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Ansattprofil

Eric Arne Lofquist

Professor - Campus Bergen

Institutt for ledelse og organisasjon

Biografi

American citizen from St. Simons Island, Georgia. Served 28 years in United States Navy flying F-14 Tomcats from US Navy aircraft carriers around the world. Also occupied several top-level leadership positions in the US, Norway, and NATO (Brussels) responsible for strategic level operational planning and organizational change implementation. Former director in Powersim AS responsible for international modelling and simulation consulting, and CEO of Nutec Crisis Management (both in Bergen, Norway). Received PhD from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (NHH) studying the strategic change process known as Take-Off 05 in the Norwegian civil aviation air navigation services provider (Avinor).

Thesis available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11250/164418 Research areas
The leadership's role in strategic-level organizational change in high risk environments (and particularly High Reliability Organizations), and its effect on safety.

Teaching areas
Health, Safety and Environment (HSE), Human Resources Management (HRM), Strategy (business strategy, corporate strategy, international strategy, and strategic management), Leadership and Leader Psychology, and Strategic Crisis Management.

Ekspertområder

Publikasjoner

Hærem, Thorvald; Valaker, Sigmund, Lofquist, Eric & Bakken, Bjørn T. (2022)

Multiteam Systems Handling Time-Sensitive Targets: Developing Situation Awareness in Distributed and Co-located Settings

Frontiers in Psychology, 13 Doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.864749 - Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

There is an increasing interest in how to organize operations carried out by multiteam systems (MTS). Large MTS typically operate with a dedicated integration team, responsible for coordinating the operation. We report a study of a military multiteam system that prosecute time-sensitive targets. We asked whether and how the integration team’s efficiency depends on its communication setting. Specifically, we studied how a co-located vs. a distributed communications setting influenced the shared situation awareness and whether the shared situation awareness again influenced the outcome of the decision processes. We found that performance fell when the integration team shifted from a co-located to a distributed setting. The fall in performance seemed to be mediated by a corresponding fall in situation awareness. Moreover, while the performance improved for each run in the co-located setting, we did not see such learning in the distributed setting. Qualitative observations revealed that misunderstandings lasted longer in a distributed configuration than in a co-located setting. We found that situation awareness at level 3 was the only level of situation awareness significant for predicting all dimensions of performance. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.

Onarheim, Benedicte Astor & Lofquist, Eric (2019)

Du er ikke alene: Psykodrama kan hjelpe overgangen til høyere utdanning

Magma forskning og viten, 22(2), s. 77- 85.

Overgangen til studier i høyere utdanning, enten som ung eller voksen student, kan oppleves stressende og vanskelig og i verste fall medføre emosjonelle problemer og avslutning av studiet. Nye undersøkelser viser at mer enn 30 prosent av studenter ved høyskoler og universi- teter faller ut av studiet og er særlig sårbare det første året. Sosiale og økonomiske konsekvenser av dette for samfunnet har ført til et skjerpet søkelys på førsteårs- studenters erfaringer og alternative tilnærminger for å dempe denne trenden og faren for tidlig frafall. Interna- sjonalt har tradisjonelle strukturelle og psykologiske tiltak hatt minimal effekt i å redusere frafall det første året, og dagens muligheter for å skape sosiale nettverk dekker ikke sårbare studenters behov. Som en alternativ tilnær- ming fulgte dette aksjonsforskningsprosjektet en selv- valgt gruppe risikoutsatte førsteårsstudenter gjennom et ettårig prosjekt hvor psykodramateknikker ble brukt for å hjelpe studentene med å overleve det krevende første året. Vi fant at psykodramametoden signifikant reduserte det psykiske og emosjonelle stresset hos del- takende studenter, og at teknikkene som ble benyttet, fremmet mulighetene for deltakerne til å bearbeide sine utfordringer og evne til å takle forventninger og presta- sjonskrav ved bruk av mestringsferdigheter. Enda mer overraskende fant vi at arbeid i grupper med bruk av psykodramateknikker skapte en følelse av å tilhøre et sosialt nettverk som ikke var tilgjengelig gjennom tradisjonelle sosiale nettverksaktiviteter. Den økonomiske innsatsen som skal til for å gjennomføre denne typen intervensjon, antas å være minimal i forhold til de betydelige kostnadene frafall medfører for studentene, deres familier og samfunnet for øvrig.

Lofquist, Eric & Isaksen, Scott G. (2019)

Cleared for Takeoff? A Snapshot of Context for Change in a High-Risk Industry

Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 55(3), s. 277- 305. Doi: 10.1177/0021886319832011 - Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

Civil aviation is a high-risk industry where actors are experiencing increasing focus on economic performance, greater international competition, and growing safety threats that require continual organizational adjustments. In this article, we present the findings of a case study conducted within the Norwegian national air traffic management organization—Avinor, in preparation for a major reorganization initiative. In this study, we mapped the aggregated readiness and positioning for organizational change in the three main air traffic control centers in Norway using a mixed-method approach to person–environment Fit to help organizational leaders better understand each unit’s positioning for change, and more specifically, individual preferences for change styles. The results suggest that participants at the different air traffic control centers had developed distinctly different change preferences at both the group and individual levels, and that each was distinctly different from the other units in their positioning and readiness for change.

Lofquist, Eric & Matthiesen, Stig Berge (2018)

Viking leadership: How Norwegian transformational leadership style effects creativity and change through organizational citizenship behavior (OCB)

International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 18(3), s. 309- 325. Doi: 10.1177/1470595818806326

Lofquist, Eric; Isaksen, Scott G. & Dahl, Tom Jarle (2018)

Something Fishy: Exploring Change, Job Engagement and Work Environment in the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries

Journal of Change Management, 18(4), s. 281- 303. Doi: 10.1080/14697017.2018.1466823

Lofquist, Eric & Lines, Rune (2017)

Keeping Promises: A Process Study of Escalating Commitment Leading to Organizational Change Collapse

Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 53(4), s. 417- 445. Doi: 10.1177/0021886317711892

Lofquist, Eric; Dyson, Paul K. & Trønnes, Sondre N. (2017)

Mind the gap: a qualitative approach to assessing why different sub-cultures within high-risk industries interpret safety rule gaps in different ways

Safety Science, 92, s. 241- 256. Doi: 10.1016/j.ssci.2016.11.002

Measuring the distance between the performance of safety rules as imagined and safety rules as enacted in high-risk environments has been an area of great interest and debate in recent years. Yet a significant gap in our understanding remains. Some authors have even advised us to “stop bitching about the gap” and start closing it (Hale and Borys, 2013a, p. 218). In this paper, we follow this call by investigating the relationship between safety rules as imagined, and enacted, in a rule-driven organization working in the oil and gas industry in Norway. Specifically, we investigate how three different sub-cultures within the organization: the management culture, the engineering culture, and the operations culture - make sense of safety rules at their respective levels, and why their interpretations of the gaps created by these same rules, are different. These differences lead to different levels of rule enactment. Using a case study approach, we found that how employees’ were engaged in the rule creation process led to different levels of psychological ownership, and this, in turn, led to different levels of rule enactment. We also found that these distinct occupational sub-cultures use different sensemaking approaches in understanding safety rules, and that the resultant differences in understanding directly affects both the understanding of the gap that exists between rules as imagined and rules as enacted, leading to different levels of rule compliance.

Valaker, Sigmund; Yanakiev, Yantsislav, Lofquist, Eric & Kost, Dominique (2016)

The Influence of Predeployment Training on Coordination in Multinational Headquarters:The Moderating Role of Organizational Obstacles to Information Sharing.

Military Psychology, 28(6), s. 390- 405. Doi: 10.1037/mil0000123

Lofquist, Eric Arne (2011)

Doomed to Fail: A Case Study of Change Implementation Collapse In the Norwegian Civil Aviation Industry/Published

Journal of Change Management, 11(2), s. 223- 243. Doi: 10.1080/14697017.2010.527853

Lofquist, Eric Arne; Greve, Arent & Olsson, Ulf H. (2011)

Modeling attitudes and perceptions as predictors for changing safety margins during organizational change

Safety Science, 49(3), s. 531- 541. Doi: 10.1016/j.ssci.2010.11.007

Lofquist, Eric Arne (2010)

The art of measuring nothing: The paradox of measuring safety in a changing civil aviation industry using traditional safety metrics

Safety Science, 48(10), s. 1520- 1529. Doi: 10.1016/j.ssci.2010.05.006

Hærem, Thorvald; Valaker, Sigmund & Lofquist, Eric (2018)

Better Late than Never? Communication Media and Adaptive Team Performance

[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management Meeting.

Lofquist, Eric; Valaker, Sigmund & Hærem, Torvald (2018)

Better late than never? The influence of co-located versus distributed teams on time sensitive targeting

[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management Annual Meeting.

Lofquist, Eric & Isaksen, Scott G. (2018)

Cleared for takeoff? A snap-shot of climate for change in a civil aviation context

[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management Annual Meeting.

Lofquist, Eric (2017)

Jousting with dragons: A Resilience Engineering approach to managing Safety Management Systems (SMS) in the transport sector

[Academic lecture]. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) International Transport Forum.

Lofquist, Eric (2016)

Resilient leadership: Exploring the most appropriate leadership style for resilient organizations within the health care sector

[Academic lecture]. Resilient Health Care Net.

Lofquist, Eric Arne (2005)

Sikkerheten i luftfarten

[Academic lecture]. Solørkonferansen.

Akademisk grad
År Akademisk institusjon Grad
2008 Norwegian School of Economics, NHH Ph.D.
1996 University of New Orleans M.B.A.
1986 Salve Regina University Master of Arts
1986 US Naval War College Master of Arts
1976 Jacksonville University B.S.
Arbeidserfaring
År Arbeidsgiver Tittel
2012 - Present Norwegian School of Economics, NHH Adjunct Professor
2009 - Present BI Norwegian Business School Associate Professor
2008 - 2009 Norwegian School of Economics, NHH Associate Professor
2003 - 2008 Norwegian School of Economics, NHH Research fellow
2002 - 2004 Nutec Crisis Management AS CEO
2000 - 2002 Powersim AS Director
1972 - 2000 United States Navy Naval Aviator