Johan Olsen

Johan Peder Olsen ( born August 14, 1939 in Tromsø) is a Norwegian political scientist.

Emeritus Professor of the University of Bergen is one of the representatives of the new institutionalism in the social sciences. He also designed (together with Michael D. Cohen and James G. March ) with the garbage-can model an alternative program of action for organizations.

After several years as a journalist Olsen studied political science at the University of Oslo and the University of Bergen, where he in 1973 professor of management science and organizational theory in 1971 and his doctorate. From 1993 he was director of the Norwegian basic research program ARENA ( Advanced Research on the Europeanisation of the Nation -State). Olsen worked as a visiting professor at various American universities, particularly at Stanford University.