Nils Gustav Magnus Brunsson, born 1946 is a Swedish academic in business administration and organizational research. He is a professor and holds the City of Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

 Chair in Management at the Stockholm School of Economics

Stockholm School of Economics

The Stockholm School of Economics or Handelshögskolan i Stockholm is one of Northern Europe's leading business schools. Its Masters in Management program is ranked no. 2 in Northern Europe and no. 13 in Europe by the Financial Times...

 since 1986. He has published more than 20 books and numerous articles on organizations. His research includes studies of decision-making, administrative reforms and standardization

Standardization

Standardization is the process of developing and implementing technical standards.The goals of standardization can be to help with independence of single suppliers , compatibility, interoperability, safety, repeatability, or quality....

. He is now working with issues of rule-setting and regulation

Regulation

Regulation is administrative legislation that constitutes or constrains rights and allocates responsibilities. It can be distinguished from primary legislation on the one hand and judge-made law on the other...

.

His educational background is in theoretical philosophy

Theoretical philosophy

The division of philosophy into a practical and a theoretical discipline has its origin in Aristotle's moral philosophy and natural philosophy categories. In Denmark, Finland, Poland, and Sweden courses in theoretical and practical philosophy are taught separately, and are separate degrees...

 at Gothenburg University

Gothenburg University

The University of Gothenburg is a university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg.- Character :The University of Gothenburg is the third-oldest Swedish university, and with 24,900 full-time students it is also among the largest universities in the Nordic countries...

 and economics and management at the Gothenburg School of Economics. He took an Bachelor's degree (Ekonomexamen) at Gothenburg School of Economics in 1969 and a Ph.D. at Gothenburg University in 1976. In 1979 he was appointed docent

Docent

Docent is a title at some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks below professor . Docent is also used at some universities generically for a person who has the right to teach...

 at Gothenburg University. He was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences

Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences

The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences or Kungl. Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien , founded in 1919 by King Gustaf V, is one of the Royal Academies in Sweden...

 in 1990.

Academic Positions

• Research assistant, Gothenburg School of Economics 1969 -1976
• Assistant professor, Gothenburg University, 1976 -1979
• Assistant professor, Uppsala University, 1979 -1980
• Associate professor, Stockholm School of Economics, 1980 -1986
• Head of Department of Public management, Stockholm School of Economics, 1982 -
• Professor, City of Stockholm Chair in Public Management, Stockholm School of Economics, 1986 -
• Chairman of the Stockholm Centre for Organizational Research (Score) 1992 -
• Professor, European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM), 1997 -

Academic Commissions

• Board member of the Scandinavian Consortium for Organizational Research (1988-97)
• Board member of the Research Committee 17 of the International Sociological Association (1988-95)
• Research fellow at the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management (1989-1993)
• Board member of the Advisory Board of Carnegie Bosch Institute for Applied Studies in International Management (1990-93)
• Member of the Research Council of the National Agency for Education (1992-1994)
• Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Ministry of Justice(1992 - 2000)
• Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Swedish Competition Authority (1993 - 2002)

Editorial Member of

• Scandinavian Journal of Management
• Accounting, Management & Information Technologies
• Accounting, Organizations and Society (-03)
• Financial Accountability & Management
• Organizational Learning
• Nordiske Organisasjonstudier

Guest scholar (from 2001 only)

• CNSR Centre de la Sociologie des Organisations, Paris, Oct 2001 - Jan 2002
• Scancor, Stanford University, Oct 2004 - Jan 2005
• Scancor, Stanford University Nov 2005 - Jan 2006
• Wissenschaftszentrum, Berlin, Oct - Nov 2006.
• Niklas Luhmann’s Gast Professur, Universität Bielefeld, April - June, 2007.

Prizes and awards

• Prize for best researcher in management 1987. (Swedish Association of Graduates in Business Administration and Economics).
• The Dafolo Prize 1987
• Teacher of the year, 1996. (Students’ Association of the Stockholm School of Economics).
• The Swedish Research Council’s six year grant to excellent scholars, 2005.

Lectures (selection)

• Lecture at the Stockholm School of Economics doctoral promotion 1997.
• The P D Leake Lectures in Accounting at London School of Economics and Oxford University, March 1999.
• Copenhagen Business School, May 2005.
• New Institutionalism in Organization Studies: The contributions of Nils Brunsson, 4 Lectures arranged by CIDE, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, México, D.F., Mexico, November 2006.
• Gothenburg lectures in Wisdom in the knowledge society, Göteborg, January 2007.
• The Niklas Luhmann Lecture 2007, Universität Bielefeld, Germany, May 2007.

His publications include:

• Meta-organizations,with Göran Ahrne 2008
• The Consequences of Decision-Making, 2007
• Mechanisms of Hope: Maintaining the Dream of the Rational Organization, 2006
• A World of Standards, with Bengt Jacobsson, 2002
• Organizing Organizations,with James G. March and Johan P. Olsen, 1998
• The Reforming Organization, with Johan P. Olsen, 1993
• The Organization of Hypocrisy: Talk, Decisions and Actions in Organizations, 1991
• The Irrational Organization: Irrationality as a Basis for Organizational, 1985
• Propensity to change: an empirical study of decisions on reorientations, 1976