Johan Olsen

Last updated
Johan P. Olsen
Born(1939-08-14)August 14, 1939
Citizenship Norwegian
Alma mater University of Bergen
SpouseHelene Adriansen
Scientific career
Fields Political science

Johan Peder Olsen (born August 14, 1939) is a Norwegian political scientist, and professor emeritus in political science at the University of Bergen, known for his work on new institutionalism. [1]

Contents

Life and work

Olsen obtained his MA in political science, with a minor in economics and political history, at the University of Oslo in 1967. In 1971 he obtained his PhD at the University of Bergen. He obtained an honorary doctorate from the Åbo Akademi, Finland in, 1988, from the University of Copenhagen in 1990. [2] and from the Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2003.

Olsen has started his career as journalist and reporter for various Norwegian newspapers from 1958 to 1963. He started his academic career as research assistant at the Institute of Political Science of the University of Oslo in 1965. In 1969 he was appointed assistant professor at the Institute of Sociology of the University of Bergen, in 1970 associate professor, and in 1973 professor in public administration and organization theory until 1993.

Olsen was also member of the Norwegian Research Council, and a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. [3] He established ARENA (Advanced Research on the Europeanization of the Nation State) in 1994. [4] He was research director at ARENA for many years, and is now. [5]

Olsen is one of the developers of the systemic-anarchic perspective of organizational decision-making known as the Garbage Can Model. [6]

In 2003 he received an honorary doctorate by the Erasmus University Rotterdam, department of Public Administration. In 2015, Olsen was elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. [7]

Selected publications

Books

Articles

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Bergen</span> Public university in Bergen, Norway

The University of Bergen is a public research university located in Bergen, Norway. As of 2021, the university has over 4,000 employees and 19,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 1946 based on several older scientific institutions dating back to 1825, and is Norway's second-oldest university. It is considered one of Norway's four "established universities" and has faculties and programmes in all the fields of a classical university including fields that are traditionally reserved by law for established universities, including medicine and law. It is also one of Norway's leading universities in many natural sciences, including marine research and climate research. It is consistently ranked in the top one percentage among the world's universities, usually among the best 200 universities and among the best 10 or 50 universities worldwide in some fields such as earth and marine sciences. It is part of the Coimbra Group and of the U5 group of Norway's oldest and highest ranked universities.

New institutionalism is an approach to the study of institutions that focuses on the constraining and enabling effects of formal and informal rules on the behavior of individuals and groups. New institutionalism traditionally encompasses three major strands: sociological institutionalism, rational choice institutionalism, and historical institutionalism. New institutionalism originated in work by sociologist John Meyer published in 1977.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James G. March</span> American political scientist, sociologist, and economist

James Gardner March was an American political scientist, sociologist, and economist. A professor at Stanford University in the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stanford Graduate School of Education, he is best known for his research on organizations, his seminal work on A Behavioral Theory of the Firm, and the organizational decision making model known as the Garbage Can Model.

Arend d'Angremond Lijphart is a Dutch-American political scientist specializing in comparative politics, elections and voting systems, democratic institutions, and ethnicity and politics. He is Research Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. He is influential for his work on consociational democracy and his contribution to the new Institutionalism in political science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erasmus University Rotterdam</span> Public university in the Netherlands

Erasmus University Rotterdam is a public research university located in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The university is named after Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, a 15th-century humanist and theologian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gunnar Skirbekk</span> Norwegian philosopher

Gunnar Skirbekk is a Norwegian philosopher. He is professor emeritus at the Department of Philosophy and the Center for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities, University of Bergen. He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johan Hjort</span> Norwegian marine biologist and oceanographer (1869–1948)

Johan Hjort was a Norwegian fisheries scientist, marine zoologist, and oceanographer. He was among the most prominent and influential marine zoologists of his time.

Michael Cohen was the William D. Hamilton Collegiate Professor of Complex Systems, Information and Public Policy at the University of Michigan.

Nils Gustav Magnus Brunsson is a Swedish organizational theorist and Professor in Management at Uppsala University. He is most known for his works in the field of new institutionalism, such as "The organization of hypocrisy" (1989), "The reforming organization" (1993), and "A world of standards" (2010).

Cornelis Bernardus Maria (Cees) van Riel is a Dutch organizational theorist, consultant, and Professor of Corporate Communication at Rotterdam School of Management and Director of the Corporate Communication Centre at the Erasmus University, known for his work in the area of corporate communication and reputation management.

Lucas C.P.M. Meijs a Dutch organizational theorist and Professor Volunteering, Civil Society and Businesses at the department Business-Society Management of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Professor Strategic Philanthropy at the Erasmus Centre for Strategic Philanthropy.

Philip Brooks Coulter is a US political scientist and is Professor Emeritus of Political Science as well as former Dean at the University of New Orleans (UNO).

Claude Ménard is a Canadian economist and professor at the University of Paris I: Panthéon-Sorbonne. Ménard is also the creator and former director of the Centre d'analyse théorique des organisations et des marchés (ATOM), which merged with the Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne in 2009, as well as a co-founder of the Society for Institutional & Organizational Economics. His research focuses on institutional and organizational economics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roel in 't Veld</span>

Roeland Jaap (Roel) in 't Veld is a Dutch scholar of public administration and Labour Party politician. He was briefly State Secretary for the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernst ten Heuvelhof</span>

Ernst Frederik ten Heuvelhof is a Dutch organizational theorist, and professor of public administration at the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management of Delft University of Technology, and professor of public administration at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is known for his work on process management, policy analysis and complex decision making.

Walter Julius Michael Kickert is a Dutch academic, and Professor of Public Management at the department of Public Administration, Erasmus University Rotterdam, known for his work on "Public policy and administration sciences in the Netherlands."

Johan Adam (Hans) de Bruijn is a Dutch political scientist and Professor of Public Administration at Delft University of Technology, known by his work in the field of process management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garbage can model</span>

The garbage can model describes the chaotic reality of organizational decision making in an organized anarchy. The model originated in the 1972 seminal paper, A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice, written by Michael D. Cohen, James G. March, and Johan P. Olsen.

Johannes Franciscus Maria (Joop) Koppenjan is a Dutch political scientist, and Professor of Public Administration at the department of Public Administration at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is especially known for work on policy network analysis and his 2004 book Managing uncertainties in networks written with Erik-Hans Klijn.

The logic of appropriateness is a theoretical perspective to explain human decision-making. It proposes that decisions and behavior follow from rules of appropriate behavior for a given role or identity. These rules are institutionalized in social practices and sustained over time through learning. People adhere to them because they see them as natural, rightful, expected, and legitimate. In other words, the logic of appropriateness assumes that actors decide on the basis of what social norms deem right rather than what cost-benefit calculations suggest best. The term was coined by organization theorists James G. March and Johan Olsen. They presented the argument in two prominent articles published by the journals Governance in 1996 and International Organization in 1998.

References

  1. Hall, Peter A., and Rosemary CR Taylor. "Political science and the three new institutionalisms*." Political Studies 44.5 (1996): 936-957.
  2. Johan P. Olsen CV. Accessed 2 February 2015
  3. "Gruppe 7: Samfunnsfag (herunder sosiologi, statsvitenskap og økonomi)" [Group 7: Social sciences (including sociology, political science and economics)] (in Norwegian). Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 26 October 2009.
  4. "The history of ARENA - ARENA Centre for European Studies" . Retrieved 4 February 2011.
  5. "Johan P. Olsen - ARENA Centre for European Studies" . Retrieved 5 February 2011.
  6. Morgan, Gareth, Fred Gregory, and Cameron Roach. Images of Organization. (1997).
  7. Incorporated, Prime. "National Academy of Public Administration". National Academy of Public Administration. Retrieved 2023-04-21.