Bjørn Z. Ekelund

Bjørn Zakarias Ekelund (born 1957) is a Norwegian business consultant and researcher. His major fields of activity include organizational development, team analysis, cross-cultural challenges and strategic coaching in domestic and international projects.

Academic background

Certified Clinical Psychologist from the University of Oslo (Norway) in 1983

MBA from Henley School of Management (London, UK) in 1997

PhD program at Department of Economics, University of Agder (Kristiansand, Norway): "Global Management and Research Methods", 60 ECTS points, in 2006–2007.

Current positions

Managing Director and prime owner of Human Factors AS in Oslo (Norway) since 1993

Research Fellow at Centre for Global Workforce Strategy at Simon Fraser University (Canada) since 2009

Special awards

Bjørn Z. Ekelund was awarded the prize “Consultant of the Year 2008” in Norway, handed over by IMC-Norway and Konsulentguiden

Concept development

Diversity Icebreaker questionnaire was created by Bjørn Z. Ekelund in 1995. Since then, he has continued to develop the concept including doing validation and reliability tests. Diversity Icebreaker is used to create a safe psychological climate to share ideas of differences between people, cultures and organizational units. The concept is used worldwide

Presentations at conferences (sample)

• 2010-August: ECER European Conference on Educational Research, Helsinki (Finland). Bjørn Z. Ekelund, Alexis L. Rossi and Marieke von Egmond: "Use of Diversity Icebreaker and Learning Styles in Multicultural Teaching Settings"

• 2010-August: Invited Keynote Speaker at ICIC The International Conference on Intercultural Collaboration, Copenhagen (Denmark): "Diversity Icebreaker in International Communication"

• 2010-July: EFPSA European Federation of Psychology Student Associations, Blagoevgrad (Bulgaria): "Diversity Icebreaker" and "Team Assessment and Feedback - a way of developing shared perceptions of team processes"

• 2010-May: 58th Annual conference of the Serbian Psychological Association, Zlator (Serbia), ”The descriptive, functional and beautiful qualities of Diversity Icebreaker. Research challenges in three different perspectives”.

• 2009-November: South-East European Regional Congress of Psychology, Sofia (Bulgaria). Bjørn Z. Ekelund, Jan Viggo Iversen and Leah Davcheva: “Diversity Icebreaker: Developing Shared Understanding of Cooperation”

• 2009-September: The Second York Associates – Dialogin, The Delta Intercultural Academy Conference: High Performing International Teams, York (UK): “Social Construction of Interpersonal Categories”.

• 2009-April: SIOP conference, New Orleans (USA). Teresa J. Rothausen-Vange and Bjørn Z. Ekelund: “Construct Validity and Comparison of Two Psychological Type Measures for Use in Management Education Settings (MBTI-DI)”

• 2008-August: Academy of Management Annual Meeting, California (USA). Bjørn Z. Ekelund and Martha L. Maznevski: “Diversity Training: Are We on the Right Track?”

• 2008-July: Academy of International Business, Milan (Italy). Bjørn Z. Ekelund, Rotem Shneor and Bettina Gehrke: “Diversity Icebreaker in cross-cultural training”.

• 2006-August: Academy of Management, Atlanta (USA): “The use of Diversity Icebreaker". Lecturing in international relations.

Books, articles and chapters already published

• 2010. Regina Eckert, Bjørn Z. Ekelund, William A. Gentry & Jeremy Dawson: Rating Discrepancy in 360-Degree Feedback “I don’t see me like you see me, but is that a problem?” . European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, Summer.

• 2009. Bjørn Z. Ekelund, Leah Davcheva & Jan Viggo Iversen: Diversity Icebreaker: Developing shared understanding of cooperation. Bulgarian Journal of Psychology, December.

• 2009. Ekelund, B. Z.: Cultural Perspectives on Team Consultation in Scandinavia: Experiences and Reflections. Scandinavian Journal of Organisational Psychology, No 2, p. 31-40.

• 2009. Ekelund, B.Z.: Managing diversity in teams (Norwegian). In Fyhn. H.: Kreativ tverrfaglighet, teori og praksis". Oslo, Tapir forlag, p 182 – 205.

• 2009. Ekelund, B.Z. Mapping of team qualities in project leadership teams with Team Reflector (Norwegian). Prosjektledelse. No 1, p 8-9.

• 2008 (book). Esnault, M. & Ekelund, B.Z.: Project Start-Up. No Time to Hurry. Oslo, Human Factors Publishing.

• 2008 (book). Ekelund, B.Z. & Langvik.E.(eds): Diversity Icebreaker. How to manage diversity processes. Oslo, Human Factors Publishing.

• 2008 (booklet). Ekelund, B.Z. & Rydningen, M.: Diversity Icebreaker Work-Book. Oslo, Human Factors Publishing. Translated into 6 languages.

• 2008. Thomas, D.C, Ekelund, B.Z and 11 others: Cultural Intelligence: Domain and Assessment. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, Vol. 8, No. 2, 123-143.

• 2007. William A. Gentry, Kelly M. Hannum, Annemarie de Jong & Bjørn Z. Ekelund : A Study of the Discrepancy Between Self- and Observer- Ratings on Managerial Derailment Characteristics in Selected European Countries. The European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology. September.

• 2006. Ekelund, B.Z: Hvordan få til positiv kjemi mellom folk i prosjektteam. Prosjektledelse, no 2.

• 2005. Esnault, M. Teambuilding in project start-ups. Gyldendal. Co-written chapter on interaction in project teams. Ekelund, B.Z

• 2005. Smith, P.B. & Peterson, M. et al. incl. Bjørn Z. Ekelund: Demographic Effects on the Use of Vertical Sources of Guidance by Managers in Widely Differing Cultural Contexts. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, Vol. 5, No. 1, 5-26.

• 2005. Ekelund, B.Z. & Aske, A.: Executive commentary on The Construction of Social Identities in Mergers and Acquisitions. In Stahl, G.K. & Mendenhall, M.E. (Ed): Mergers and Acquisitions. Managing culture and human resources. California, Stanford University Press.

• 2004 (book). Sivertsen, M.V., Ekelund, B.Z. & Esnault,M.: Socialdemocratic leadership; team, leadership and projects. AOF.

• 2004. Maznevski. M.L & Ekelund, B.Z.; Cultural dimensions in action: Democratic elections in post-war Bosnia. Organizational Theory and Practice. Scandinavian Journal of Organizational Psychology: no 1.

• 2004. Mathisen, G.E. & Ekelund, B.Z.: Team Climate Inventory (TCI) – a measure of innovation in groups and teams. Journal of the Norwegian Psychological Association. December.

• 2004. Canney-Davison, S. & Ekelund, B.Z. Team processes in global teams. Chapter in book published by Blackwell Publ. Title: Handbook of Global Management. A Guide to Managing Complexity. Edited by Lane, H., Mendenhall, M., Maznevski, M.L.and McNett, J. 2. p 227-249.

• 2003. Smith, P.B., Andersen, J.A., Ekelund, B.Z., Graversen, G. and Ropo, A.: In Search of Nordic Management Styles. Scandinavian Journal of Management. Vol. 19, page 491-507.

• 2003. Wei Hua, Ellen M. Whitener, Martha L. Maznevski, Snorre R. Sæbø and Bjorn Z. Ekelund: Testing the Cultural Boundaries of a Model of Trust: Subordinate-Manager Relationships in China, Norway and the United States. University of California, Los Angeles. UCLA international inst. eScholarship Repository. http://repositories.cdlib.org/asia/eslictme/chntrans07/ Summer.

• 2003. Bjørn Z. Ekelund : Ouverture Internationale. Contraintes et opportunites: Une experience de developement de programme international de formation. University of Lyon.

• 2002 (book). Vereide. K. & Ekelund, B.Z.: Team development for teachers in school. (Norwegian) Oslo kommune.

• 2002 (booklet). Ekelund, B.Z. & Jørstad, K.: Team Climate Inventory – intervention manual. (Danish) Danish Psychological Publication.

• 2002. Smith,P., Peterson, M.P. and Schwartz, S.H. & Ekelund, B.Z. and 46 others: Cultural values, sources of guidance and their relevance to managerial behavior: a 47 nation study. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, summer.

• 2002. DiStefano, J & Ekelund, B.Z.: Management Across Cultures. A model for Bridging the Differences. In Heritage and Identity, Ed M. Fladmark: Donhead, p 289-394.

• 2000. Ekelund, B.Z., Jørstad, K. & Maznevski, M.: Business Development of the Team Climate Inventory. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, September, p. 9-18.

• 2000. Nordvik, H. & Berg, A & Ekelund, B.Z : 16PF5 development in Norway, In Journal of the Norwegian Psychological Association, 31 (5), 437-447.

• 1999. B.Z. Ekelund was one of 11 members of Task Force contributing to the article: On professional education of work and organisational psychology in Europe. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 455-486.

• 1997. EAWOP Newsletter; ENOP conference in Paris: Interaction between academy and practice.

• 1996. Ekelund. B.Z., Duckert, F., Bjøru, E. & Sortland, N : Qualification for leadership in the professional study of psychology at universities. (Norwegian), In Journal of the Norwegian Psychological Association, Vol 33, No 5, p. 416-423.

• 1996. TCI-presentation in Norwegian Journal of Organizational Psychology. (Norwegian).

• 1993. Ekelund. B.Z., Døscher, H. & Taylor, R : Presentation of journals in organizational psychology and management. Norwegian Journal of Organizational Psychology.

• 1990. Haggag A, Ekelund B, Linaker O, Gotestam KG. : Seasonal mood variation: an epidemiological study in northern Norway. Acta Psychiatr Scand. Feb;81(2):141-5.

Articles and chapters accepted for publication

• (ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION) “Psychological Contracts across Cultures. Perceptions and Responses to Violations” by David C. Thomas, Stacey R. Fitzsimmons, Elizabeth C. Ravlin, Kevin Au, Bjørn Z. Ekelund, Cordula Barzantny.

• (IN PRESS) "Diversity Icebreaker in Conflict Management" by Bjørn Z. Ekelund

• (IN PRESS) "Team assessment and feedback - a way of developing shared perceptions of team processes" by Bjørn Z. Ekelund

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