New PhD Thesis from the Interventional Centre

Bjørn Erik Mørk defended his thesis Changing practices- A practice based study of cross-diciplinary technology development in hospitals from the Interventional Centre, Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet, Faculty of Medicine at University of Oslo, Department of Leadership and Organizational Management, BI Norwegian School of Management, Oslo and Institute of Health Management and Health Economics at University of Oslo. This study examined why breakthroughs in knowledge may fail to be translated into medical practice. These novel practices often lack alignment with existing practices, or they cut across established professional boundaries and power structures. Despite this, we know that establishing practices across heterogeneous groups of actors, i.e. science, politics and industry, can facilitate interactive innovations. This project investigated how this was accomplished in practice in the context of cross-disciplinary technology development in hospitals. The dissertation is based on a longitudinal study of the Interventional Centre, Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet, Norway.

The study contributes to our understanding of organising, learning, change and innovation. The specific contributions are developed in the five papers which drew from different theoretical approaches. Several of the papers critically addressed the role of communities of practice in innovation, which is an area that thus far has been under-researched. Specifically, they underscore how power relations both within and across communities of practice become challenged during innovation. In fact, it is argued that during radical innovation, it is no longer given who the master and the apprentice is. In general, the papers emphasise the ongoing, multilevel activities that are important for overcoming different boundaries to develop and stabilise new medical knowing in practice. A major and important challenge is that it is insufficient to establish links between different practices if the organizational and institutional context reinforces the tendency to distinguish between these practices. It also pointed out that the linear approach to innovation is highly problematic, since these processes are not linear or rational, and an innovation is not a "thing" with a constant characteristic that can easily be moved from one context to another. Instead, innovations are very dynamic, contingent and political.
1. opponent was Professor Maxine Robertson, Queen Mary University of London, School of Business and Management, London, England. 2. opponent was Professor Odd Nordhaug, Dept. of Strategy and Management, University of Bergen.
3. member of the Committee was Associated Professor Lars Erik Kjekshus, Health Management and Health Economics at University of Oslo. Leader of the dissertation was Professor Jan Ludvig Svennevig, Dept. of Thorasic Surgery, Faculty Division Rikshospitalet, University of Oslo.