Arne Carlsen

Arne Carlsen is Professor at the Department of Leadership and Organizational Behaviour at BI Norwegian Business School. Arne earned his PhD at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and was previously a Senior Scientist at SINTEF Technology and Society. He has initiated and managed a series of large applied research projects and interacted closely with over 50 organizations on matters of organizational change, innovation and knowledge creation, human growth, and idea work.

Arne regularly publishes in top international outlets. His work has been accepted for publication in journals such as Organization Science, Human Relations, Organization Studies, Management Learning, Harvard Business Review, Journal of Positive Psychology, Management and Organization Review, and Journal of Management Inquiry.

Carlsen has co-chaired sub-themes and workshops at EGOS, APROS, and AOM and has reviewer experience from most leading organization science journals. His has co-edited four books, including a book Idea Work, co-edited with Stewart Clegg and Reidar Gjersvik, and Research Alive, co-edited with Jane Dutton.

Professor Carlsen is currently Associate Editor in Management Learning.

Research Areas
Arne’s research deals with issues of individual and collective human growth in organizations, in particular as it is manifest in processes of organizational change, identity formation, and creativity.

Arne currently writes about agency, prosocial behavior, positive relationships, imagination, the ethics of research, and what makes projects inspiring. Long term research projects include questions of career pressure amongst young professionals and creativity in cinematic universes. Arne is an active participant in the tradition of Positive Organizational Scholarship where he is a member of the Research Advisory Board for the Center for Positive Organizations at the University of Michigan. Much of his work also reflects a broad interest in practice theory, narrative psychology, strands of linguistic philosophy, and classical pragmatism.