Gillian Warner Søderholm

Dr. Gillian Warner-Søderholm is a full time faculty member of the BI Norwegian Business School, and is also the head of the department of Communication, Culture and Languages. She also holds the position of Associate Professor, teaching on a number of programs in intercultural communication, international business, Scandinavian culture, study strategies, negotiations, and presentations. She holds a Bachelor degree in Education and Administration, a Master’s degree in English Literature, a Post Graduate Diploma in Management Consultancy and a Doctorate in Business Administration in Culture and Leadership. Gillian is originally from England and has lived and worked in Norway for 18 years.

Gillian was born and grew up in Kent, in the south of England. After college she worked for an international retailing company on-board cruise ships, and in the Miami and London offices, working on staff training programmes, management coaching and negotiations with international suppliers world-wide. Gillian moved from a business teaching environmnet to an academic environmnet in 1993, lecturing in business studies programmes for mid-kent college.

In 1995 Gillian moved to Oslo with her husband and family and started teaching English and cross cultural communicatons for the Norwegian School of Trade and Retail management, the Norwegian Houses of Parliament, the Insurance Academy, the Central Bank of Norway and the Norwegian Armed Forces. Much of her time has been spent combining executive language training programmes for the private and public sector with part time lecturing for the Norwegian School of Management BI. Gillian feels that this has been the secret to her success at BI - combining real life international work and experience with academic teaching. ( Gillian has won 4 'Lecturer of the Year Awards' ).

Gillian still maintains links with international companies and the Norwegian Houses of Parliament and works as a guest lecture in the public and private sector for some hours every month. In addition she has lectured at Hønefoss University College in American and English literature and Intercultural Communications since 2003. Gillian claims that the secret to her loving life and loving her work is the support and enthusiasm she gets from her fantastic husband Trond and also from their two daughters Annika and Emily.

She was awarded a 'top ten place in the ' European doctorate paper competition' by EDAMBA and was also nominated in 2012 for a place on the leadership foundation's top international leaders in Norway competition.

Teaching areas

Cross cultural management, International Business, Intercultural Communication in English, Presentations and negotiations, Business English, English and American Literature, study strategies.

ACADEMIC DEGREES

• 2010 Henley Management College D.B.A.
• 2005 University of Oslo M.A.
• 2002 Almeda College and University B.A.

WORK EXPERIENCE

• 2012 - Present BI Norwegian Business School Associate professor
• 2012 - Present BI Norwegian Business School Head of Department
• 1995 - Present Norwegian Language Institute Language teacher
• 2011 - 2012 BI Norwegian Business School Senior lecturer
• 2002 - 2012 Hønefoss University College Lecturer
• 1999 - 2011 BI Norwegian Business School Lecturer
• 1996 - 2006 Norwegian Stortinget Language coach
• 1993 - 1995 Mid Kent College Lecturer - Business Studies

CONFERENCE PAPERS

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian. 

Culture matters: Norwegian cultural identity within a Nordic Context. Nordic Academy of Management Meeting; 2011-08-22 - 2011-08-24 BI

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian. 

Measuring Hall's High-Low context dimension:scale development and validation and some initial findings. US colloquium of International Doctoral Research; 2011-09-15 - 2011-09-19 BI

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian. 

Standing on the shoulders of Giants or seeing the emporers' new clothes: a critical analysis of project GLOBE. Nordic Intercultural Communication Symposium; 2011-12-01 - 2011-12-04 BI

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian. 

Mapping Contemporary Nordic Cultural Practices. Nordic Network for intercultural Communication; 2010-11-25 - 2010-11-27 BI

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian. 

The Role of Societal Cultural Practices within Corporate Communication: Opening Pandora’s Box. Corporate and Organizational Communication Conference; 2010-05-26 - 2010-05-27 BI

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian. 

Comparing national values. Reading University Research Seminar; 2008-02-21 - 2008-02-21 BI

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian. 

Paradigm mapping societal cultural studies. Nordic Intercultural Communication Seminar; 2008-12-04 - 2008-12-06 BI

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian. 

Was the grass trampled when the two elephants fought. Henley Business School- Wisconsin Seminar; 2008-09-21 - 2008-09-21 BI

POPULAR SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES

Bang, Tor; Warner-Søderholm, Gillian. 

The Development of Norwegian PR. Communication Director 2013 (02) p. 38-41 BI

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian. 

Cultural Mindfulness in the Business English Classroom. Språk og språkundervisning 2010 ;Volume 43.(1) p. 30-36 BI

RESEARCH REPORTS

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian. 

Understanding Cultural Differences in societal cultures: applying Hofstede's measures: report to research colloquium. : Henley Business School 2008 BI

SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian; Cooper, Charles J. 

Be Careful What You Wish for: Mapping Nordic Cultural Communication Practices & Values in the Management Game of Communication. International Journal of Business and Management 2016 ;Volume 11.(11) p. 48-58 BI

Seierstad, Cathrine; Warner-Søderholm, Gillian; Mariateresa, Torchia; Huse, Morten. 

Increasing the number of women on boards: The role of actors and processes. Journal of Business Ethics 2015 p. - BI

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian; Bertsch, Andy; Abdullah, ABM. 

Doing Business in Norway: An International Perspective. Asian Journal of Research in Business Economics and Management 2014 ;Volume 4.(11) p. 32-45 BI

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian; Kriger, Mark P.. 

The Art of Dealing with Religious and Cultural Diversity in the Classroom. International Journal of Business and Management 2014 ;Volume 9.(10) p. 149-160 BI

Bertsch, Andy; Warner-Søderholm, Gillian. 

Exploring societal cultural values and human rights and development. Sage Open 2013 ;Volume 3. p. 1-13 BI

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian. 

Beyond a Literature Review of Hall’s Context Dimension: ScaleDevelopment, Validation & Empirical Findings Within a Norwegian Study. International Journal of Business and Management 2013 ;Volume 8.(10) p. 27-40 BI

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian. 

But we're not all Vikings! Nordic societal cultural practices. Journal of Intercultural Communication 2012 (29) p. - BI

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian. 

Culture Matters: Norwegian Cultural Identity within a Scandinavian Context. Sage Open 2012 ;Volume 2012.(2) p. 1-12 BI

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian. 

Was the Grass Trampled When the Two Elephants Fought? Measuring Societal Cultures: Project GLOBE vs. Hofstede. Journal of International Doctoral Research 2012 ;Volume 1.(1) p. 74-96 BI

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian. 

"Global" kommunikasjon og kultur: Regionale forskjeller i forretningskultur i Norge. Magma - Tidsskrift for økonomi og ledelse 2010 ;Volume 13.(3) p. 20-28 BI

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian. 

Regionale forskjeller i forretningskultur i Norge "glokal" kommunikasjon og kultur. Magma - Tidsskrift for økonomi og ledelse 2010 ;Volume 13.(3) p. 20-28 BI

MEDIA CONTRIBUTIONS

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian. 

interkulturelle utfordringer på arbeidplassen. [Radio] 2015-07-28 BI

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian. 

Norske ledere tror de er gode i språk. E24 og VGnett [Newspaper] 2011-10-29 BI

CHAPTERS

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian; Grenness, Tor. 

Kulturelle normer, selvsensur og ytringsfrihet: finner vi regionale forskjeller?. I: Kommunikasjon og ytringsfrihet i organisasjoner. Cappelen Damm Akademisk 2016 ISBN 9788202482237. p. 247-272 BI

Warner-Søderholm, Gillian. 

Project GLOBE's place in intercultural communication theories. I: Theoretical Turbulence in Intercultural Communication Studies. Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2014 ISBN 1-4438-5353-4. p. 63-80 BI