For DIGHEL or DESIGN students writing in English or Norwegian
Many situations require citizens to navigate a wide range of services and requirements across public sector organizations, demanding significant time and effort. For instance, when a child is severely ill, parents often have to move between services offered by different levels of the health system, as well as between different sectors, such as NAV, the local municipality, and others.
Digital technology offers opportunities to deliver more effective and cohesive services in such situations through so-called integrated public service delivery. The Digitalization Directorate is currently responsible for seven life events (livshendelser) that aim to provide better support to citizens facing common and often demanding situations. One of these is the “severely sick child” life event, which forms the case for this master’s project.
While expectations and potential benefits for citizens and society are high, developing this life event is proving highly challenging. Traditional approaches to digitalization and digital innovation are geared toward developing technical, stand-alone products on behalf of a single organization. In contrast, developing a life event requires shaping a complex sociotechnical system involving largely autonomous actors with different goals, regulations, practices, and technologies.
Rather than unfolding as a single product development cycle, developing an integrated service that meets the needs of a family with a severely ill child requires a portfolio of smaller systemic interventions, each seeking to move collaboration among the actors in the right direction. This, in turn, requires new forms of collaboration and governance, built on developing a shared understanding and vision among the actors involved.
Design and development of this kind, therefore, demand different approaches to managing and organizing digital innovation. In this project, students will explore challenges and opportunities in managing, organizing, and engaging in innovation for integrated public (health) service delivery, with a particular focus on the “severely sick child” life event.
The project is open-ended, and more concrete research questions will be defined together with students based on their interests. Possible themes include, but are not limited to:
- Collaboration and governance: How can we develop improved collaboration between public sector actors with different mandates and logics?
- Systemic intervention portfolio management: How can innovation be organized as a series of systemic interventions rather than product development cycles?
- Citizen-centered value creation: What role does a citizen-centric perspective play in larger inter-organizational initiatives
Students in the DESIGN program will have particular emphasis on aspects tied to design processes, while DIGHEL students emphasize aspects tied to health as a domain.
The project will involve methods such as document analysis of existing reports and other documentation, examining past activities through qualitative interviews, and potentially getting involved by following or actively participating in ongoing design and development activities.
The project provides an opportunity to contribute new and relevant knowledge to both research and practice, while also offering students valuable experience with issues and concepts directly relevant to future careers in system/service design, digitalization, and innovation management.