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
Research has taken important steps towards establishing values work in organizations as a performative phenomenon situated in practice. Yet, researchers have said little about the critical and creative nature of such work, including how it may build its agentic powers more so from what is ethically absent than from what is established. We approach this void by drawing from Dewey’s Pragmatism in a comparative analysis of how three value-laden issues tied to companionate love are handled in a faith-based hospital. We develop the notion of value inquiry, which we understand as a discovery-oriented and transformative constructing of the good that takes its originating creative desires from troublesome situations. Our findings suggest that ethically fruitful value inquiry involves opening such situations in a way that critically examines previous practice, enlists people in co-defining needs and engages them in sustained experimental action. By theorizing value inquiry, we relocate ethical agency as a responsive relational capacity emerging with coactive power in evolving situations. Such emergence highlights the relational processes of work on values in organizations. When inquiring together, people move beyond attending to the use of prescriptive value conceptions and into a creative mode of actively searching for and co-constructing the good.
Eikum, Rune Schanke & Carlsen, Arne (2024)
Becoming greener: Connecting events and mobilizing artifacts in individual sustainability journeys
Villanova, Ana Luisa; Cunha, Miguel Pina e & 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 & Roberts, Laura Morgan (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)
A máquina de sucessos de bilheteria da Marvel: Como o estúdio equilibra continuidade e renovação
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)
Marvel, la machine à succès: Comment les studios équilibrent continuité et renouvellement
Sundet, Joanne & Carlsen, Arne (2019)
Sweet dreams (are made of this): Cultivating relational agency through high-quality connections in the workplace
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.
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’ın Kapalı Gişe Makinesi
Harrison, Spencer; Carlsen, Arne & Škerlavaj, Miha (2019)
마블의 블록버스터 머신 (Marvel's Blockbuster Machine)
Harrison, Spencer; Carlsen, Arne & Škerlavaj, Miha (2019)
Marvel’s Blockbuster Machine: How the studio balances continuity and renewal
July-August, s. 136- 145.
Coldevin, Grete Håkonsen; Carlsen, Arne, Clegg, Stewart, Pitsis, Tyrone S. & Antonacopoulou, Elena P. (2018)
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.
Iterson, Ad van; 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.
Dysvik, Anders; Carlsen, Arne & Škerlavaj, Miha (2017)
Rings of fire: Training for systems thinking and broadened impact
What is the impact of training and development activities at work? In this chapter we argue that such a question should not only be an academic concern but also one that gets is built into all decisions about training. The purpose of our chapter is to investigate how training can contribute to development of systems thinking of trainees as seen through three lenses of building impact; the realm of business impact, the realm beneficiary impact and the realm of societal impact. We thus contribute to a system thinking training by developing and illustrating a framework where we deepen, reorient and expand systemic approaches along these three sets of systemic realms. We reason from three main sets of contrasting empirical examples.
Carlsen, Arne; Arnulf, Jan Ketil & Zhao, Weitao (2017)
Inviting Wonder in Organization: Tiger, Sandstone, Horror, Snowball
Hva driver og motiverer personer som skaper ekstraordinære prestasjoner i organisasjoner? Hovedsvaret jeg undersøker her, er en brennende higen etter livsberikelse – en skapende kraft som kommer i mange varianter, og som ikke kan forstås uten at en tar for seg de fortellingene som gir mening til våre liv. Hvorfor fortellinger? La oss starte enkelt. ”Per klipper plenen.” Det er et tilsynelatende selvbærende og lett forståelig utsagn. Men hvorfor klipper Per plenen, og hva får han igjen for det? Den posisjonen jeg utforsker her tar utgangspunkt i at Pers motiver for plenklipping ikke kan forstås uten å tolkes inn i en eller flere fortellinger. Per kan tenkes å klippe plenen fordi naboen nettopp har gjort det, eller som en del av en ambisjon om å komme i sommerform og hvor dette er en sped start. Per kan klippe plenen fordi det er jobben hans. Per kan klippe plenen som en del av oppladningen til en romantisk aften med en partner som verdsetter denne type innsats som innledende kurtise. Eller Per kan klippe plenen som et siste og avgjørende ledd i testingen av en revolusjonerende ny gressklipperteknologi han selv har vært med på å utvikle. Forhåpentligvis er det klart fra dette eksempelet, lett inspirert fra MacIntyre (1981), at motivasjonen for Pers plenklipping arter seg vidt forskjellig ut i fra hvilket narrativ vi plasserer erfaringen innenfor. Et av MacIntyres hovedpoeng er at adferd kan ikke forstås uavhengig av motiver (MacIntyre bruker som oftest begrepet ”intensjon”), og videre at motiver ikke kan ses 2 adskilt fra den større kontekst hvor adferd utspiller seg, inkludert den konteksten som gir menneskers liv sammenheng og mening. Dette kapitlet tar for seg motivasjon i organisasjoner fra et narrativt perspektiv. Jeg bruker parallellen fra MacIntyre til å utforske det vi kan kalle et situert vokabular for motivasjon (Mills, 1940) i organisasjoner – situert både i forhold til personers livshistorier, kollektiv praksis og den kontekst denne utspiller seg i. Jeg bygger i hovedsak på narrativ psykologi, særlig knyttet til empiriske arbeidet til Dan McAdams (McAdams, 1993, 1999) og kollegaer, og også narrative teoretikere som Sarbin (1986b), Crites (Crites, 1971), Ricoeur (Ricoeur, 1980, 1991) og Bruner (Bruner, 1986, 1990). Jeg relaterer meg også til forskningsstrømmer innen organisasjonsstudier som har innslag fra narrative identitetsteori og/eller forskere som bruker et eksplisitt prosess- og utviklingsperspektiv på identitet og samtidig berører motivasjonsspørsmål (Carlsen, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2016; Dutton, Roberts, & Bednar, 2010; Ibarra, 1999; Roberts & Dutton, 2009; Roberts, Dutton, Spreitzer, Heaphy, & Quinn, 2005; Strauss, Griffin, & Parker, 2012). Det overordnede resonnementet er som følger: Vår opplevelse av sentrale livskvaliteter som mening, spenning, håp, hensikt og bidrag til andre er nært knyttet til våre livshistorier og hvordan vi kontinuerlig beriker dem, griper dem og skriver dem om i de aktiviteter vi lar være meningsbærende. Vår opplevelse av å leve vel er selve motivasjonens krybbe. Arbeidslivet er for de fleste av oss en hovedarena for slik livsberikelse. Livsberikelse handler om meningen med livet i dypest forstand, og jeg foreslår at det er når det synger i livsnerven at motivasjonskraften er sterkest i organisasjoner. For å skjønne styrken i motivene for Pers plenklipping må vi forstå i hvilken grad aktiviteten har en slik meningsbærende resonans. Jeg starter med et par korte teoretiske grunnriss om narrativer, identitet og meningsdanning før jeg diskuterer tre sett av prosesser for å generere motivasjon i et narrativt perspektiv - drama, håp og skapende bidrag (eng, ”generativity”). Eksempler fra andres og egen tidligere forskning – blant annet i Arkitektkontoret Snøhetta, med Statoils oljeletere og i analyseselskapet 3 Point Carbon (Carlsen, Clegg, & Gjersvik, 2012) – brukes som illustrasjoner underveis.
Škerlavaj, Miha; Dysvik, Anders, Černe, Matej & Carlsen, Arne (2016)
Succeeding with capitalizing on creativity: an integrative framework
, s. 335- 344.
Škerlavaj, Miha; Černe, Matej, Dysvik, Anders & Carlsen, Arne (2016)
Capitalizing on creativity at work: Fostering the implementation of creative ideas in organizations
Carlsen, Arne & Välikangas, Liisa (2016)
Creativity that works: implementing discovery
, s. 141- 152.
Černe, Matej; Carlsen, Arne, Škerlavaj, Miha & Dysvik, Anders (2016)
Capitalizing on creativity: on enablers and barriers
, s. 1- 13.
Carlsen, Arne (2016)
On the tacit side of organizational identity: Narrative unconscious and figured practice
We provide a first qualitative empirical investigation of the dynamics of high-quality connections in organizational knowledge creation through a comparative analysis of two organizations involved in management consulting and oil exploration. The study combines approaches from positive organizational scholarship with practice-based studies. We found three types of positively deviant practices for knowledge creation where high-quality connections play a major role: (i) Intensifying collaboration is a response to felt urgency and mutual dependency in high-stakes projects and involves expanding the types of interactions and the emotional intensity in knowledge creation. (ii) Caring questioning unfolds when inviting, open-ended and appreciative questions enable joint dwelling on problems and stimulate help-seeking and help-giving. (iii) Getting physical takes place when the making of collaborative space and use of shared visuals and artifacts enlarge the sensory-motor connectivity in knowledge creation. The paper contributes to both the literature on high-quality connections and knowledge creation, showing how the two phenomena are mutually shaping in positively deviant practice. We shed new light on knowledge creation as informal social processes emerging in daily work. Unlike previous research on high-quality connections, we show how they are first of all ignited by the pull dynamic of high-stakes projects, with caring questioning and getting physical as the fuel that keeps the fire burning.
Bjørkeng, Kjersti; Carlsen, Arne & Rhodes, Carl (2014)
Between the Saying and the Said: From Self-reflexivity to Other-vulnerability in The Research Process
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.
Enkel kompleksitet? Dilemma-fortellinger som stabiliserende grenseobjekt i kunnskapsintensivt arbeid
, s. 157- 177.
Carlsen, Arne & Mantere, Saku (2007)
Pragmatism
, s. 1298- 1301.
Carlsen, Arne (2006)
Ambivalent laughter. On the seriousness of authoring identities in organizations
, s. 399- 412.
Carlsen, Arne (2006)
Organizational becoming as dialogic imagination of practice: The case of the indomitable gauls
17(1) , s. 132- 149.
Carlsen, Arne (2005)
Only when I laugh? Notes on the becoming interview
11(3) , s. 239- 255.
Carlsen, Arne; Klev, Roger & Krogh, Georg Von (2004)
Living knowledge: Foundations and framework
, s. 1- 19.
Carlsen, Arne (2004)
Doing knowledge dramas: the Battle, the Mission, the Mystery, the Deep Play and the Carnival
, s. 40- 66.
Carlsen, Arne; Klev, Roger & Krogh, Georg Von (2004)
Living Knowledge. The dynamics of profession service work
Carlsen, Arne; Klev, Roger & Krogh, Georg Von (2004)
Living knowledge. The dynamics of professional service work
Håkonsen, Grete & Carlsen, Arne (2003)
Communities and activity systems in knowledge-intensive firms
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
, s. 539- 548.
Carlsen, Arne (1994)
Utvikling og strategivalg i Comrod. Fra jordbruksredskaper til fiskestenger til fiberkompositter
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
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
[Kronikk]
Carlsen, Arne & McQuaid, Michelle (2020)
4 Skills To Improve Your Relationships At Work – Podcast With Arne Carlsen
[Kronikk]
Carlsen, Arne & Sharma, Garima (2018)
Inside the Methods Section: Four Co-creation Processes.
[Kronikk]
Carlsen, Arne & Sharma, Garima (2018)
How to be Vulnerable: Arne Carlsen on Relational Reflexivity in Research
[Kronikk]
Carlsen, Arne; Škerlavaj, Miha & Dysvik, Anders (2016)
Virtual special issue: Good organization in Management Learning
[Kronikk]
Pileberg, Silje & Carlsen, Arne (2015)
Dei gode ideane
[Kronikk]
Weinreb, Gali & Carlsen, Arne (2015)
Hva undrer du deg over?
[Kronikk]
Carlsen, Arne (2013)
Jakter på idéresept
[Kronikk]
Carlsen, Arne (2013)
Kreativitet i arbeidslivet
[Kronikk]
Carlsen, Arne (2013)
Ledelse av idéarbeid
[Kronikk]
Kvalnes, Øyvind & Carlsen, Arne (2013)
Godt jobba!
[Kronikk]
Carlsen, Arne (2013)
Profesjonell kreativitet
[Kronikk]
Carlsen, Arne (2013)
Kreativitet som lagsport
[Kronikk]
Gjesdal, Trine; Carlsen, Arne & Hagen, Aina Landsverk (2010)
Fandenivoldsk idéarbeid
[Kronikk]
Stoltenberg, Kristin; Carlsen, Arne & Mortensen, Tord Fagerheim (2010)
Seriøs kreativitet
[Kronikk]
Artikkelen var hovedoppslag i A-Magasinet og fortalte om forskningsprosjektet Idea Work, sett fra journalistens deltakelse på workshop med oljeletere i Statoil
Carlsen, Arne & Lervik, Jon Erland (2025)
Kvalitativ forskning for praktikere
[Textbook].
Carlsen, Arne (2024)
Value inquiry and constructing the good in organizations
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2024)
Life, generativity and contribution: Animating features of a research incubator
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Molli, Federica De; Marrewijk, Alfons van & Carlsen, Arne (2024)
Creating value in megaprojects: Unveiling five qualities of the aesthetic sublime
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2024)
Hope and leadership in organizations. The case for sustainability
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne; Dutton, Jane E. & Godwin, Lindsey (2024)
Coming alive as researchers: A generative conversation with Drs Arne Carlsen and Jane Dutton.
Carlsen, Arne; Sharma, Garima & Rhodes, Carl (2024)
Gift of the world: openness and responsibility in constructing theory for the good
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Eikum, Rune Schanke & Carlsen, Arne (2024)
Becoming greener - Connecting events and mobilizing artifacts in individual sustainability journeys
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Nordhov, Solveig Marianne & Carlsen, Arne (2024)
#Råbra: Hvordan fremheve og forstå det velfungerende i et arbeidsmiljø?
[Lecture]. Event
Eikum, Rune Schanke & Carlsen, Arne (2024)
Unleashing the potential of regenerative leadership: A practice approach
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Harrison, Spencer; Carlsen, Arne & Skerlavaj, Miha (2023)
Creativity and the compositional paradox. A review and research agenda.
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne; Dutton, Jane E. & Maitlis, Sally (2023)
Teaching relationally: Building community and connection in our classrooms. Professional development workshop
[Conference Lecture]. Event
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 & Skerlavaj, Miha (2023)
Creativity and the compositional paradox. A typology of creative output
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Harrison, Spencer; Carlsen, Arne & Carlsen, Arne (2022)
Creativity as composition: a framework and research agenda
Dutton, Jane E.; Carlsen, Arne & Maitlis, Sally (2020)
Seeding High Quality Connections in the Classroom
[Popular Science Article].
Jane, Dutton; Carlsen, Arne & Maitlis, Sally (2020)
I See You: The Power and Limits to Noticing Others
[Popular Science Article].
Dutton, Jane E.; Maitlis, Sally & Carlsen, Arne (2020)
Zooming in on celebrations
[Popular Science Article].
Harrison, Spencer; Carlsen, Arne & Škerlavaj, Miha (2020)
How do critics construct creative products? : location, breaches, and meaning in Hollywood franchises
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Lilleløkken, Ann-Mari & Carlsen, Arne (2020)
Organisational Support Practises for Prosocial Work: Internalising Prosocial Motives in Professional Sports Clubs
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Existing research has highlighted the important role of work context for actors’ motivation to make a positive difference in other’s lives. This paper explores the socially embedded nature of organisational support practises for prosocial work in professional sports clubs in Norway. The investigating questions how this shapes actors’ internalising prosocial motives over time. The prosocial work concerns structured events and activities for good will. The findings illustrate five organisational support practises that form a reiterative and recursive process for shaping the internalising of prosocial motives: (1) internally communicating (2) prepping prosocial experiencing (3) coordinating prosocial working (4) following up valuing (5) practising repeating. This process enables a positive feedback loop that collaboratively surfaces prosocial values as distributed agency through both the opportunity structures and the social environment. Internalising prosocial motives is important because it allows actors to develop affective commitments to beneficiaries and awareness of having a prosocial impact. This paper contributes by developing a framework of the organisational support practises that function as the relational architecture for the positive institutional maintenance of prosocial work.
Dutton, Jane E.; Carlsen, Arne & Maitlis, Sally (2019)
Teaching an elective on positive relationships at work.
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2019)
Publishing in Management Learning. Meet the Editors Session.
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne; Clegg, Stewart R., Pitsis, Tyrone S. & Mortensen, Tord (2019)
From ideas of power to the powering of ideas in organizations.
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Sundet, Joanne & Carlsen, Arne (2019)
Daringly caring: The risky business of high-quality connecting at Work.
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2019)
What’s an idea? Creativity, idea work and intertextual fields
Growing Givers at Work: A Systems Approach to Prosocial Agency
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Dysvik, Anders; Carlsen, Arne & Škerlavaj, Miha (2018)
Good relations are golden
[Popular Science Article].
Harrison, Spencer; Carlsen, Arne & Škerlavaj, Miha (2018)
Weaving Tapestries, Building Towers: Repeat Creativity in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe
[Conference Lecture]. Event
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
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Sundet, Joanne & Carlsen, Arne (2018)
Designing for high-quality connections: Learning from experiential interventions
Player Perspectives on Prosociality in Norwegian Football
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2018)
Growing Givers at Work: A Systems Approach to Prosocial Agency.
[Conference Lecture]. Event
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
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne & Välikangas, Liisa (2017)
Spitting in the salad. Minor rebellion as institutional agency
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne; Dysvik, Anders & Škerlavaj, Miha (2017)
Growing Givers at Work: A Systems Approach to Prosocial Agency
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2017)
Hvordan bruke narrativer i forbedringsarbeid?
[Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2017)
Letthet i radikal endring? Om handlekraft, galskap og livsglede i den positive forvandlingen av et sykehjem
[Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne & Škerlavaj, Miha (2017)
Design thinking & the power of creativity
[Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2017)
Prepping og undring på veien til inspirasjon
[Lecture]. Event
Dysvik, Anders; Carlsen, Arne & Škerlavaj, Miha (2016)
Gull i gode relasjoner
[Popular Science Article]. 2016(15)
Espedal, Gry & Carlsen, Arne (2016)
Don't pass them by. Figuring the sacred in institutional value work.
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Dysvik, Anders; Carlsen, Arne & Škerlavaj, Miha (2016)
Gull i gode relasjoner
[Popular Science Article].
Dysvik, Anders; Carlsen, Arne & Škerlavaj, Miha (2016)
Gull i gode relasjoner
[Popular Science Article]. , s. 6- 7.
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.
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Dutton, Jane E. & Carlsen, Arne (2016)
Being Generative: Teaching about Relationships and Teaching Relationship Courses
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne & Kvalnes, Øyvind (2015)
Lightness of radical change: On the positive transformation of a nursing home
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2015)
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
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne & Mantere, Saku (2015)
Virtues of micromanagement. How leaders grow through discipline
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne & Mortensen, Tord (2015)
Managing for creative excellence: Getting visual
[Lecture]. Event
Välikangas, Liisa & Carlsen, Arne (2015)
Real play: Innovation as imagining in four acts
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Kvalnes, Øyvind & Carlsen, Arne (2015)
"What's a good life for you here?": Leadership as moral inquiry
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne & Välikangas, Liisa (2014)
Purposive imagination: Knowledge vectors, threshold experiences and strategic experimentation in growth of new business
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2013)
Prepping, drama, undring, skapende motstand og punk: Hvordan ser ekstraordinært idéarbeid ut?
[Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2013)
Idea Work: Å prestere med ideer
[Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2013)
Hvordan leder du arbeidet med å utvikle ekstraordinære ideer?
[Lecture]. Event
Škerlavaj, Miha; Carlsen, Arne & Dysvik, Anders (2013)
Prosocial motivation: How can internal and external beneficiaries inspire our work?
[Lecture]. Event
There is increasing evidence that the primary job motivation is relational and other-focused. Prosocial motivation, the desire to protect and promote the well-being of others is an innovative approach to lead people at work. It builds upon the premise that beneficiaries (e.g. customers and coworkers) are best source of inspiration (as opposed to inspiring leaders prevalent in the current literature). Most recent research shows that giving- and helping-orientation in social interaction leads to better performance (creativity and innovation, knowledge sharing, work engagement, sales, accuracy, etc.). Hence, prosocial motivation can be a powerful and inexpensive source of performance boosting and this lecture aims to show some of the tools leaders can use to facilitate prosocial behaviors at work.
Carlsen, Arne; Clegg, Stewart R. & Naar, Liisa (2013)
Why "idea work"? Recovering imagination asintertextual, affective, material and controversial
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2013)
What does extraordinary idea work look like? From prepping, prototyping and wonder to drama and punk
[Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne & Gustavsen, Ole (2013)
Hva driver ekstraordinært idéarbeid i organisasjoner? Fra prepping og prototyping til undring og punk
[Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2013)
Skap drama på jobben (gjestekommentar)
[Popular Science Article]. (15) , s. 115- 115.
Carlsen, Arne (2013)
How to make idea work extraordinary: From prepping to drama and punk
[Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2013)
Hvordan leder du idéarbeid som gir ekstraordinære resultater?
[Lecture]. Event
Bjørkeng, Kjersti; Carlsen, Arne & Rhodes, Carl (2012)
Inter-viewing. From self-reflexivity to Other-vulnerability and joint wonder
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2012)
From prepping and wonder to punk - What does extraordinary idea work look like?
[Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2012)
From prepping and prototyping to wonder and punk: What does extraordinary idea work look like?
[Conference Lecture]. Event
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
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne & Jane, Dutton (2010)
Unleashing Generativity: Moments of Aliveness, Inspiration and Imagination in Qualitative Research
[Conference Lecture]. Event
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
Archetypes of activity sysems in professional service work
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2005)
Service partnerships reconsidered. What are the alternatives to opportunism?
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Bjørkeng, Kjersti & Carlsen, Arne (2005)
Six directors in search of a story. Learning from learning histories in a communication agency
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2005)
Becoming, authoring, dramatizing: The importance of key gerunds in organizational change processes, with examples
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2005)
Å kunne berike. Bruk av grenseobjekter i kunnskapsarbeid
[Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2005)
Ambivalent laughter. On the seriousness of authoring identities in organisations
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2005)
Levende kunnskap. Grenseobjekter, aktivitetssystemer og drama i kunnskapsarbeid
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2004)
På vei mot et utviklingsperspektiv for identitet: Hva betyr det for praktisk arbeid i organisasjoner
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2004)
Presentasjon av boken Living Knowledge
[Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2004)
Tegn på god praksis. Om å blåse liv i utviklingsarbeid
[Popular Science Article]. 4(3) , s. 57- 61.
Carlsen, Arne (2003)
Kunne 24. Salmer ved reisens slutt. En helt, et eventyr og en oransje prikk
[Lecture]. Event
Carlsen, Arne (2002)
Acts of Becoming. Identity Work as Playful Knowing and Enactment of Drama
[Conference Lecture]. Event
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
[Conference Lecture]. Event
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, Arne (red.). 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
[Conference Lecture]. Event
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.
Academic Degrees
Year
Academic Department
Degree
2005
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Ph.D.
1988
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Master of Science
Work Experience
Year
Employer
Job Title
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)
