Employee Profile

Kristian Alm

Associate Professor

Department of Communication and Culture

Phone +4746410481
E-mail kristian.alm@bi.no

Area of Expertise

Employees freedom of speech
Corporate Social Responsibility
Trust in organisations
Ethical guidelines of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global

Publications

Scientific publications

In the media

Other

Shows 5 of 19 publication(s)

Chapter Heidi Karlsen, Kristian Alm (2025)

Has law and social science trivialised the concept and practice of whistleblowing in Norway 2007–2023?

The Fragility of Responsibility : Norway’s Transformative Agenda for Research, Innovation and Business p. 215-244 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111397719-010

This chapter examines the modern evolution of whistleblowing legislation and practice in Norway and its implications for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Our discourse analysis spans legal provisions, scholarly research, and national surveys and reports on whistleblowing. A finding is that the whistleblowing institution is tied to a power inter-est in encouraging employees to speak out, predominantly to prevent severe public interest damage to the population and economy. Yet, we have found that the law’s broad whistleblowing concept has led to the predominance of commonplace personal-related cases within organisations’ whistleblowing channels. Our analysis further aimed to dis-cern whether this prevailing broad understanding of whistleblowing serves the public interest or rather prioritises individual grievances at its expense. Both organisations’ whistleblowing routines and research surveys exploring the landscape of whistleblowing tend to be based on or are bound by the broad whistleblowing concept in the legislation. Consequently, we have limited tools for assessing whetherwhistleblowing serves the public interest and is an efficient mechanism for detecting when CSR fails. We examine recent research indicating an increase in retaliation against whistleblowers. However, the broad whistleblowing concept makes it difficult to discern whether this increase targets public interest reporting, individual grievance reporting, or both. Consequently, our ability to assess the effectiveness of whistleblowing to restore CSR is impaired. The Norwegian Supreme Court recently interpreted the whistleblowing provisions, solidifying a low threshold for what constitutes whistleblowing. A dissenting minority highlighted the provisions’ intent: whistleblowing in the public interest. Against this background, we conclude by providing suggestions for improving the whistleblowing institute and its potential as a CSR mechanism.

Book Heidi Karlsen, Kristian Alm (2025)

Varsling i Norge – en historisk studie Begynnelsen: forløpere, oppkomst og nyetablert praksis, 1968–2007

Universitetsforlaget Doi: https://doi.org/10.18261/9788215073521-25

Article Kristian Alm, David S.A. Guttormsen (2021)

Enabling the Voices of Marginalized Groups of People in Theoretical Business Ethics Research

Journal of Business Ethics 182 p. 1-18 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04973-3

The paper addresses an understudied but highly relevant group of people within corporate organizations and society in general—the marginalized—as well as their narration, and criticism, of personal lived experiences of marginalization in business. They are conventionally perceived to lack traditional forms of power such as public influence, formal authority, education, money, and political positions; however, they still possess the resources to impact their situations, their circumstances, and the structures that determine their situations. Business ethics researchers seldom consider marginalized people’s voices and experiences as resources to understand their lives, as demonstrated through a review of 7500 articles published in the Journal of Business Ethics and Business Ethics Quarterly (2000–2019). Only 78 studies included aspects of marginalized groups. 69 of those studies discussed the topic of marginalized groups of people, but without integrating their explicit voices into the text. Only 9 of the 78 articles featured marginalized people’s explicit voices about their marginalization experiences incorporated into the text as a source for exploration. None of the identified studies discussed the potential for theorizing based on such voices. This paper contributes to business ethics theory by developing four theoretical possibilities vis-à-vis the critical voices of marginalized people’s experiences in business: (a) marginalized theory on critical agency and freedom of speech; (b) the gatekeeping role of academia; (c) primary sources; and (d) a participative perspective. Discussing the theoretical potential of quoting the above voices can enrich business ethics research in terms of the theoretical understanding of marginalized groups in business.

Chapter Kristian Alm, Jacob Dahl Rendtorff (2020)

Human Rights Violations at the Workplace: Uncovering and Documenting - Günter Wallraff's Activist Whistleblowing Method

Handbook of Business Legitimacy. Responsibility, Ethics and Society Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68845-9_18-1

The aim of this chapter is to provide a theory of activist whistleblowing for justice and dignity as the framework for detecting injustice and human rights abuses in business and organizations. This is important for trust and business legitimacy. We suggest that whistleblowing is an important field of human rights in business and essential for creating public awareness of human rights abuses and democratic engagement in promoting human rights in business. In order to develop such a theory, we use the activist work and controversial life of the German journalist and writer Günter Wallraff based on a confrontation with the dominant concepts of whistleblowing in relation to business and human rights.

Article Kristian Alm, Richard Mark Brown (2020)

John Rawls' concept of the reasonable: A study of stakeholder action and reaction between British Petroleum and the victims of the oil spill in the gulf of Mexico

Journal of Business Ethics Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-020-04474-9

In his political philosophy, John Rawls has a normative notion of reasonable behaviour expected of citizens in a pluralist society. We interpret the various strands of this idea and introduce them to the discourse on stakeholder dialogue in order to address two shortcomings in the latter. The first shortcoming is an unnoticed, artificial separation of words from actions which neglects the communicative power of action. Second, in its proposed new role of the firm, the discourse of political CSR appeared to offer a promising synthesis of deliberation and action. However, the discourse has been criticized for its shortcoming in failing to provide a regulatory environment for corporation—stakeholder dialogue. Through our interpretation of Rawls’ notion of reasonableness in citizens, the article makes two important theoretical contributions to the debate on stakeholder dialogue. First, we transfer Rawls’ injunction in insisting that dialogues between business corporations and their weaker stakeholders must be understood as consisting of both verbal exchanges and actions. Second, we propose that the coercive power of government ought to provide a necessary context for stakeholder dialogue, and that by doing so, it can provide a way forward for the discourse of political CSR. We illustrate the usefulness of this contribution from Rawls in an analysis of BP’s behaviour towards thousands of victims following the Deepwater Horizon blowout in 2010.

Anthology Kristian Alm, Richard Mark Brown, Sigrid Røyseng (2016)

Kommunikasjon og ytringsfrihet i organisasjoner

Cappelen Damm Akademisk

Article Kristian Alm, Jacob Dahl Rendtorff (2016)

Whistleblowing as Employee’s Freedom of Speech. Günter Wallraff's authorship as an illustrative case

Nordicum-Mediterraneum 11(3) Doi: https://doi.org/10.33112/nm.11.3.6

Chapter Richard Mark Brown, Kristian Alm (2016)

Tillit til sannheten. En utfordring for BBC.

Kommunikasjon og ytringsfrihet i organisasjoner p. 275-304

Article Kristian Alm (2015)

Chains of trust or control? A stakeholder dilemma

Journal of Business Ethics Education 12 p. 53-76 Doi: https://doi.org/10.5840/jbee2015124

Editorial Kristian Alm, Riikka Sievänen (2013)

Institutional investors, climate change and human rights

Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment 3(3) p. 177-183 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/20430795.2013.791139

Article Kristian Alm (2013)

"The dark side of the moon": a theoretical framework of complicity applied to the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global

Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment 3(3) p. 184-203 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/20430795.2013.791140

Article Kristian Alm, Erling S. Andersen, Øyvind Kvalnes (2013)

Tillit i prosjekter

Magma forskning og viten 16(3) p. 26-33

Book Kristian Alm (2012)

Yrkesetikk - utfordringer for næringsliv og finans

Universitetsforlaget

Anthology Kristian Alm (2012)

Responsible Investment in Times of Turmoil

Springer

Anthology Kristian Alm (2011)

Responsible Investments in Times of Turmoil

Springer

Chapter Kristian Alm (2010)

The Norwegian Pension Fund: an ethical ‘gold standard’ for international climatic investments?

Innovative regulatory approaches coping with Scandinavian and European Union policies p. 131-147

Chapter Kristian Alm, Per Engelseth, Anniken Karlsen (2009)

Discourses of implementing information systems in corporate merger : a case study from the food exporting industry

System dynamics and innovation in Food networks 2009 : proceedings of the 3rd International European Forum on System Dynamics and Innovation in food Nettworks, February 16-02, 2009, Innsbruck-Igls, Austria p. 369-380 Doi: https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.59189

In 2007 five different industrial food producers merged to become one single firm. This paper places focus on the challenge these actors had in deciding on, implementing, and using an information system to support mainly their raw material purchasing and finished product sales function. Studies show that a large part of information system implementation failures are related to insufficient alignment between various aspects or parts of an organization and the new technology (Miller 2001, Wognum 2004). A report of a working group from The Royal Academy of Engineering and The British Computer Society concerning the challenges of complex IT project (RAEng, 2004) supports this view stating that the most pressing problems are related to the human aspect of processes involved in these kinds of projects, and that further developments in methods and tools to support the design and delivery of such projects could help to raise success rates. Among key findings of this study were: • The levels of professionalism observed in software engineering are generally lower than those in other branches of engineering, although there are exceptions • Senior managers are often ill qualified to handle issues relating to complex IT projects • The importance of project management is not well understood and usually underrated • The vital role of the systems architects in major IT projects is frequently not appreciated and there is a shortage of appropriately skilled individuals • Basic research into complexity and associated issues is required to enable the effective development of complex, globally distributed systems

Article Kristian Alm (2009)

Challenges to Investment Ethics in the Norwegian Petroleum Fund: a newspaper Debate

Philosophica 80 p. 21-44

Chapter Per Engelseth, Takeo Takeno, Kristian Alm (2009)

Food safety, quality and ethics in supply chains : a case study of informing in international fish distribution

The crisis of food brands : sustaining safe, innovative and competitive food supply p. 45-63

Shows 1 of 1 publication(s)

Feature article Kristian Alm (2013)

Slipp gjesteredaktører til

p. 7-7

Shows 5 of 35 publication(s)

Report Heidi Leclaire Karlsen, Kristian Alm, Helga Kristine Kvisli, Maiken Bergheim (2024)

An Annotated Bibliography of Norwegian Whistleblowing Research 1975-2023

Handelshøyskolen BI

Conference lecture Elin Merethe Oftedal, Kristian Alm (2023)

Understanding responsibility across spheres

Paper-slams

Conference lecture Kristian Alm, David S.A. Guttormsen (2021)

ENABLING THE VOICES OF MARGINALIZED GROUPS OF PEOPLE IN THEORETICAL BUSINESS ETHICS RESEARCH

Konferanse

Conference lecture Kristian Alm (2021)

En teori om tillit som nøkkel til å nyfortolke sokratisk dialog

Konferanse

Report Anne-Britt Gran, Linn-Birgit Kampen Kristensen, Eivind Røssaak, Peder Inge Furseth, Jana Bentze Sverdljuk, Kristian Alm, Valentina Moreno (2019)

Bokforbruk, bibliotek og lesing i digitale tider. DnD-rapport nr. 4

BI Centre for Creative Industries

Master thesis Kristian Alm (2018)

Et varsel om brudd på forskningsetikkloven og forskningsetiske normer av 2006 i førsteamanuensis XX forfatterskap. Til Den forskningsetiske komité ved Handelshøyskolen BI

Kristian Alm

Lecture Kristian Alm (2018)

The dark side of the moon": a theoretical framework of complicity applied to the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global

Seminar

Report Kristian Alm (2018)

Etiske perspektiver på varsling - diskusjon og forslag til tiltak. Høringsuttalelse til NOU 2018: 6 Varsling – verdier og vern. Varslingsutvalgets utredning om varsling i arbeidsliv

Regjeringen

Conference lecture Kristian Alm (2018)

John Rawls’ concept of the reasonable – a pilot study of British Petroleum’s behaviour in its stakeholder engagement with the victims of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Seminar/konferanse

Conference lecture Richard Mark Brown, Kristian Alm (2017)

John Rawls' concept of the reasonable - a key to Stakeholder Dialogue. British Petroleum's compensation for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

European Business Ethics Network EBEN Annual Conference

Conference lecture Kristian Alm (2016)

Stakeholder Dialogue and Rawls’ Reasonable Disagreement

European Business ethics Networks research conference

Book chapter Kristian Alm (2016)

Innledning

Kommunikasjon og ytringsfrihet i organisasjoner p. 11-22

Conference lecture Kristian Alm (2016)

Günter Wallraff - journalisten som varsler

Seminar om Günter Wallraffs varslingsjournalistikk

Conference lecture Richard Mark Brown, Kristian Alm (2016)

Stakeholder Dialogue and Rawls' Reasonable Disagreement

EBEN Research Conference 2016

Conference lecture Kristian Alm (2015)

Plagiarism as risk in co-authorship.Advisors co-authorship with PhD-students in 521 PhD-dissertations in 4 research institutions in Norway

Vitenskapelig konferanse

Lecture Kristian Alm (2015)

Supervisor’s coauthorship of PhD-dissertations in Norway

European Business Ethics Networks research conference

Book chapter Kristian Alm, Suzanne van Gils (2014)

Etisk kommunikasjon

Kommunikasjon for ledere og organisasjoner p. 143-164

Conference lecture Kristian Alm (2014)

Research ethics and plagiarism

Seiminar

Book chapter Kristian Alm (2014)

Etisk kommunikasjon: å si fra om kritikkverdige forhold

Kommunikasjon for ledere og organisasjoner p. 95-121

Conference lecture Kristian Alm (2014)

Chains of trust or control? Identyfying a stakeholder dilemma

Business Ethics in a European Perspective. A case for Unity in Diversity?

Book chapter Kristian Alm, Suzanne van Gils (2014)

Etisk kommunikasjon. Å kommunisere om etiske problemer og avgjørelser på en etisk måte

Kommunikasjon for ledere og organisasjonen

3rd edition! Dette kapittelet utforsker forholdet mellom etikk og organisasjonskommunikasjon. Vi diskuterer begrepet «etiske dilemmaer» og illustrerer typer dilemmaer som kan oppstå i organisasjoner. Kapittelet redegjør for ulike etiske teorier, inkludert konsekvensetikk, pliktetikk og dydsetikk, og gir en omfattende forståelse av etisk beslutningstaking som ligger til grunn for kommunikasjon. Derunder diskuteres kort Sokratisk dialog som en metode for etisk utforskning av kommunikasjon. Etisk ledelse blir fremhevet, med vekt på hvordan ledere kan utnytte etisk kommunikasjon. Dette blir diskutert basert påvia Jürgen Habermas’ diskursetikk, som kaster lys over betydningen av etisk ledelse i etiske diskusjoner, og av velbegrunnet enighet. Kapittelet avsluttes med en diskusjon av det som kan oppstå som et godt alternativ; velbegrunnet uenighet, med henvisning til John Rawls’ tenkning. Til slutt utforskes den institusjonaliserte ytringsfriheten som et verktøy for etisk kommunikasjon innen organisasjoner.

Conference lecture Kristian Alm (2013)

ETISKE UTFORDRINGER FOR EN GLOBAL INVESTOR. Bidrag til 2008 evalueringen av Statens pensjonsfond - Utland. Finansdepartementet

Handelshøyskolen BI

Conference lecture Kristian Alm (2008)

Academic Degrees
Year	Academic Department	Degree
1997	University of Oslo	Ph.D.
1986	University of Oslo	Master

Work Experience
Year	Employer	Job Title
2008 - Present	BI Norwegian Business School	Associate Professor
2006 - 2008	BI Norwegian Business School	Assistant professor
2005 - 2008	BI Norwegian Business School	Researcher and Senior lecturer
2004 - 2004	Integritet Film A/S	Advisor
2001 - 2003	Freelance author	Author
1998 - 2001	The Norwegian Government Commission on Human Values	Editor & Secretary
1991 - 1997	University of Oslo	Scholarship holder
1990 - 1990	University of Oslo	Administration collaborator
1989 - 1989	University of Oslo	Teacher
1979 - 1979	Eikåsen MS-hjem	Hospital assistant

Kristian Alm

Area of Expertise

Publications

Has law and social science trivialised the concept and practice of whistleblowing in Norway 2007–2023?

Varsling i Norge – en historisk studie Begynnelsen: forløpere, oppkomst og nyetablert praksis, 1968–2007

Enabling the Voices of Marginalized Groups of People in Theoretical Business Ethics Research

Human Rights Violations at the Workplace: Uncovering and Documenting - Günter Wallraff's Activist Whistleblowing Method

John Rawls' concept of the reasonable: A study of stakeholder action and reaction between British Petroleum and the victims of the oil spill in the gulf of Mexico

Kommunikasjon og ytringsfrihet i organisasjoner

Whistleblowing as Employee’s Freedom of Speech. Günter Wallraff's authorship as an illustrative case

Tillit til sannheten. En utfordring for BBC.

Chains of trust or control? A stakeholder dilemma

Institutional investors, climate change and human rights

"The dark side of the moon": a theoretical framework of complicity applied to the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global

Tillit i prosjekter

Yrkesetikk - utfordringer for næringsliv og finans

Responsible Investment in Times of Turmoil

Responsible Investments in Times of Turmoil

The Norwegian Pension Fund: an ethical ‘gold standard’ for international climatic investments?

Discourses of implementing information systems in corporate merger : a case study from the food exporting industry

Challenges to Investment Ethics in the Norwegian Petroleum Fund: a newspaper Debate

Food safety, quality and ethics in supply chains : a case study of informing in international fish distribution

Slipp gjesteredaktører til

An Annotated Bibliography of Norwegian Whistleblowing Research 1975-2023

Understanding responsibility across spheres

ENABLING THE VOICES OF MARGINALIZED GROUPS OF PEOPLE IN THEORETICAL BUSINESS ETHICS RESEARCH

En teori om tillit som nøkkel til å nyfortolke sokratisk dialog

Bokforbruk, bibliotek og lesing i digitale tider. DnD-rapport nr. 4

Et varsel om brudd på forskningsetikkloven og forskningsetiske normer av 2006 i førsteamanuensis XX forfatterskap. Til Den forskningsetiske komité ved Handelshøyskolen BI

The dark side of the moon": a theoretical framework of complicity applied to the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global

Etiske perspektiver på varsling - diskusjon og forslag til tiltak. Høringsuttalelse til NOU 2018: 6 Varsling – verdier og vern. Varslingsutvalgets utredning om varsling i arbeidsliv

John Rawls’ concept of the reasonable – a pilot study of British Petroleum’s behaviour in its stakeholder engagement with the victims of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

John Rawls' concept of the reasonable - a key to Stakeholder Dialogue. British Petroleum's compensation for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

Stakeholder Dialogue and Rawls’ Reasonable Disagreement

Innledning

Günter Wallraff - journalisten som varsler

Stakeholder Dialogue and Rawls' Reasonable Disagreement

Plagiarism as risk in co-authorship.Advisors co-authorship with PhD-students in 521 PhD-dissertations in 4 research institutions in Norway

Supervisor’s coauthorship of PhD-dissertations in Norway

Etisk kommunikasjon

Research ethics and plagiarism

Etisk kommunikasjon: å si fra om kritikkverdige forhold

Chains of trust or control? Identyfying a stakeholder dilemma

Etisk kommunikasjon. Å kommunisere om etiske problemer og avgjørelser på en etisk måte

A whistleblowing on plagiarism and three declarations on its legitimacy

En kritisk vurdering av Harald Grimens tillitsteori

Å kutte uførepensjon

”Trust as rationalization in professional chains – an ethical challenge.”

Wise responses to moral wrongdoing. A report from a Socratic dialogue among middle managers in a bank

Post Scripta - An Owel's View

Introduction

Etikk og god rådgivningsskikk

Listening to and working with the ones who don’t blow the whistle: Drafting an action research agenda

Discourses of implementing information systems in corporate merger: a case study from the food exporting industry

ETISKE UTFORDRINGER FOR EN GLOBAL INVESTOR. Bidrag til 2008 evalueringen av Statens pensjonsfond - Utland. Finansdepartementet

A critisim of the ethical guidelines of the Norwegian oil fund

Ethical aspects of Managing Food Safety and Quality in a Supply Chain Context

Verdier ved livets slutt - en antologi