<p>This paper tries to find the relationship between the compensation given to the chief executive officer and the performance of the company. Further, it tries to determine the influence of the size of the Board members on the pay scale of the executive. The data consisted of the largest thirty companies in Sweden for the period of 2004-2008. After controlling for firm size and growth opportunities, I find a negative and insignificant relationship between pay and performance. Contradictory to previous studies no correlation between large board size and chief executive officers compensation was found. This paper adds more empirical evidence to the idea of chief executives pay being independent of his performance.</p>

Our research focuses on the negative relationship between the two fundamental dimensions of social perception, warmth and competence. Specifically, we examine antecedents and consequences of what has been called the compensation effect, i.e., perceivers’ tendency to differentiate two social targets in a comparative context on the two fundamental dimensions by contrasting them in a compensatory direction. In order to present our theoretical background and highlight the relevance of our empirical research, the first chapter of this theoretical part reviews the research that has identified competence and warmth as the two fundamental dimensions of social perception, and the second chapter reviews how these two dimensions have been used in social psychology. In the third chapter, we review the work that has concentrated on the properties of these two dimensions. And in the fourth and final theoretical chapter, we present recent research that has tested the compensation effect empirically and that constitutes the starting point of the present endeavor. In the experimental part, our ambition has been to get a better understanding of the compensation effect. In Chapter 5, we identify a necessary condition of the emergence of a compensation effect, namely that it is observed on the two fundamental dimensions of social perception, not on any given pair of dimensions. In three experiments we first replicate the compensation effect on the two fundamental dimensions, then we show that if the unmanipulated dimension is not one of the two fundamental dimensions, then a halo effect is observed when a compensation effect would have been observed with the fundamental dimensions. In Chapter 6, we show how the compensation effect affects social perception beyond impression formation. We do so by showing a compensation effect on indirect measures. In the Chapter 7 we test two original predictions based on the compensation effect. First we predict and find that context can affect the ratings of a specific group in a compensatory way. And we show that the compensation effect can be found on mean ratings, and at the correlational level. Second we predict and show that the compensation effect will lead to more differenciated judgments of groups that have a compensatory profile than those that have a halo profile. This is a doctoral thesis based on a series of articles. Therefore we ask the reader to understand that there will be redundancies in the five theoretical introductions of the articles and a number of cross references.

Teleoperation systems have been used in the operating rooms for more than a decade. However, the lack of force feedback in commercially available systems still raises safety issues and forbids surgical gestures like palpation. Although force feedback has already been implemented in experimental setups, a systematic methodology is still lacking to design the control laws. The approach developed in this thesis is a contribution towards such a systematic methodology: it combines the use of disturbance observers with the use of a structured fixed-order controller. This approach is validated by experiments performed on a one degree of freedom teleoperation system. A physical model of this system is proposed and validated experimentally. Disturbance observers allow to compensate friction, which is responsible for performance degradation in teleoperation. Contrary to alternative approaches,they are based on a model of the frictionless mechanical system. This allows to compensate friction with a time varying behavior, which occurs in laparoscopy. Parametric uncertainties in this model may lead to an unstable closed-loop. A kind of "separation principle" is provided to decouple the design of the closed-loop system from the design of the observer. It relies on a modified problem statement and on the use of available robust design and analysis tools. A new metric is proposed to evaluate the performance of friction compensation systems experimentally. This metric evaluates the ability of a compensation system to linearize a motion system, irrespective of the task and as a function of frequency. The observer-based friction compensation is evaluated with respect to this new metric and to a task-based metric. It correctly attenuates the friction in the bandwidth of interest and significantly improves position and force tracking during a palpation task. Structured fixed-order controllers are optimized numerically to achieve robust closed-loop performance despite modeling uncertainty. The structure is chosen among classical teleoperation structures. An efficient algorithm is selected and implemented to design such a controller, which is evaluated for a palpation task. It is compared to a full-order unstructured controller, representative of the design approach that has been used in the teleoperation literature up to now. The comparison highlights the advantages of our new approach: order-reduction steps and counter-intuitive behaviors are avoided. A structured fixed-order controller combined with a disturbance observer is implemented during a needle insertion experiment and allowed to obtain excellent performance.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the extent to which culture, in six European and two North-American countries, affects CEO compensation. If differences in culture between countries can provide an explanation for cross-national differences in CEO compensation, it may increase multinational corporations understanding of how to design CEO compensations in the countries where they operate. Acquiring such knowledge would maximize the effect of their compensation plans. The study relates cultural dimensions to total CEO compensation and the ratio between variable compensation and total CEO compensation. Cultural data, which comprises the study’s theoretical foundation, is based on the GLOBE study (House et al., 2004). Of the GLOBE study’s nine cultural dimensions, the study examines the five dimensions found most relevant to CEO compensation practices; performance orientation, uncertainty avoidance, institutional collectivism, future orientation and power distance. The research has been conducted through a regression analysis of 240, both private and publically listed companies. Companies with a turnover above €49 million or at least 250 employees were randomly chosen in Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, United States, Canada, France, Ireland and United Kingdom. The study’s results shows that the cultural dimensions examined, to different extent do affect CEO compensation. The results show total CEO compensation to be negatively related to institutional collectivism, power distance and performance orientation. Further, total CEO compensation is positively related to future orientation. The proportion of variable compensation to total CEO compensation is negatively related to institutional collectivism and uncertainty avoidance. The proportion of variable compensation to total CEO compensation is positively related with future orientation. Thus we conclude that culture can contribute to understand cross-national differences in CEO compensation.

The results obtained from this research indicates that there is no statistical relation between the chosen financial variables and the total compensation to the CEO, except sales. CEO compensation is a highly debated subject in Sweden. The debate concerns whether or not CEOs are paid too much in relation to their results. This research investigates what decides the CEO compensation. Can the CEO compensation be explained by the financial variables ROA, ROE, Sales, Tobin’s q, and the size of the largest shareholder? In this paper companies listed on the Swedish Stock Exchange OMX Stockholm large and mid cap during the years 2003 to 2008 are analyzed by empirically and theoretically adapted models.

This paper tries to find the relationship between the compensation given to the chief executive officer and the performance of the company. Further, it tries to determine the influence of the size of the Board members on the pay scale of the executive. The data consisted of the largest thirty companies in Sweden for the period of 2004-2008. After controlling for firm size and growth opportunities, I find a negative and insignificant relationship between pay and performance. Contradictory to previous studies no correlation between large board size and chief executive officers compensation was found. This paper adds more empirical evidence to the idea of chief executives pay being independent of his performance.

On March 28, 2007, at a national conference concerning Special Education in Norrköping Jan Björklund, School Minister for the Alliance Party of Sweden announced that the previous Government's proposal for changes to the existing Special Education System would be rejected. This proposal known as “Quality and Cooperation – Education for Children, Youths and Adults with Disabilities” (Kvalitet och samverkan – om utbildning för barn, unga och vuxna med utvecklingsstörning)was based upon a four year study done by the Carlbeck Committee aimed at a general overhaul of the Special Education System and focusing in particular on bringing Special Education into closer contact with the normal Education System. This decision was met with shock and amazement from the conference members, and following the conference from members of the Swedish Downs Syndrome Association as well as FUB – "The Swedish National Association for Persons with Intellectual Disability", and researchers in the field of Disability Studies. The decision, according to them, moves in the opposite direction to the international movement towards a more inclusive perspective on education. This study examines “For Us Together”, the document upon which the rejected proposal was based upon, interviews from the individuals engaged in the Special Education field, and “More Knowledge - A Modern Educational Proposal” a proposal from the Alliance government regarding changes to the Educational System. This information is then filtered through the Pedagogical theories of Peder Haug, A Norwegian Researcher, found in Pedagogical Dilemma – Special Education.” The aim of the study is to shed light upon, and eventually speculate upon the reasons for this decision, as well it's possible consequences. The conclusions reached involve issues such as: The Educational System's obligation to provide the tools necessary to live and succeed in Society; a raising of the national consciousness concerning Sweden's tendency towards Compensatory Special Educational solutions; the possibility of future advancements in Special Education towards a satisfactory treatment of all involved.

Finns det ett samband mellan belöningssystem och finansiell aktieägartillväxt i publika svenska företag? En intressant och högaktuell fråga, som det visade sig, och som kommer att försöka besvaras i denna uppsats. Inledningsvis undersöktes om det fanns någon relevant svensk statistik som kunde belysa de exekutiva ledarnas förtjänstutveckling under senare år. Statistiska Centralbyråns inkomststatistik gav inte svar på frågan. LO-ekonomernas statistik visade sig vara relevant och bekräftade mitt antagande att inkomstutveckling för denna grupp varit osedvanligt god. Med antagandet bekräftad och således stärkt i tron ställdes tre frågor som uppsatsens syfte var att besvara: Fråga 1 Hur ser de belöningsmodeller ut som tillämpas av svenska företag avseende ersättningar till medlemmar i företagens exekutiva ledningsgrupper? Fråga 2 Hur förhåller sig de tillämpade belöningsmodellerna till relevant belöningsoch motivationsteori? Fråga 3 Finns det ett samband mellan aktieägarnas finansiella utveckling i dessa företag och företagens belöningar till den studerade yrkesgruppen? Lämpliga teorier att applicera på de undersökta företagens belöningsmodeller visade sig vara agentteorin och förväntansteorin. Dessa två teorier jämfördes med de fyra undersökta företagens, Ericsson, Handelsbanken, IKEA och Skandia belöningssystem genom studier av dessa bolags årsredovisningar för åren 2000-2004. Det visade sig härvid att de företag (två st.) som hade de högsta belöningsnivåerna redovisade sämst resultatutveckling och negativ avkastning till aktieägarna, medan det företag (en st.) med den lägsta belöningsnivån, hade en god resultatutveckling och en fördelaktig avkastning till aktieägarna. För IKEA var studiematerialet för knapphändigt för att kunna uttala sig om hur belöningsnivån utvecklats även om aktieägarens avkastning var den mest fördelaktiga bland de undersökta företagen. Samtliga företag, IKEA undantagen, har konstaterats ersätta sina exekutiva ledare med grundlön, rörlig lön, anställningsförmåner och pensionslösningar även om Handelsbanken uppger att man inte tillämpar rörlig bonus eller rörligt tantiem. Slutledningsvis konstaterades att det inte i något fall förelåg något samband mellan hur företagen ersätter sina exekutiva ledare och aktieägarnas finansiella tillväxt.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the attitudes and willingness towards climate compensation in air travel. The study discuss if people feel a personal responsibility about the environment. Earlier research shows that tourists are positive towards climate compensation, but in reality very few use this service. The main question is: Which are the reasons for travellers not to use climate compensation? The used methodology is qualitative and based on ten interviews with people who have travelled by air one or several times since January 2007, when the service was first established. The interviews were then analyzed from a hermeneutical perspective to obtain an understanding for how the respondents perceive the human impact on the environment. This perception leads to their standpoint towards climate compensation. Their standpoints are divided into five subjects: uncertainty, trust, an abstract feeling, discourages and responsibility, which are analysed against selected theories. / Uppsatsen behandlar de attityder till och den vilja som finns hos människor att klimatkompensera flygresor. Studien tar i beaktande om människor känner ett personligt ansvar för miljön. Tidigare undersökningar om resenärers inställningar till att klimatkompensera flygresor har varit positiv, men sedan har det visat sig att en betydligt mindre del verkligen använder sig av tjänsten. Frågeställningen bygger på just denna komplexitet och utgångspunkten för uppsatsen blir därmed; Vad beror det på att resenärer inte klimatkompenserar sina flygresor? Undersökningen är kvalitativ och bygger på tio informella intervjuer med resenärer som gjort en eller flera resor från januari 2007, då klimatkompensering började erbjudas hos researrangörer. Intervjuerna har sedan tolkats utifrån en hermeneutisk ansats för att få en förståelse för hur deras syn på resor och miljö påverkar deras vilja att klimatkompensera. De mönster som uppstått under intervjuprocessen har lett till teman som kan förklara de attityder som finns hos de tillfrågade. De teman som behandlas är ovisshet, tillit, att ställas inför det abstrakta, uppgivenhet och ansvar, vilka sedan analyseras utifrån teorier som ansetts kunna ge en bra förståelse för varför dessa teman uppkommer.

In this age of variation and renovation, enterprise internationalization dominates the competition of enterprises. Confronted by keen competition, pursuing of sustainable management and development and promoting competitive superiority, the enterprises often adopt human resource management to inspire employees with hope to achieve and exceed the expectation of the organization. However, performance appraisal and compensation system are highly valued by the employees in human resource management. As for compensation system, the employees would measure the difference between what they actually acquire and what they expect to acquire and react on how much they identify with the organization and on their performance as well. This research aims at understanding how the below factors, performance appraisal cognition, compensation system cognition and personality traits influence the organizational commitment under the mediating effect of organizational justice. A questionnaire investigation was adopted in this research. Accessible population targeted on companies defined as honorary trainers of SMEs by Small and Medium Enterprise Administration in Ministry of Economic Affairs. Totally there are 500 questionnaires sent out of which 236 samples are retrieved. Weeding out 6 shares of ineffective ones without complete filling-in, there are 230 effective samples. Exploratory factor analysis, multiple regression analysis and path analysis methods are applied in the analysis and the result is as the following: 1¡BAmong performance appraisal cognition, compensation system cognition and organizational justice presents positive influence. 2¡BBetween organizational justice and organizational commitment presents positive influence. 3¡BBetween performance appraisal cognition and organizational commitment presents positive influence. 4¡BBetween compensation system cognition and organizational commitment presents positive influence. 5¡BIn addition to direct positive influence on organizational commitment, performance appraisal cognition also affects it via mediating effect of organizational justice. 6¡BIn addition to direct positive influence on organizational commitment, compensation system cognition also affects it via mediating effect of organizational justice.