Bjørn Erik Mørk is an organisational sociologist and Professor in innovation at BI Norwegian Business School. He is Research Center Leader for Centre for Healthcare Management together with Thomas Hoholm, and Program Director for Healthcare Management at BI. From 2018-2020 he was the Associate Dean for the PhD specialization in Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Prior to starting at BI in May 2017 Bjørn Erik was an Associate Professor of Information Systems and Management at Department of Informatics, University of Oslo (UiO), and Program Director for the Executive Master in IT and Management. Since 2012 he has been an Associate Fellow at the IKON Research Unit, Warwick Business School (WBS), and he is now a Honorary Associate Professor at WBS. In addition, he holds a part-time position as an Associate Partner in EY People Advisory Services.
Research Bjørn Erik conducts practice-based studies of innovation processes, organising, learning, knowing and change in organisations. In particular he is interested in the development and introduction of new practices and new technologies in the health care sector. Hence, he is interested in topics such as cross-disciplinary collaboration, boundary work, ways of organising, power relations, and learning. Bjørn Erik was a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley in 2005 and in 2012. His work has been published in journals such as Academy of Management Annals, Human Relations, Social Science and Medicine, and Management Learning. He is part of the Editorial Advisory Board for Journal of Health Organization and Management, and a regular reviewer for many international journals and conferences. In addition, he is a columnist for Dagens Medisin, and writes about topics related to organisation and leadership.
Bjørn Erik contributes to several international confererences. First, he has been member of the Executive Board for the International Conference on Organizational Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities (OLKC) since 2014, and was Chairman of the Executive Board together with Cathrine Filstad from 2017-2019. Bjørn Erik was part of the Organising Committee when BI hosted the conference in 2014, and he has organised several teaching workshops, doctoral consortiums and various symposiums together with other faculty from the OLKC community. Second; Bjørn Erik is part of Society for Studies in Organizing Healthcare (SHOC) Executive Committee since 2022, and was part of the Scientific Committee for the Organizational Behaviour in Healthcare (OBHC) Conference in 2020 and 2022. Third, he has been a member of the Academy of Management Healthcare Management Division (AoM HCM) Teaching Committee since August 2022.
Bjørn Erik is also an active member of Fulbright Alumni Association Norway (FAAN). He was member of the FAAN Board from 2014-2019, and President of FAAN from 2016-2019.
On a regular basis Bjørn Erik holds presentations at various national and international conferences and seminars.
Teaching and supervision
He teaches topics related to organisational theory, innovation management, learning, entrepreneurship and qualitative methods (in particular organizational ethnography). At BI he is responsible for the executive master programme for health care managers (Nasjonale lederutdanningen i primærhelsetjenesten), and responsible for the Top Management Program in Healthcare (https://www.bi.no/studier-og-kurs/kurs/corporate/topplederprogram-for-kommune--og-spesialisthelsetjenesten/) together with Vegard Kolbjørnsrud. He is also co-responsible for the PhD course DRE 3008 Entrepreneurship and Innovation Perspectives. In addtion, he is involved in various executive master courses at UiO.
Cancer incidence is increasing, and cancer is a leading cause of death in the Scandinavian countries, and at the same time more efficient but very expensive new treatment options are available. Based on the increasing demand, high expectations and limited resources, crises in public legitimacy of cancer care evolved in the three Scandinavian countries. Similar cancer care reforms were introduced in the period 2007–2015 to address the crisis. In this article we explore processes triggering these reforms in countries with similar and well-developed health care systems. The common objective was the need to reduce time from referral to start treatment, and the tool introduced to accomplish this was integrated care pathways for cancer diagnosis, that is Cancer Patient Pathways. This study investigates the process by drawing on interviews with key actors and public documents. We identified three main logics in play; the economic-administrative, the medical and the patient-related logic and explored how institutional entrepreneurs skillfully aligned these logics. The article contributes by describing the triggering processes on politically initiated similar reforms in the three countries studied and also contributes to a better understanding on the orchestrating of politically initiated health care reforms with the intention to change medical practice in hospitals.
Wendt, Kjersti; Mørk, Bjørn Erik, Berg, Ole Trond & Fosse, Erik (2020)
Medicine and interest politics a study of decision-making processes in the area of vascular surgery in Norway
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of organizational challenges when decision-makers try to comply with technological developments and increasing demands for a more rational distribution of health care services. This paper explores two decision-making processes from 2007–2019 in the area of vascular surgery at a regional and a local level in Norway. Design/methodology/approach – The study draws upon extensive document analyses, semi-structured interviews and field conversations. The empirical material was analyzed in several steps through an inductive approach and described and explained through a theoretical framework based on rational choice (i.e. bounded rationality), political behavior and institutionalism. These perspectives were used in a complementary way. Findings – Both decision-making processes were resource-intensive, long-lasting and produced few organizational changes for the provision of vascular services. Stakeholders at both levels outmaneuvered the health care planners, though by different means. Regionally, the decision-making ended up in a political process, while locally the decision-making proceeded as a strategic game between different departments and professional fields.Practical implications –Decision-makers need to prepare thoroughly for convincing others of the benefits of new ways of organizing clinical care. By providing meaningful opportunities for public involvement, by identifying and anticipating political agendas and by building alliances between stakeholders with divergent values and aims decision-makers may extend the realm of feasible solutions. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the understanding of why decision-making processes can be particularly challenging in a field characterized by rapid technological development, new treatment options and increasing demands for more rational distribution of services.
Langley, Ann; Lindberg, Kajsa, Mørk, Bjørn Erik, Nicolini, Davide, Raviola, Elena & Walter, Lars (2019)
Boundary Work among Groups, Occupations, and Organizations: From Cartography to Process
This article reviews scholarship dealing with the notion of “boundary work,” defined as purposeful individual and collective effort to influence the social, symbolic, material, or temporal boundaries, demarcations; and distinctions affecting groups, occupations, and organizations. We identify and explore the implications of three conceptually distinct but interrelated forms of boundary work emerging from the literature. Competitive boundary work involves mobilizing boundaries to establish some kind of advantage over others. In contrast, collaborative boundary work is concerned with aligning boundaries to enable collaboration. Finally, configurational boundary work involves manipulating patterns of differentiation and integration among groups to ensure that certain activities are brought together, whereas others are kept apart, orienting the domains of competition and collaboration. We argue that the notion of boundary work can contribute to the development of a uniquely processual view of organizational design as open-ended, and continually becoming, an orientation with significant future potential for understanding novel forms of organizing, and for integrating agency, power dynamics, materiality, and temporality into the study of organizing.
Lindberg, Kajsa; Mørk, Bjørn Erik & Walter, Lars (2019)
Emergent coordination and situated learning in a Hybrid OR: The mixed blessing of using radiation
Mobilising knowledge and coordinating actions in order to make use of new innovations and technologies is a major challenge in the health care sector. Drawing upon a longitudinal, qualitative study of a Hybrid Operating Room in Sweden, we illustrate how the staff from a variety of medical specialties need to coordinate their tasks and competencies, and learn how to use the technology in a safe way. This study shows that learning across highly-professionalised communities is a recursive process of emergent coordination and situated learning, which includes the acknowledgement of others’ expertise, task interdependence, and the pragmatic accommodation of latitude and control. Moreover, there was continuous negotiations between the different communities about what should constitute approved practice based on the task being performed. This obstructed the development of a dominant community with the authority to independently exclude other communities. We thus conclude that emergent coordination of tasks and expertise is an important aspect of learning how to use technologies that break with conventions of established and previously separated practices.
In this paper, we interrogate the current views on medical expertise, and expertise more in general, by building upon the study of an innovative medical procedure called transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). We find that phenomena like TAVI require that we modify our traditional views of expertise to acknowledge its social, material and distributed nature. We also find that in the case of TAVI expertise feeds upon the broad circuits of knowledge created by the combination of professional relationships, social ties and, increasingly, economic interests. Becoming and remaining an expert implies not only being socialised in a local regime of activity but increasingly also participating in, learning to navigate, and exploiting alternative and potentially competing circuits of knowledge, which may be controlled by private companies. The case of TAVI helps us to appreciate expertise as a translocal and connected phenomenon and foreground some of the implications of the emergence of proprietary circuits of knowledge.
From breakthroughs in knowledge to integration in medical practices
Škerlavaj, Miha; Černe, Matej, Dysvik, Anders & Carlsen, Arne (red.). Capitalizing on creativity at work: Fostering the implementation of creative ideas in organizations
Mørk, Bjørn Erik; Aanestad, Margunn & Hoholm, Thomas (2013)
Tverrfaglig samhandling: En praksisbasert studie av utvikling og implementering av nye praksiser i sykehus
Tjora, Aksel Hagen & Melby, Line (red.). Samhandling for helse: Kunnskap, kommunikasjon og teknologi i helsetjenesten
Mathisen, Lars; Andersen, MH, Hol, PK, Lingaas, PS, Lundblad, R, Rein, KA, Tønnessen, Tor Inge, Tønnesen, TI, Mørk, BE, Svennevig, JL, Wahl, Astrid, Hanestad, Berit Rokne, Hanestad, Berit Rokne & Fosse, Erik (2005)
Patient-reported outcome after randomization to on-pump versus off-pump coronary artery surgery
Annals of Thoracic Surgery, 79(5), s. 1584- 1589.
doi:10.1016/j.athoracsur.2004.10.019
Bergsland, Jacob; Hol, Per Kristian, Lingås, Per Snorre, Lundblad, Runar, Rein, Kjell Arne, Andersen, Rune, Mørk, Bjørn Erik, Halvorsen, Steinar, Mujanovic, Emir, Kabil, Emir, Svennevig, Jan Ludvig & Fosse, Erik (2004)
Intraoperative and intermediate-term angiographic results of coronary artery bypass surgery with Symmetry proximal anastomotic device
Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, 128(5), s. 718- 724.
Hol, Per Kristian; Fosse, Erik, Mørk, Bjørn Erik, Lundblad, Runar, Rein, Kjell Arne, Lingaas, Per Snorre, Geiran, Odd, Svennevig, Jan Ludvig, Tønnessen, Tor Inge, Nitter-Hauge, Sigurd L, Due-Tønnessen, Paulina, Vatne, Karleif & Smith, Hans-Jørgen (2001)
Graft Control by Transit Time Flow Measurement and Intraoperative Angiography in Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery
Heart Surgery Forum, 4(3), s. 254- 258.
Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2019)
Psykologisk trygghet er viktig for arbeidsklimaet
Dagens medisin [Kronikk]
Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2019)
Samarbeid – for å skape resultater
Dagens medisin [Kronikk]
Mørk, Bjørn Erik (1)
Endringer fører til grensearbeid
Dagens medisin [Kronikk]
Hoholm, Thomas & Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2021)
We cannot tell them": Timing patient pathways and the unexpected consequences for collaboration processes
[Academic lecture]. 12th International Process Symposium.
Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2021)
Å marsjere til ulike rytmer, Dagens Medisin, 3. March. https://www.dagensmedisin.no/artikler/2021/03/07/a-marsjere-etter-ulike-rytmer/
[Article in business/trade/industry journal]. Dagens medisin
Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2021)
Risiko for digital slitasje, Dagens Medisin, 18. May https://www.dagensmedisin.no/artikler/2021/05/18/risiko-for-digital-slitasje/
[Article in business/trade/industry journal]. Dagens medisin
Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2021)
Tilbakemeldinger gir psykologisk trygghet. Dagens Medisin, 11. October. https://www.dagensmedisin.no/artikler/2021/10/11/tilbakemeldinger-gir-psykologisk-trygghet/?fbclid=IwAR3fozTjGFCVrQenbq0K4UryMZ1NOuc2yNesH5NcnFgA2yAfVk1nDVH6U00
[Article in business/trade/industry journal]. Dagens medisin
Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2021)
Prosess og virksomhetsforståelse - Grunnlag for samarbeid som skaper resultater
[Academic lecture]. Seminar for all employees in Lånekassen.
Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2020)
Viktig å lytte til de ansattes forbedringsideer
[Article in business/trade/industry journal]. Dagens medisin
Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2020)
Viktig å lære av både suksess og feil
[Article in business/trade/industry journal]. Dagens medisin
Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2020)
Kunnskap handler om hva vi gjør
[Popular scientific article]. Dagens medisin
Oppen, Marit; Mørk, Bjørn Erik & Haus, Eirik (2020)
Kvantitative og kvalitative metoder i merkantile fag- en introduksjon
Sub-theme 33: Disrupting Organizing Practices in Healthcare
[Academic lecture]. 35th EGOS Colloquium.
Peavy, Keith Herbert; Hoholm, Thomas, Olsen, Per Ingvar & Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2019)
Emerging solidarities: A Collective articulation of relationally-based practices of care
[Academic lecture]. 11th International Symposium on Process Organization Studies.
Hanseth, Ole; Masovic, Jasmina & Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2018)
The dynamics of complex sociomaterial assemblages: the case of Transcatheter aortic valve implantation
Calitz, F.; Batini, C & Magni, M (red.). Organizing for the Digital World. IT for individuals, communities and societies, Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation (LNISO)
Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2018)
Når praksiser er situerte og trans-situerte - samarbeid og læring
[Academic lecture]. Kompetansedagene.
Peavy, Keith Herbert; Hoholm, Thomas, Olsen, Per Ingvar & Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2018)
Emerging solidarities and the transformation of caring practices
[Academic lecture]. The 13th Organizational Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities Conference (OLKC).
Trans-situated expertise and local knowing in practice
[Academic lecture]. The Tenth Organizational Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities Conference (OLKC).
Mørk, Bjørn Erik; Masovic, Jasmina & Hanseth, Ole (2014)
Practices in the making. Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI)
[Academic lecture]. Analysing epistemic practices in professional work and learning.
Hoholm, Thomas; La Rocca, Antonella & Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2014)
A practice-based approach for studying interactions in business relationships
[Academic lecture]. The IMP Conference.
Hungnes, Tonje; Hoholm, Thomas & Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2014)
Understanding change through the lenses of practice-based studies and institutional theory – a case from Norwegian healthcare
[Academic lecture]. The Ninth Organizational Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities Conference (OLKC).
Mørk, Bjørn Erik & Hanseth, Ole (2014)
From breakthroughs in knowledge to integration in medical practice (KINT) – The case of TAVI
[Academic lecture]. Research seminar.
Mørk, Bjørn Erik & Hanseth, Ole (2014)
Practices in the making: A socio-material view on Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI)
[Academic lecture]. Research seminar.
Mørk, Bjørn Erik & Masovic, Jasmina (2014)
From breakthroughs in knowledge to integration in medical practice (KINT) – The case of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI)
[Academic lecture]. Health care innovation seminar.
Mørk, Bjørn Erik & Hoholm, Thomas (2014)
Organising for reflective, reflexive learning challenges of research-led teaching for newcomers and old timers in the OLKC research community
[Academic lecture]. International Conference on Organizational Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities.
Mørk, Bjørn Erik & Hoholm, Thomas (2014)
Ignorance and new medical procedures: generating knowledge across professions in the face of uncertainty
[Academic lecture]. Research seminar on theorising ignorance.
Shidende, Nima Herman; Aanestad, Margunn & Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2014)
The Role of Information Artefacts in Organizing: An Empirical Study forn Tanzanian Health Care
[Academic lecture]. International Conference on Organizational Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities.
Nielsen, Petter & Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2013)
Dataprogram som ikke snakker samme språk
[Popular scientific article]. Aftenposten Viten
Rubach, Synnøve; Hoholm, Thomas & Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2013)
Regional innovation: On boundary organizations and the interaction between industry, science and politics
[Academic lecture]. NEON konferansen.
Mørk, Bjørn Erik; Aanestad, Margunn & Hoholm, Thomas (2013)
Praksisbaserte perspektiver på teknologisk innovasjon i helsevesenet
[Academic lecture]. NEON konferansen.
Mørk, Bjørn Erik; Aanestad, Margunn, Hoholm, Thomas & Halvorsen, Per Steinar (2013)
"Høyteknologisk innovasjon, tverrfaglighet og ekspertise"
[Academic lecture]. Oslo Innovation Week.
Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2013)
Praksisbaserte perspektiver på innovasjon i helsevesenet
[Academic lecture]. Kurs i Innovasjonsledelse.
Mørk, Bjørn Erik (2013)
Erfaringer med å være Fulbright Scholar (i seminaret hadde jeg rolle som deltager i paneldebatt og gruppelærer for scholars som skal ha opphold i California)