitude toward women managers / (2) comparing the effects of sex difference and hostile sexism on positive and negative attitudes toward women managers and (3) showing the effects of sex difference, negative and positive attitudes toward women managers on four attributional explanations about women managers&amp / #8217 / success (ability, effort, task difficulty and luck).

Public Service Motivation is a concept of a rather short history. It refers to an altruistic form of motivation to serve the interests of a broader community and appears in the way individuals react towards motives grounded mainly within public institutions. Public administration literature claims that some people have a set of attributes making them more predisposed to positively react towards the special calling of contributing to the community. Although Public Service Motivation has received increased interest from researchers, there is lack of research about the concept within Swedish context.   Understanding the concept of Public Service Motivation and its underlying antecedents can contribute with solutions to problems faced by public institutions. Previous research suggests antecedents of three main categories: individual, socio-historical and organizational. The individuals are motivated by their unique norms and emotions, events and experiences that shape their beliefs and organizational codes of conduct that emphasize or constrain individuals’ behavior. This study aims to fill the gap of lacking research about Public Service motivation within the Swedish context by examining the impact of potential antecedents concerning all three categories.   The data necessary to conduct this study was gathered by an online survey distributed among all Swedish municipalities, addressing managers and employees mainly with an administrative role. The study provided some interesting results which can possibly bring theoretical and practical contributions for the future. It has been demonstrated that individuals’ openness and perseverance, along with positive parental socialization, religiousness and political ideology affects Public Service Motivation. The study also showed that individuals that feel satisfied with their job and individuals who achieved managerial position have a higher Public Service Motivation.    Public Service Motivation is a topic that is increasingly recognized and debated. However, there is still room for future studies, especially within Swedish context. This study provided research about antecedents of Public Service Motivation and a study of effects could serve as a fine complement.

Även om Sverige rankas bland topp tio av världens mest jämställda länder så dominerar män bland chefspositionerna. Studier visar att individer oavsett kön föredrar män som chefer framför kvinnor. Denna kvalitativa intervjustudie syftar till att skapa fördjupad förståelse i hur det är att vara kvinna och chef genom att uppmärksamma upplevda motstånd, utmaningar och svårigheter vilka relaterar till stereotypa uppfattningar om kvinnliga egenskaper. Utifrån de primära teoretiska utgångspunkterna “att göra kön”, “tokenism” och “rollkongruens” har datamaterial insamlat via intervjuer med sex kvinnor i chefsrollen analyserats. Studiens resultat visar att kvinnor i chefsposition stöter på utmaningar och motstånd vilka kan kopplas till stereotypa uppfattningar om den kvinnliga könsrollen. Ett av studiens viktigaste fynd som kan vara en förklaring till detta är att könsstereotypa strukturer är djupt rotade varför de ofta går obemärkt förbi och reproduceras via social interaktion. / Even though Sweden is ranked among the top ten of the world's most equal countries, men dominate among the managerial positions. Studies show that individuals regardless of gender prefer men as managers over women. This qualitative study based on interviews aims to create an in-depth understanding of what it is like to be a woman and a manager by paying attention to perceived resistance, challenges and difficulties which relate to stereotypical perceptions of female characteristics. Based on “doing gender”, “tokenism” and “role congruity theory” as primary theoretical perspectives, data-material collected through interviews with six women in the managerial role has been analyzed. The results of the study show that women in managerial positions encounter challenges and resistance which can be linked to stereotypical perceptions of the female gender role. An important finding that may be an explanation is that gender stereotyped structures are established, which is why they go unnoticed and are reproduced in social interaction.

Having a managerial position and being a woman at the same time can amount to certain problems. Women often have the main responsibility in the houshold whilst also maintaining a great extent of responsibility in the worklife. High demands on the individual in both spheres can make the perceived balance between work life and private life fragile and create difficulties for the individual to achieve balance between the two spheres. To have a great responsibility at the workplace also entails a requirement of accessibility and this requirement could intrude on the perceived balance between work life and private life. This paper examines two main questions: How can the perceived balance between work life and private life be portrayed among female managers? How may the perceived balance differentiate between work life and private life among women in leading positions since they became managers? The theoretical frame of reference form the basis of the study and addresses theories on work-life balance, gender studies and management studies. The study was carried out by using a qualitative method and utilized interviews as the main method for data collection. Ten female managers have participated in the survey. These respondents were selected according to set criterias: to be a female in a leading position working in the public sector. The results show that female managers have great experiences of work-life balance. The perceived balance between work life and private life was based on four different points: the importance of having the ability to keep work life and private life separate, flexibility in the profession, support from your surroundings and time for yourself. The results also show that the balance between work life and private life is something that could be affected by the profession itself. The female managers argue that the managerial position offers a type of freedom which makes them perceive their experience of work-life balance as better in the managerial position than before they became a manager.