Ceo Behaviors

ALBERT J. DUNLAP does not have much to lose in his new contract as chairman and chief executive of Sunbeam.

The three-year compensation package, worth $70 million at today's stock price, is double the size of his previous pact. Most important, while Mr. Dunlap has often said that he does well if the stock rises, much of his compensation comes in the form stock options that are priced well below the stock's current price. So even if the stock does not budge for three years, Mr. Dunlap will pocket $70 million.

''From this salary we know Al Dunlap is no risk taker,'' said Graef S. Crystal, an executive compensation critic. ''Secondly, he is careless with shareholder money, and so is his board.''

By contrast, George M. C. Fisher, chief executive of Eastman Kodak, said at a news conference this week that he would not get a bonus for 1997 because of his company's poor showing. In 1996, he earned about $2 million in salary and nearly that much more in bonus. Management should be penalized in bad years, he said.

Sunbeam, a small-appliance maker with $1 billion in revenues last year, said that it was extending Mr. Dunlap's contract to insure that he stays to oversee a planned expansion. The new arrangement doubles his annual salary to $2 million, gives him 300,000 shares of unrestricted stock and awards him options to buy 3.75 million shares at $36.85. The stock closed yesterday at $50.4375.

The compensation is in addition to the million shares and 2.5 million options granted in his original contract, which is being replaced and sweetened a year and a half before its expiration.

Mr. Dunlap can exercise a third of his new options immediately and the rest within two years. The options hit their strike price the first trading day after he signed the contract and has risen steadily since March 2, when Sunbeam announced three acquisitions: the maker of Coleman outdoor equipment, the maker of Mr. Coffee machines and the maker of First Alert smoke detectors.

Mr. Dunlap, who was traveling yesterday, did not return calls for comment. He has said publicly in recent weeks, though, that he is worth every penny in his new contract, disclosed in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In his book, ''Mean Business,'' which he promotes along with Sunbeam's mixers and blenders, Mr. Dunlap proclaims that ''the best bargain is an expensive C.E.O.''

To be sure, since the flamboyant and temperamental executive landed at the Sunbeam Corporation, he has created remarkable shareholder value, in part by cutting half the company's 12,000 workers and closing many plants. Since he took over in July 1996 until Jan. 30, the