Skandia och bonusdebatten: En studie av medias porträttering av Skandia-affärerna och dess påverkan på bonusdebatten

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this paper is to perform an in-depth analysis on how the events that took place in Skandia AB during the end of the 1990s have been portrayed in media, and how this has affected the general debate concerning bonuses and incentive plans. The paper studies relevant newspaper articles published in Sweden’s largest business newspaper, Dagens Industri (DI), over a period ranging from 2002 to 2008. The major findings of this paper include that bonuses are widely used as incentives in Swedish companies and that the issue of bonuses as an incentive form has lead to a prevalent debate. Furthermore, the questionable events that took place in Skandia AB during the end of 1990s have affected the general debate concerning bonuses. Two main standpoints dominate the debate; either to abolish the use of bonuses or to modify the use of bonuses. Moreover, the events that took place in Skandia have in the initial stage been simplified by DI, which has lead to an overall simplification of the issues in the subsequent report of news and the general debate concerning bonuses. Our findings imply that the quality of DI’s news reporting is unbalanced and lacks credibility.