Aktiemarknadsorienteringens ideologi - En studie av en organisations försök att skapa aktieägarvärde, dess styrning och kontroll samt uppgörelse med sitt förflutna

Sammanfattning: During the last few decades, the belief in the economic benefits of maximization of shareholder value as a principle of corporate governance has spread from its traditional Anglo Saxon strongholds to the rest of Europe and can now be described as an established and dominant ideology in many large corporations. The more influential part of the literature on shareholder value has mainly paid attention to the instrumental and structural aspects (the causes as well as the effects) of the increased focus on shareholder wealth. In contrast to these studies, this thesis tries to explore less well-documented dimensions of shareholder value such as language, organizational identity and the normalizing and ideologically reproducing effects of structural arrangements in order to improve our understanding of how organizations are affected by (and more or less self-fulfillingly reinforces) an increased stock market orientation.