Head of department Gillian Warner-Søderholm
The Department is staffed by top international faculty experts who can point to a growing number of international publications, and who actively practice the principle of putting the students first. The Department contributes to BI's international vision within three important commitment areas: communication leadership in organisations, creative industry and school research.
The Department is one of the largest academic communities in Norway within its disciplines, and has a strong team including experts in digital communication management, business communication, culture and creative industries, inter-cultural communication and school administration. BI students have access to the latest within research and academic development in these areas. The Department's objective is to always deliver world-class research-based education so students derive maximum learning effect. Fourteen of the department's 45 academic staff have multi-national backgrounds, which lays the foundation for teaching and research with a strong international outlook.
The following important milestones were achieved in 2015:
- Increase in external research funding for strategically important research: the Department has secured two major research projects from NFR with an overall framework of NOK 27 million in 2015. The research projects have entailed that the Department has been able to recruit three new research fellows; two international researchers and one Assistant Professor.
- Increased internationalisation and cooperation: The research projects have also led to important research collaboration with a number of important national and international research institutions such as St. Gallen, Harvard University, Leipzig University, Rotterdam University, Ljubljiana University, CBS, University of Copenhagen and NTNU (the Norwegian University of Science and Technology).
- Greater impact via top-notch international and national publications and in the media: With a total of 31 top-notch publications in 2015, the percentage of international publications in ABS journals continues to grow. Faculty members in the Department have also contributed more than 250 articles in Norwegian and international media.
- Greater impact in international conferences: 1/3 of the Department had papers at the Academy of Management and a research group from the Department won the 'top symposium award' at AOM. The Department hosted Europe's largest PR conference, EUPRERA, in the autumn of 2015.
- Development of Executive Master of Management programmes: The Department delivers sustainable and socially relevant programmes that achieve high scores in the FT rankings. The Department is responsible for diversity and profitability in the EMM portfolio with high-quality academic programmes in the fields of school administration, communication leadership, digital communication leadership, as well as security management and cultural comprehension.
- Increased activity in the Department's research centres: The Centre for Corporate Communications led by Professor Peggy Brønn and Centre for Creative Industries led by Professor Anne Britt Gran could point to increased research activity, more contact with businesses and a definite contribution to society in 2015. The Department and the Centre for Corporate Communication published two editions of the magazine "Communications for Leaders".