Employee Profile

Hallvard Føllesdal

Associate Professor - Department of Leadership and Organizational Behaviour

Room number A3Y-013
Phone +4746410212
E-mail hallvard.follesdal@bi.no

Biography

Hallvard Føllesdal is associate professor of organizational psychology at the Department of Leadership and Organizational Management. He has a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Oslo, on emotional intelligence and leadership. In his thesis, he questioned the validity of scores from a recognized test of emotional intelligence, along with the underlying theory. He has previously worked as a lecturer in personality psychology at the University of Oslo, and with leadership and organizational development in public administration.

Research areas Measurement of individual differences in the workplace:
personality, leadership, emotions, and well-being at work

Teaching areas
Organizational behavior
Measurement of psychological constructs

Area of Expertise

Publications

Scientific publications Other

Føllesdal, Hallvard (2025)

Agree or agree a little? The rating scale of the BFI-2 causes extreme responses

Personality and Individual Differences, 246, s. 1- 14. Doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2025.113323

The Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2) is one of the most frequently used personality measures in research, but several scales provide extreme scores. The present research shows that extreme scores are caused by the original rating scale, which uses the labels Disagree a little and Agree a little for the intermediate scale points 2 and 4, respectively. In contrast, other major personality inventories (and some BFI-2 versions) use the labels Disagree and Agree, respectively. In Study 1, respondents assessed the agreement expressed by the response labels in each scale. In Study 2, 150 Norwegian students completed the BFI-2 twice, applying both rating scales on the same occasion. In Study 3, 300 U.S. residents completed the English BFI-2 once, with one of the two scales. The original rating scale in the BFI-2 seems to cause extreme scores, and a graded response model reveals that it does not differentiate in the upper range of some personality traits. Moreover, the two different rating scales, which are both used with the BFI-2 (and the BFI), lead to significantly different scores on several personality scales. As researchers usually do not report the scale used, it can be challenging to compare results across studies.

Føllesdal, Hallvard (2024)

Agree or Agree a Little? The Rating Scale in the BFI-2 Causes Extreme Responses

Social Science Research Network (SSRN)

Føllesdal, Hallvard & Soto, Christopher J (2022)

The Norwegian Adaptation of the Big Five Inventory-2

Frontiers in Psychology, 13 Doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.858920 - Full text in research archive

Føllesdal, Hallvard (2016)

Er emosjonell intelligens viktig i arbeidslivet?

Tidsskrift for Norsk psykologforening (Psykologtidsskriftet), 53(3), s. 192- 199.

Føllesdal, Hallvard & Hagtvet, Knut Arne (2013)

Does emotional intelligence as ability predict transformational leadership? A multilevel approach

Leadership Quarterly, 24(5), s. 747- 762. Doi: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.07.004

Glasø, Lars; Matthiesen, Stig Berge & Føllesdal, Hallvard (2013)

Ledere: The great pretenders

Rønning, Rune; Brochs-Haukedal, William, Glasø, Lars & Matthiesen, Stig Berge (red.). Livet som leder : Lederundersøkelsen 3.0

Føllesdal, Hallvard & Hagtvet, Knut Arne (2009)

Emotional Intelligence: The MSCEIT from the perspective of generalizability theory

Intelligence, 37(1), s. 94- 105. Doi: 10.1016/j.intell.2008.08.005

Engvik, Harald & Føllesdal, Hallvard (2005)

The Big Five Inventory på norsk

Tidsskrift for Norsk psykologforening (Psykologtidsskriftet), 42(1), s. 128- 129.

Føllesdal, Hallvard (2024)

Narrow Versus Broad Personality Traits in the Prediction of Emergent Leadership

[Academic lecture]. 4th World Conference on Personality 2024.

Føllesdal, Hallvard (2023)

Transformational Leadership and Followers’ Narrow Personality Traits

[Academic lecture]. 21st EAWOP Congress.

Føllesdal, Hallvard (2019)

The Big Five (BFI-2) and empathy as predictors of transformational leadership: A multilevel study

[Academic lecture]. 3rd World Conference on Personality.

Føllesdal, Hallvard (2018)

Self vs. other ratings of personality as predictors of group cohesion.

[Academic lecture]. 19th European Conference on Personality, July 17th-21st, 2018, Zadar, Croatia..

Føllesdal, Hallvard (2016)

Observer ratings of personality and leadership emergence: A multi-level approach

[Academic lecture]. 31st International Congress of Psychology.

Føllesdal, Hallvard (2016)

Meta-accuracy and Authentic Leadership: An Intervention Study

[Academic lecture]. 2nd World Conference on Personality.

Føllesdal, Hallvard (2015)

Ledelse av følelser.

[Popular scientific article]. Kapital

Føllesdal, Hallvard (2015)

Transformational Leadership: A Multilevel CFA of Item Scores from the MLQ-5X

[Academic lecture]. EAWOP 2015.

Academic Degrees
Year	Academic Department	Degree
2008	University of Oslo	Ph.D.
1997	University of Oslo	Master Cand. Psychol.
1991	University of Oslo	Master of Arts

Work Experience
Year	Employer	Job Title
2009 - Present	BI Nowegian Business School	Associate Professor
2005 - 2008	University of Oslo	Lecturer
2002 - 2005	University of Oslo	Research Fellow
2003 - 2004	Yale University, Department of Psychology	Visiting Scholar
2001 - 2002	BI Norwegian Business School	Research Fellow
1999 - 2001	Akershus County Council	Organizational Psychologist
1997 - 1999	Norwegian Road Administration Office	Higher Executive Office
1997 - 1997	The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration	Psychologist