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, Journal of Business Ethics, 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 on Idea Work, co-edited with Stewart Clegg and Reidar Gjersvik, and Research Alive, co-edited with Jane Dutton.
Professor Carlsen currently serves at the Editorial Boards of Academy of Management Learning Education and 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 ehtics 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.
Teaching areas
Change management
Managing for excellence
Sustainable business
Positive organizational scholarship
Idea work and organizational creativity
Research methods
Publikasjoner
Villanova, Ana Luisa; Pina e Cunha, Miguel & Carlsen, Arne (2023)
How Crisis May Generate and Sustain Creative Cycles: The Role of Problem Persistence
We performed an inductive study to advance theory on how a crisis can inspire individuals to be persistently creative in successive cycles. We draw from rich data of 17 volunteer projects in the Tech4Covid movement, a Portuguese organization of entrepreneurs who gathered online to develop digital solutions to help society during the COVID-19 pandemic. This empirical context is uniquely suited to study how interactions with intended beneficiaries during crises can encourage creators to initiate and continue creative work. Our results allowed us to extend the knowledge of crisis-induced creative processes in two ways. First, we noticed that throughout the creative process, creators might switch the primary focus of their work from outside beneficiaries to their own benefit. These changes can serve as a trigger to reinforce creators' motivations to continue their creative work beyond the first set of creative outputs. Second, we propose that the nature of the problem to be solved influences the continuity of creative processes: while momentary problems induced by the crisis may stimulate episodic ideas, their transitory nature may prevent creators from having time to fully develop their ideas further. Thus, it is primarily persistent problems that favor the progress of ideas in successive creative cycles.
Carlsen, Arne & Kvalnes, Øyvind (2023)
Home Alone and All Together: Lightness of agency in social inquiry
Research has provided limited knowledge of how people in organizations experience growth of agency during circumstances that seem hopeless and stuck, and how such growth emerges. Drawing from the study of the turnaround processes at a nursing home and the Pragmatism of Dewey and Mead, we contribute with a theory of how agency is produced in social inquiry. We suggest that the puzzling accounts of lightness in the experiences of people at this nursing home help explain how a field of social inquiry may be charged with creative and agentic force. We show how agency emerged through a series of action sequences related to inviting people into inquiry through the opening of a troublesome situation, the resulting voicing of needs and ideas for improvement, as well as the subsequent experimenting and surfacing of tales of meaningful progress from such actions. Furthermore, our empirical observations suggest that the emergence of collective desire to meet the needs of the Generalized Other is a central, yet understated, part of agency produced through social inquiry. Lightness of agency may be accentuated, paradoxically, by the weight of a more generalized situation – in this case that of institutionalized care for elderly – that the local inquiry exemplifies and in which it resonates.
Lavine, Marc; Carlsen, Arne, Spreitzer, Gretchen, Peterson, Tim & Morgan Roberts, Laura (2021)
Interweaving positive and critical perspectives in management learning and teaching
Management learning is increasingly and rightfully called upon to address societal challenges beyond narrow concerns of economic performance. Within that agenda, we describe the generative aims of a special issue devoted to interweaving positive and critical perspectives in management learning and teaching. The five articles that comprise the issue describe the prospects for such interplay across a range of empirical and theoretical contexts. Together, these contributions suggest a way forward for work that is at once critical, positive, and reflexive. We identify key themes for future directions: the generative potential of contrarian learning dynamics, an ethics-first focus on ecological and human well-being, and the prospects of scholarly practice for systemic activism.
Carlsen, Arne; Clegg, Stewart R., Pitsis, Tyrone S. & Mortensen, Tord Fagerheim (2020)
From ideas of power to the powering of ideas in organizations: Reflections from Follett and Foucault
Research on organizational creativity tends to emphasize fairly static notions of coercive power as positional authority and control over scarce resources. The field remains largely silent about power as a positive and generative phenomenon that can produce creativity. We seek to break that silence by amplifying and integrating the work of Mary Parker Follett and Michel Foucault in concert with recent practice-based approaches to creativity. Power in organizational creativity, we suggest, should first of all be explored as processes of connection, abundance and collective agency. We show that whereas established ideas of positional power over is related to assumptions of linearity and singularity of creativity, ideas of power with and power to are associated with a more dynamic, relational and process-based perspective. The latter set of views implies more attention be paid to processes of interactional framing through which people jointly attend to situations, reach new integrations and produce new social realities.
Carlsen, Arne & Pitsis, Tyrone S. (2020)
We Are Projects: Narrative Capital and Meaning Making in Projects
Research on projects has to a limited degree taken issue with how projects are chief producers of meaning at work. We develop the concept of narrative capital as a basic mechanism for how people can engender meaning in and through projects in organizations. Narrative capital is derived from experiences that people appropriate into their individual and collective life stories, retrospectively, as adding to a repertoire of accumulated learning and mastering, and prospectively, in terms of living with purpose and hope. We chart implications for meaning making in projects as expanding ownership, expanding connections of impact, and extending narrative possibility.
Harrison, Spencer; Carlsen, Arne & Škerlavaj, Miha (2019)
Marvel, la machine à succès: Comment les studios équilibrent continuité et renouvellement
Harvard Business Review France
Espedal, Gry & Carlsen, Arne (2019)
Don’t Pass Them By: Figuring the Sacred in Organizational Values Work
How and why could some stories be construed as sacred in organizations, and what functions does the sacred have in organizational values work? Research has shown how values can be made formative of a range of organizational purposes and forms but has underscored their performative, situated, and agentic nature. We address that void by studying the sacred as a potentially salient yet under-researched realm of values work. Drawing on an ethnographic case study of a faith-based health care organization and the ethical philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, we describe how the sacred is figured in two sets of tales that were lived and told with surprising intensity and consistency: the parable of the Good Samaritan and the tale of the legacy bestowed by the organization’s founder. We theorize how this figuring of the sacred in story and in action recasts values work from a centralized and unitary process to a two-way learning dialectic between the ongoing creative imitation of action and narrative. Values in the shape of stories of the sacred do not achieve their meaning as unchangeable cores or sanctioned beliefs. Rather, they come to life in a process of ongoing moral inquiry that co-evolves with moral agencies. In the latter regard, the sacred primarily becomes manifest in everyday work in the form of questioning and creative acts of care. People become moral agents when they feel and respond to the sacred in the call of the other.
Harrison, Spencer; Carlsen, Arne & Škerlavaj, Miha (2019)
A máquina de sucessos de bilheteria da Marvel: Como o estúdio equilibra continuidade e renovação
Havard Business Review Brasil
Harrison, Spencer; Carlsen, Arne & Škerlavaj, Miha (2019)
Marvel’ın Kapalı Gişe Makinesi
Harvard Business Review Turkiye
Harrison, Spencer; Carlsen, Arne & Škerlavaj, Miha (2019)
마블의 블록버스터 머신 (Marvel's Blockbuster Machine)
Harvard Business Review Korea
Välikangas, Liisa & Carlsen, Arne (2019)
Spitting in the Salad: Minor Rebellion as Institutional Agency
How can a desire for rebellion drive institutional agency, and how is such desire produced? In this paper, we develop a theory of minor rebellion as a form of institutional agency. Drawing from the work of Deleuze and Guattari as well as from notions of social inquiry and the sociology of punk, we qualify and illustrate minor rebellion as a lived-in field of desire and engagement that involves deterritorializing of practice in the institutional field. Three sets of processes are involved: (i) minor world-making, through establishing the aesthetics and relations of an outsider social network within a major field, including the enactment of cultural frames of revolt and radicalism; (ii) minor creating, through constructing and experimenting with terms, concepts, and technology that somehow challenge hegemony from within; and (iii) minor inquiring, through problematizing social purposes and the related experiential surfacing of the desirable new. Minor rebellion suggests a new solution to the paradox of embedded agency by describing institutional agency as shuttling between political contest and open-ended social inquiry, involving anti-sentiments, but also being for something. The paper also contributes to recasting institutional agency as a process resulting from emergent collective action rather than preceding it. To illustrate our theorizing, we describe the emergence of Robin Hood Asset Management, a Finnish activist hedge fund. At the end of the paper we discuss how minor rebellion raises new questions about the multiplicities and eventness of desiring in institutional agency.
Harrison, Spencer; Carlsen, Arne & Škerlavaj, Miha (2019)
Marvel’s Blockbuster Machine: How the studio balances continuity and renewal
Harvard Business Review, July-August, s. 136- 145.
Sundet, Joanne & Carlsen, Arne (2019)
Sweet dreams (are made of this): Cultivating relational agency through high-quality connections in the workplace
Burke, Ronald J. & Richardsen, Astrid Marie (red.). Creating psychologically healthy workplaces
How can people in organizations be relational agents for creating better workplaces? We explore this question based on data from an educational program where executives experimented with a range of strategies for fostering high-quality connections at work. Beyond immediate rewards of being able to create more quality and energy in their relations, we unexpectedly noted the emergence of a more foundational capacity in some of the executives. We understand this as the growth of relational agency; a reflexive and purposive capacity to initiate and carry out actions for improving relationships in the workplace. Based on a sample of seven cases we describe how such agency may be manifest in three ways: (1) being able to turn around situations; (2) lifting individual others; and (3) building collective capacity for positively influencing work relations more broadly. Relational agency has both collective and individual elements. It is anchored in a self-understanding that points back at a repertoire of previous experiences, points forward to a sense of what is desirable and possible and unfolds as a creative capacity in the contingencies of the moment.
Coldevin, Grete Håkonsen; Carlsen, Arne, Clegg, Stewart, Pitsis, Tyrone S. & Antonacopoulou, Elena P. (2019)
Organizational creativity as idea work : Intertextual placing and legitimating imaginings in media development and oil exploration
How do we understand the nature of organizational creativity when dealing with complex, composite ideas rather than singular ones? In response to this question, we problematize assumptions of the linearity of creative processes and the singularity of ideas in mainstream creativity theory. We draw on the work of Bakhtin and longitudinal research in two contrasting cases: developing hydrocarbon prospects and concepts for films and TV series. From these two cases, we highlight two forms of work on ideas: (i) intertextual placing, whereby focal ideas are constituted by being connected to other elements in a larger idea field; and (ii) legitimating imaginings, where ideas of what to do are linked to ideas of what is worth doing and becoming. This ongoing constitution and legitimating is not confined to particular stages but takes place in practices of generating, connecting, communicating, evaluating and reshaping ideas, which we call idea work. The article contributes to a better understanding of the processual character of creativity and the deeply intertextual nature of ideas, including the multiplicity of idea content and shifting parts–whole relationships. Idea work also serves to explore the neglected role of co-optative power in creativity
Rhodes, Carl & Carlsen, Arne (2018)
The teaching of the other: Ethical vulnerability and generous reciprocity in the research process.
How is it that researchers can engage with those they research ethically? In response to the challenge of this question, we articulate an ethics of research engagement based on vulnerability and generosity. This is explored with a special focus on the practicalities of organization studies research. Building on developments in reflexive methodology, we draw on Emmanuel Levinas’ relational ethics to consider how research can be approached as receiving a ‘teaching of the other’. Such teaching involves a radical openness to other people’s difference such that knowledge arises from being affected by those others rather than claiming to know them in any categorical sense. The possibility that emerges is that of a reflexively ethical position from which to conduct research premised on letting go of the egotistical comforts of one’s own epistemic authority. Self-reflexivity becomes rendered subservient to other-vulnerability in embodied research encounters that are open and generous. The promise for research is a deepening of our corporeal, affective and aesthetic engagement with others and an enlarged sense of the ethical meaning of research.
Dysvik, Anders; Carlsen, Arne & Škerlavaj, Miha (2017)
Rings of fire: Training for systems thinking and broadened impact
Brown, Kenneth G (red.). The Cambridge Handbook of Workplace Training and Employee Development
van Iterson, Ad; Clegg, Stewart R. & Carlsen, Arne (2017)
Ideas are feelings first: epiphanies in everyday workplace creativity
This paper contributes to the literature on workplace creativity by combining insights on epiphanies with theory on the embodied and relational nature of understanding. We explore and develop the concept of epiphany, defined as a sudden and transient manifestation of insight. Primarily, we are interested in the implications of the concept’s artistic and philosophical origins for organizational creativity. We start from a consideration of the importance of epiphany in the literary works of Joyce, who underlined the crucial aspect of the conjunction of different human senses (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching). Next, we draw up upon the theory of insights as embodied, experientially felt qualities, as described by Mark Johnson (2007) and predecessors in pragmatism. Using three sets of empirical snippets as aids to reasoning, we arrive at renewed understanding of epiphany as a phenomenon in creativity that is experientially multi-sensuous and collective rather than merely cognitive and individual. Epiphanies are typically manifest as a series of felt occurrences arising within collective practice, follow from a history of preparation, and do not solely involve breakthrough ideas but can also include feelings of doubt, movement, opening up or disconfirmation. Understanding epiphanies in this way extends research on organizational creativity as collective practice. The article suggests further attention be paid to the transient and noetic qualities of work on ideas in organizations, such as visual and material stimuli in sensorial preparations of creativity and the use of openness in marking felt insights.
Carlsen, Arne; Arnulf, Jan Ketil & Zhao, Weitao (2017)
Inviting Wonder in Organization: Tiger, Sandstone, Horror, Snowball
Når det synger i livsnerven: Motivasjon i organisasjoner fra et narrativt perspektiv
Buch, Robert; Dysvik, Anders & Kuvaas, Bård (red.). Produktiv motivasjon i arbeidslivet
Škerlavaj, Miha; Dysvik, Anders, Černe, Matej & Carlsen, Arne (2016)
Succeeding with capitalizing on creativity: an integrative framework
Škerlavaj, Miha; Černe, Matej, Dysvik, Anders & Carlsen, Arne (red.). Capitalizing on creativity at work: Fostering the implementation of creative ideas in organizations
Carlsen, Arne & Välikangas, Liisa (2016)
Creativity that works: implementing discovery
Škerlavaj, Miha; Černe, Matej, Dysvik, Anders & Carlsen, Arne (red.). Capitalizing on creativity at work: Fostering the implementation of creative ideas in organizations
Černe, Matej; Carlsen, Arne, Škerlavaj, Miha & Dysvik, Anders (2016)
Capitalizing on creativity: on enablers and barriers
Škerlavaj, Miha; Černe, Matej, Dysvik, Anders & Carlsen, Arne (red.). Capitalizing on creativity at work: Fostering the implementation of creative ideas in organizations
Škerlavaj, Miha; Černe, Matej, Dysvik, Anders & Carlsen, Arne (2016)
Capitalizing on creativity at work: Fostering the implementation of creative ideas in organizations
Edward Elgar Publishing.
Carlsen, Arne (2016)
On the tacit side of organizational identity: Narrative unconscious and figured practice
Bjørkeng, Kjersti; Carlsen, Arne & Rhodes, Carl (2014)
Between the Saying and the Said: From Self-reflexivity to Other-vulnerability in The Research Process
Cooren, Francois; Vaara, Eero, Langley, Ann & Tsoukas, Haridimos (red.). Language and Communication at Work: Discourse, Narrativity, and Organizing (Perspectives on Process Organization Studies)
This chapter takes a process approach to language use, power relations, and the ethics of response in organizational research. The chapter starts with a discussion of reflexivity in research and show how it needs a radical contestation of the subjectivity–objectivity divide that is key to the process philosophy of pragmatism. A reflexive approach still harbors the danger of an excessive one-sidedness that fails to account for the alterity and reflexivity of the other and also continues to serve power asymmetries privileging the researcher. In response, and following in particular Lévinas, the chapter explores the possibilities that are open to researchers if they approach the research process from a position of other-vulnerability. The chapter uses two illustrative examples and discuss implications for research collaboration, conversations, and participation in theorizing.
The wonderful human has been turned into un-wonderful matter and movement. We seek to recover wonder about the human by examining moments of its recognition, kindling, and suppression. First recognized in Greek philosophy and celebrated in the medieval scholasticism that saw the human in the total reality of divine creation, wonder is diminished today because it has been robbed of transcendence by a scientism that mistakes facts for truth and good and by a postmodernism that denies ultimate meaning. We close on the hopeful note that a diminished wonder cannot last because the divine mystery of human being abides.
Clegg, Stewart R. & Kornberger, Martin (red.). Managing and Organizations: An Introduction to Theory and Practice
Carlsen, Arne (2008)
Positive dramas. Enacting self-adventures in organizations
Journal of Positive Psychology, 3(1), s. 55- 75.
Klev, Roger & Carlsen, Arne (2008)
Enkel kompleksitet? Dilemma-fortellinger som stabiliserende grenseobjekt i kunnskapsintensivt arbeid
Sørensen, Knut Holtan; Gansmo, Helen Jøsok, Lagesen, Vivian Anette & Amdahl, Eva (red.). Faglighet og tverrfaglighet i den nye kunnskapsøkonomien
Carlsen, Arne & Mantere, Saku (2007)
Pragmatism
Bailey, James R. & Clegg, Stewart R. (red.). International Encyclopedia of Organization Studies
Carlsen, Arne (2006)
Organizational becoming as dialogic imagination of practice: The case of the indomitable gauls
Organization science, 17(1), s. 132- 149.
Carlsen, Arne (2006)
Ambivalent laughter. On the seriousness of authoring identities in organizations
APROS, APROS (red.). APROS 11: Asia-Pacific Researchers in Organisation Studies 11th International Colloquium
Carlsen, Arne (2005)
Only when I laugh? Notes on the becoming interview
Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 11(3), s. 239- 255.
Carlsen, Arne; Klev, Roger & Von Krogh, Georg (2004)
Living knowledge: Foundations and framework
Carlsen, Arne; Klev, Roger & Von Krogh, Georg (red.). Living Knowledge. The dynamics of profession service work
Carlsen, Arne (2004)
Doing knowledge dramas: the Battle, the Mission, the Mystery, the Deep Play and the Carnival
Carlsen, Arne; Klev, Roger & Von Krogh, Georg (red.). Living Knowledge. The dynamics of profession service work
Carlsen, Arne; Klev, Roger & Von Krogh, Georg (2004)
Living knowledge. The dynamics of professional service work
Macmillan Publishers Ltd..
Carlsen, Arne; Klev, Roger & Von Krogh, Georg (2004)
Living Knowledge. The dynamics of profession service work
palgrave macmillan.
Håkonsen, Grete & Carlsen, Arne (2003)
Communities and activity systems in knowledge-intensive firms
Junghagen, Sven & Linderoth, Henrik C. J. (red.). Intelligent Management in the Knowledge Economy
This chapter tries to improve our understanding of so-called knowledge-intensive firms. We base our discussion on three blocks fo theory; literature on 'knowledge-intensive work', the concept of 'commnuities of practice' (CoPs) and what is frequently referred to as 'activity systems' within activity theory. Our case is a diversified engineering consluting firm, ICG, within which we have analyzed four communities of workers. We discuss how five identifyable work practices span organizational boundaries, and how workers belonging to specific CoPs may participate in many such practices. This leads us to a closer look at practices organized as 'project types', which we equate with activity systems. Two such activity systems are contrasted, exemplifyinghow knowledge is mobilised in different contexts.
Wenstøp, Fred; Carlsen, Arne, Bergland, Olvar, Magnus, Per & Clímaco, J. (1997)
Valuation of Public Goods with Expert Panels
Multicriteria Analysis
Carlsen, Arne (1994)
Utvikling og strategivalg i Comrod. Fra jordbruksredskaper til fiskestenger til fiberkompositter
Praktisk økonomi og ledelse, 10(3), s. 117- 122.
Strand, Jon; Carlsen, Arne & Wenstøp, Fred (1993)
Implicit Environmental Costs in Hydroelectric Development: An Analysis of the Norwegian Master Plan for Water Resources
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 25(03), s. 201- 2011. Doi: 10.1006/jeem.1993.1043
The ranking of hydropower projects under the Norwegian Master Plan for Water Resources is used to derive implicit government preferences for a number of environmental attributes described by ordinal scores for each project. We apply ordinal logistic regression to the ranks using the scores of the attributes as explanatory variables. As expected, we find that higher negative scores are generally associated with greater implicit willingness to pay to avoid the environmental damage tied to the attribute, caused by hydropower development. We derive total (ordinary economic and implicit environmental) costs for each project and find that environmental costs per capacity unit generally are lower than economic costs for projects ranked for early exploitation and higher for projects ranked for later development. Our derived implicit long-run marginal cost curve for Norwegian hydropower development is generally upward sloping, but not uniformly so.
Kvalnes, Øyvind & Carlsen, Arne (2023)
Skapende motstand
Ytringsklima (podkast) [Internett]
Carlsen, Arne & McQuaid, Michelle (2020)
4 Skills To Improve Your Relationships At Work – Podcast With Arne Carlsen
https://www.michellemcquaid.com/ [Internett]
Carlsen, Arne & Sharma, Garima (2018)
Inside the Methods Section: Four Co-creation Processes.
https://nbs.net/ Network for Business Sustainability [Internett]
Carlsen, Arne & Sharma, Garima (2018)
How to be Vulnerable: Arne Carlsen on Relational Reflexivity in Research
Network for business sustainability, https://nbs.net/ [Internett]
Weinreb, Gali & Carlsen, Arne (2015)
Hva undrer du deg over?
Globes [Avis]
Pileberg, Silje & Carlsen, Arne (2015)
Dei gode ideane
Forskerforum [Tidsskrift]
Carlsen, Arne (2013)
Jakter på idéresept
Dagens Næringsliv [Avis]
Carlsen, Arne (2013)
Kreativitet som lagsport
VG Helg [Avis]
Carlsen, Arne (2013)
Ledelse av idéarbeid
Ukeavisen Ledelse [Avis]
Carlsen, Arne (2013)
Profesjonell kreativitet
NRK P1, Kveldsåpent [Radio]
Carlsen, Arne (2013)
Kreativitet i arbeidslivet
NRK P2, Ekko [Radio]
Gjesdal, Trine; Carlsen, Arne & Landsverk Hagen, Aina (2010)
Fandenivoldsk idéarbeid
Forskning og utvikling, bilag til Dagens Næringsliv [Avis]
Stoltenberg, Kristin; Carlsen, Arne & Mortensen, Tord Fagerheim (2010)
Seriøs kreativitet
Aftenpostens A-Magasin [Avis]
Artikkelen var hovedoppslag i A-Magasinet og fortalte om forskningsprosjektet Idea Work, sett fra journalistens deltakelse på workshop med oljeletere i Statoil
Carlsen, Arne; Škerlavaj, Miha & Dysvik, Anders (1)
Virtual special issue: Good organization in Management Learning
Management Learning [Kronikk]
Kvalnes, Øyvind & Carlsen, Arne (1)
Godt jobba!
Dagens næringsliv [Kronikk]
Carlsen, Arne (2024)
Hope and leadership in organizations. The case for sustainability
[Academic lecture]. Disag seminar series.
Carlsen, Arne; Dutton, Jane E. & Godwin, Lindsey (2024)
Coming alive as researchers: A generative conversation with Drs Arne Carlsen and Jane Dutton.
[Article in business/trade/industry journal]. International Journal of Appreciative Inquiry, 26(1), s. 15- 23. Doi: 10.12781/978-1-907549-58-8-3
Harrison, Spencer; Carlsen, Arne & Skerlavaj, Miha (2023)
Creativity and the compositional paradox. A typology of creative output
[Academic lecture]. Disag seminar series.
Harrison, Spencer; Carlsen, Arne & Skerlavaj, Miha (2023)
Creativity and the compositional paradox. A review and research agenda.
[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management conference 2023.
Carlsen, Arne; Dutton, Jane E. & Maitlis, Sally (2023)
Teaching relationally: Building community and connection in our classrooms. Professional development workshop
[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management conference 2023.
This PDW on Teaching Relationally is designed as an immersive experience in creating and implementing classroom practices with an ethic of care. Drawing from a variety of relational theories, we invite participants to experience and learn small moves to engage each other in and beyond the classroom in ways that foster flourishing and growth, while also acknowledging the deeper social and systemic roots of interactions in class. We welcome six skilled teacher-researchers who will demonstrate a variety of ways to incorporate relational practices in our teaching in order to build a relationship-centric classroom. At the same time, the PDW is designed as an immersive experience that illustrates how a relationship-centric gathering looks and feels. Our aim is to inspire experimentation and optimism about how small changes in our teaching practices can seed connections that enliven classroom learning and deliver positive outcomes for all. By making these practices visible, demonstrable, and discussable, as well as embodily experienced, we seek to strengthen our community of practice and expand our imagination of how to teach relationally. Our aim is for attendees to leave feeling more connected, cared for and inspired themselves, and thereby enabled to experiment and institutionalize efforts to create their own relationship-centric classroom.
Harrison, Spencer; Carlsen, Arne & Carlsen, Arne (2022)
Creativity as composition: a framework and research agenda
[Academic lecture]. CRIB: Creativity and Innovation Brownbag.
[Academic lecture]. Creating a better world together : 82nd Annual meeting of the Academy of Management.
Carlsen, Arne; Nerstad, Christina G. L. & Dysvik, Anders (2022)
Radical career transitions revisited: From self-achievement to desires of the other
[Academic lecture]. 13th International Symposium on Process Organization Studies, Theme: Organizing on the Precipice: Process Studies in Extreme Contexts.
Carlsen, Arne (2021)
Adderley Positive Research Incubator, Seed Generator
[Academic lecture]. Seed generator at Adderley Positive Research Incubator, University of Michigan.
Carlsen, Arne (2021)
What were you thinking? Developing Cognitive Sensibilities for Inductive Coding
[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management Professional Development Workshop: What were you thinking? Developing Cognitive Sensibilities for Inductive Coding.
Sundet, Joanne & Carlsen, Arne (2021)
Venturing mutuality. Growing relational agency in connection
[Academic lecture]. 12th International Process Symposium.
Carlsen, Arne (2021)
What is agency in organizations for? From instrumentality to prosocial and pro-environmental engagement
[Academic lecture]. University of Technology Sydney, Management Department Research Seminar Series.
Player Perspectives on Prosociality in Norwegian Football
[Academic lecture]. European Academy of Management.
Carlsen, Arne (2018)
Growing Givers at Work: A Systems Approach to Prosocial Agency.
[Academic lecture]. Research seminar.
Carlsen, Arne (2018)
Carlsen, A. (2018). Princes or dustbins: Building relational agency from teaching POS. In M. Lavine (organizer). Using Positive Organizational Scholarship to Innovate and Enliven OB and Management Teaching (OB/MED/ODC). Professional Development Workshop at the Academy of Management Meeting
[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management.
Carlsen, Arne & Rhodes, Carl (2018)
Teaching of the other: Practice and pathways towards a vulnerable knowing. In G. Sharma (organizer): Collaborative Research With Practitioners: Research Journeys & Methodological Innovations (RM/SAP). Presenter symposium at Academy of Management Conference
Growing Givers at Work: A Systems Approach to Prosocial Agency
[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management Meeting 2018.
Harrison, Spencer; Carlsen, Arne & Škerlavaj, Miha (2018)
Weaving Tapestries, Building Towers: Repeat Creativity in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe
[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management Meeting 2018.
Dysvik, Anders; Carlsen, Arne & Škerlavaj, Miha (2018)
Good relations are golden
[Popular scientific article]. BI Business Review
Carlsen, Arne; Dysvik, Anders & Škerlavaj, Miha (2017)
Growing Givers at Work: A Systems Approach to Prosocial Agency
[Academic lecture]. POS Research Incubator.
Carlsen, Arne & Välikangas, Liisa (2017)
Spitting in the salad. Minor rebellion as institutional agency
[Academic lecture]. 9th International Process Symposium.
Dysvik, Anders; Carlsen, Arne & Škerlavaj, Miha (2016)
Gull i gode relasjoner
[Popular scientific article]. BI Leadership Magazine, s. 6- 7.
Dutton, Jane E. & Carlsen, Arne (2016)
Being Generative: Teaching about Relationships and Teaching Relationship Courses
[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management 2016.
Carlsen, Arne & Rhodes, Carl (2016)
Transgressing the researcher/practitioner distinction: On other-vulnerability and triadic relationships. In G. Sharma, T. Bensal and S. Bertels (organizers): Presenter Symposium (RM/BPS/MOT): Bridging the Research-Practice Gap: Moving Beyond Why to How.
[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management 2016.
Dysvik, Anders; Carlsen, Arne & Škerlavaj, Miha (2016)
Gull i gode relasjoner
[Popular scientific article]. BI Business Review
Dysvik, Anders; Carlsen, Arne & Škerlavaj, Miha (2016)
Gull i gode relasjoner
[Popular scientific article]. Kapital, 2016(15)
Espedal, Gry & Carlsen, Arne (2016)
Don't pass them by. Figuring the sacred in institutional value work.
Dynamics of idea work – A practice approach to creativity in projects and everyday work. In Panel symposium: The Dynamics of Practice: Practising Strategizing and Project Managing
[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management Annual Meeting.
Kvalnes, Øyvind & Carlsen, Arne (2015)
"What's a good life for you here?": Leadership as moral inquiry
[Academic lecture]. International Leadership Association's 17th Annual Global Conference.
Välikangas, Liisa & Carlsen, Arne (2015)
Real play: Innovation as imagining in four acts
[Academic lecture]. 10 th Organization Studies Summer Workshop and Special Issue Organizational Creativity, Play and Entrepreneurship.
Carlsen, Arne & Kvalnes, Øyvind (2015)
Lightness of radical change: On the positive transformation of a nursing home
[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management Annual Meeting.
Carlsen, Arne & Mantere, Saku (2015)
Virtues of micromanagement. How leaders grow through discipline
[Academic lecture]. Seventh International Symposium on Process Organization Studies.
Carlsen, Arne & Välikangas, Liisa (2014)
Purposive imagination: Knowledge vectors, threshold experiences and strategic experimentation in growth of new business
[Academic lecture]. Strategic Management Society (SMS) 34th Annual International Conference.
Carlsen, Arne (2013)
Skap drama på jobben (gjestekommentar)
[Popular scientific article]. Kapital, s. 115- 115.
Carlsen, Arne; Clegg, Stewart R. & Naar, Liisa (2013)
Why "idea work"? Recovering imagination asintertextual, affective, material and controversial
[Academic lecture]. APROS 2013.
Carlsen, Arne (2012)
From prepping and prototyping to wonder and punk: What does extraordinary idea work look like?
[Academic lecture]. Strategy Research Colloquium.
Bjørkeng, Kjersti; Carlsen, Arne & Rhodes, Carl (2012)
Inter-viewing. From self-reflexivity to Other-vulnerability and joint wonder
[Academic lecture]. 4th International Process Symposium.
Carlsen, Arne & Lloyd, Sandelands (2010)
Flying with the birds. The gift of wonder and the aesthetics of ideas. Paper presented at the Critical Management Studies workshop on Theology and Organization. Academy of Management Meetings, Montreal
[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management Conference.
Carlsen, Arne & Mortensen, Tord Fagerheim (2010)
From dusters to play openers. Ideas of hope. In K. Krauss and C. Wu (organizers), ‘The will and the way: New insights into the workings of hope in Organizations’. Symposia (OB/MOC) at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Montreal
[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management Conference.
Carlsen, Arne & Jane, Dutton (2010)
Unleashing Generativity: Moments of Aliveness, Inspiration and Imagination in Qualitative Research
[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management.
Carlsen, Arne (2005)
Ambivalent laughter. On the seriousness of authoring identities in organisations
[Academic lecture]. APROS 11.
Bjørkeng, Kjersti & Carlsen, Arne (2005)
Six directors in search of a story. Learning from learning histories in a communication agency
Archetypes of activity sysems in professional service work
[Academic lecture]. 21st EGOS conference.
Carlsen, Arne (2005)
Service partnerships reconsidered. What are the alternatives to opportunism?
[Academic lecture]. Nordic Service Conference.
Carlsen, Arne (2005)
Levende kunnskap. Grenseobjekter, aktivitetssystemer og drama i kunnskapsarbeid
[Academic lecture]. Mastergradskurs i Human Resource Management.
Carlsen, Arne (2005)
Becoming, authoring, dramatizing: The importance of key gerunds in organizational change processes, with examples
[Academic lecture]. Prøveforelesning.
Carlsen, Arne (2004)
Tegn på god praksis. Om å blåse liv i utviklingsarbeid
[Popular scientific article]. Bedre Skole, 4(3), s. 57- 61.
Carlsen, Arne (2004)
På vei mot et utviklingsperspektiv for identitet: Hva betyr det for praktisk arbeid i organisasjoner
[Academic lecture]. Fagseminar i prosjektet Kunne Balanse.
Carlsen, Arne (2002)
Acts of Becoming. Identity Work as Playful Knowing and Enactment of Drama
[Academic lecture]. EGOS Conference; European Group for Organizational Studies.
This paper deals with identity work in two professional service firms. It focuses on how identity work underpins competitive advantage, create forward-looking perspective and enlist organisational members in an emotional engagement in the future. The main finding of the case studies is that there are two play modes of particular interest to identity work in organisations; playful knowing and enactment of drama. Playful knowing is conceived as a continuous display of expertise in the form of individual and collective styles. It entails total involvement, creation of new meaning by specialised knowledge and high significance in terms of continuous social affirmation. Enactment of dramas is found to take place in projects and at organisational level. The underlying motivation here is life enrichment through exposure to repeated adventures and maintenance of hope about desirable futures. Meet the Knights of Verbatim and the Indomitable Gauls of Calculus.
Carlsen, Arne & Håkonsen, Grete (2002)
The Dialogic Imagination of Practice. On Formation of Collective Meaning in Organizations
[Academic lecture]. 3rd European Conference on Organizational Knowledge, Learning and Capabilities.
This paper explores organizational becoming as a process of dialogic imagination of practice. Experiences from the organic growth process of a professional service firm form the basis for re-conceptualizing becoming as a duality between practice and meaning, fueled by a set of acts. We focus on boundary objects representing those acts and the reflexive field they constitute. Two successful projects stand out as having decisive influence in the becoming of our case firm. They seem particularly valuable as learning experiences because of four qualities: (1) grounding in core practice, (2) authorization by lead users, (3) resonance in identity, and (4) generation of new ideas. We argue that it is useful to think of these qualities as dialogic relations constituting strong fields of collective meaning. Patterns of management style and the introduction of a metaphor of the indomitable Gauls seem to possess similar qualities. Expressions of experiences enter a field of signifiers, a field whose collectivity is made of intersubjective and intertextual relations. This field stretches backwards and forward in time and may at any moment, by certain types of acts, reconfigure.
Carlsen, Arne (2001)
Når vi forfatter fremtiden. Fortellingens rolle i strategisk endring
Carlsen, Steinar; Johnsen, Svein G., Jørgensen, Håvard D., Coll, Gunnar J., Mæhle, Asbjørn, Carlsen, Arne & Hatling, Morten (1999)
Knowledge Reactivation Mediated through Knowledge Carriers
[Academic lecture]. MICT'99 - Management of Information and Communication Technology.
A framework is presented for understanding the relationship between organisational know-ledge and organisational behaviour, linking knowledge representation, activation, action and effect. Electronic knowledge carriers are understood as knowledge representations capable of mediating organisational knowledge flows. Such flows can be planned, recurrent and formalised for distribution of routines and best practices. Equally important are emergent knowledge flows during work performance, supporting knowledge creation in workgroups. Knowledge reuse is seen as understanding, appropriation, adaptation and re-activation of knowledge carrier elements. Knowledge harvesting returns new and modified elements to involved carriers, giving a knowledge learning cycle including reuse and harvesting as mutually dependent activities understood in relation to each other. Knowledge workers interact with knowledge carriers and each other during work performance. We exemplify assimilation and re-activation of knowledge mediated through such carriers with different interaction and re-activation characteristics. We are particularly concerned with emergent knowledge flows. Examples cover social knowledge re-activation for sharing programmer�s experience-notes, automated re-activation for active process support at the enterprise level, and finally, interactive re-activation for workgroup process support.
Akademisk grad
År
Akademisk institusjon
Grad
2005
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Ph.D.
1988
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Master of Science
Arbeidserfaring
År
Arbeidsgiver
Tittel
2015 - Present
Management Learning, Sage
Associate Editor
2014 - Present
BI Norwegian Business School
Professor
2012 - 2014
BI Norwegian Business School
Associate Professor
2009 - 2011
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture
Post Doc (50%)
1999 - 2011
SINTEF Technology and Society
Senior Scientist
1997 - 2011
SINTEF Indistrial Management
Senior Scientist
2007 - 2008
NTNU, Center for studies of Radical Organizational Change (CROC)