I am Professor at the Department of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at BI Norwegian Business School. I have a a PhD in management and organization from Hanken School of Economics, Finland, and I previously worked as a Research Professor at the Work Research Institute (Arbeidsforskningsinstiuttet) at OsloMet.
Interests
My research interests revolve around two themes. First, organizational and institutional change in welfare service organizations, including implementation of reforms, inter-organizational collaboration, professionalization and professional work, digitalization, and service innovation. Second, organizational, workplace and leadership dimensions of 'employer engagement', i.e. the active involvement of employers in the labour market inclusion for vulnerable groups.
Teaching
In 2022 I will be responsible for the course in leadership of change and development at the executive program in Educational Leadership. I also hold various lectures on topics related to public management. In addition, I am Adjunct Professor at University of Oslo, Department of Education, where I teach at the masters program in knowledge management and workplace learning.
Ongoing research projects
Sustained employment of ‘hard-to-place’ citizens in small and medium sized enterprises: A mixed-method study in Norway and the Netherlands. In collaboration with OsloMet and Utrecht University. Funded by Research Council Norway (2020-2023).
‘Organizing for outcome’ (O4O): Links between service integration and transitions to employment for citizens with complex service needs. In collaboration with OsloMet, Stockholm University, Aarhus University and UC Berkeley. Funded by Research Council Norway (2020-2024).
Publikasjoner
Andreassen, Tone Alm & Breit, Eric (2024)
Professional responses to exogenous change: the social work profession and the jurisdictional domain opened up by the Norwegian welfare-to-work reform
Rønningstad, Chris; Andreassen, Tone Alm, Breit, Eric & Minas, Renate (2023)
Reform Pathways for Integrating Employment Assistance to Marginalised Groups
Baehler, Karen J. (red.). The Oxford Handbook of governance and public management for social policy
Kennedy, Mari-Rose; Deans, Zuzana, Ampollini, Ilaria, Breit, Eric Martin Alexander, Bucchi, Massimiano, Seppel, Külliki, Vie, Knut Jørgen & Ter Meulen, Ruud (2023)
“It is Very Difficult for us to Separate Ourselves from this System”: Views of European Researchers, Research Managers, Administrators and Governance Advisors on Structural and Institutional Influences on Research Integrity
Research integrity is fundamental to the validity and reliability of scientific findings, and for ethical conduct of research. As part of PRINTEGER (Promoting Integrity as an Integral Dimension of Excellence in Research), this study explores the views of researchers, research managers, administrators, and governance advisors in Estonia, Italy, Norway and UK, focusing specifically on their understanding of institutional and organisational influences on research integrity. A total of 16 focus groups were conducted. Thematic analysis of the data revealed that competition is pervasive and appeared in most themes relating to integrity. The structural frameworks for research such as funding, evaluation and publication were thought to both protect and, more commonly, undermine integrity. In addition, institutional systems, including workload and research governance, shaped participants’ day-to-day work environment, also affecting research integrity. Participants also provided ideas for promoting research integrity, including training, and creating conditions that would be supportive of research integrity. These findings support a shift away from individual blame and towards the need for structural and institutional changes, including organisations in the wider research environment, for example funding bodies and publishing companies.
Aksnes, Siri Yde & Breit, Eric Martin Alexander (2022)
Integrerte tjenester med sosiale entreprenører? Erfaringer fra samarbeid mellom sosiale entreprenører og Nav
Saltkjel, Therese; Rønningstad, Chris Andre & Sønderskov, Mette (red.). Samhandling og inkludering i arbeidslivet
Andreassen, Tone Alm; Breit, Eric & Saltkjel, Therese (2022)
Inkludering, antidiskriminering eller aktivering: Hvordan politikk for økt arbeidslivsdeltakelse studeres fra ulike forskningstradisjoner
Saltkjel, Therese; Rønningstad, Chris Andre & Sønderskov, Mette (red.). Samhandling og inkludering i arbeidslivet
Breit, Eric Martin Alexander; Andreassen, Tone Alm & Fossestøl, Knut (2022)
Development of hybrid professionalism: street-level managers’ work and the enabling conditions of public reform
This paper examines the role of street-level managers in the development of hybrid professionalism. Based on a longitudinal analysis of an organizational reform, we highlight the work of street-level managers in promoting a hybrid ‘social work-like’ professionalism to reconcile social work professionalism with managerial bureaucracy. We highlight four managerial activities – organizational design, discursive reconstruction, R&D project mobilization and legitimization in reform documents – and connect these to enabling and constraining conditions in the reform. Overall, we found that the development of hybrid professionalism is contingent on enabling reform conditions providing material and discursive resources that proactive managers can employ to transform professionalism.
Klemsdal, Lars; Andreassen, Tone Alm & Breit, Eric Martin Alexander (2022)
Resisting or Facilitating Change? How Street-Level Managers’ SituationalWork Contributes to the Implementation of Public Reforms
Managers of street-level organizations play an important role in the successful implementation of public reforms. A prevailing view within the public administration literature is that this work involves the adaptation between reforms and local contexts, where divergence is viewed as a form of resistance to change. The paper challenges this prevalent reform-centric view by introducing a situation-centric perspective and coining the concept of situational work as a significant form of managerial work during implementation. Situational work encompasses managerial actions that ensure functional and well-ordered service delivery in local street-level organizations by accomodating everyday situational contingencies, including reform objectives, but also the interests and expectations of workers, clients, and local service partners. The concept of situational work, then, broadens the recognized scope of managerial activities that contribute to successful reform implementation, reconceptualizing divergence from reform design as constructive rather than as resistance to change. The paper draws on an extensive multi-wave study of a major organizational reform in Norway, based on observations of meetings as well as qualitative interviews of managers, union representatives, frontline workers and collaborating partners in six welfare service offices at three points in time (altogether 23 observation sessions and 173 interviews).
Bakkeli, Vidar & Breit, Eric Martin Alexander (2021)
From “what works” to “making it work”: A practice perspective on evidence-based standardization in frontline service organizations
While a substantive literature has emerged on the prevalence, causes, and consequences of scientific misconduct, little is known about the organisational perspective in cases of (alleged) misconduct. We address this knowledge gap by employing a comparative case study approach to describe and assess the handling of four cases of alleged misconduct by their university, respectively in the Netherlands and Norway. We propose a theoretical model that explains how organisational responses to misconduct emerge and evolve as iterations of the processes of sensemaking, sensegiving, and sensehiding. In addition, we link these iterations to a set of background premises that nurture the organisational responses and to the responses’ outcomes and consequences. We conclude that several aspects of the organisational responses hinder effective learning processes within organisations and their members. Our analysis provides fruitful heuristics for organisations to reflect on, or plan their response strategies to allow for optimal learning.
Haenraets, Rosan; Aksnes, Siri Yde, van Berkel, Rik & Breit, Eric Martin Alexander (2021)
Engaging Employers in Promoting the Labour market Participation of People with Disabilities; A Comparative Analysis of Demand-side Activation Policies in Norway and the Netherlands
Pedersen, Eirin; Egeland, Cathrine & Breit, Eric (2019)
Between Production and Innovation – The Role of Front-line Professionals in Local Innovation in NAV
[Academic lecture]. Street-Level Bureaucracy Research Conference.
Andreassen, Tone Alm; Breit, Eric & Saltkjel, Therese (2019)
Meta-narratives in research on service integration for workforce inclusion: A systematic review
[Academic lecture]. Street-Level Bureaucracy Research Conference, The interplay between policy reforms, governance and street-level practices and the implications for the assistance-seeking citizens.
Strategic leeway under institutional complexity: The case of an ad hoc response to conflicting institutional demands during administrative reform
[Academic lecture]. European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) annual conference.
Breit, Eric & Salomon, Robert H (2015)
Kunnskap og informasjon om pensjon - Nye informasjonsrelasjoner mellom borgere og forvaltning i det nye alderspensjonssystemet
[Report]. Arbeidsforskningsinstituttet, HiOA.
Ett av hovedformålene i det nye alderspensjonssystemet er at det skal være enkelt og forståelig for borgerne. Denne rapporten er basert på en undersøkelse av i hvilken grad informasjonen fra det offentlige har gitt borgerne et akseptabelt informasjonsgrunnlag knyttet til valg og uttak av alderspensjon. Undersøkelsen er blitt gjennomført som en del av Norges Forskningsråds evaluering av pensjons-reformen, og er basert på kvantitative data fra det årlige YS Arbeidslivsbarometeret, intervjuer med ledelsen og førstelinjen i offentlige pensjonstilbydere (primært NAV og SPK) og brukertester av offentlige pensjonsportaler. Rapporten peker på en betydelig forskjell i pensjonskunnskap i befolkningen knyttet til ikke bare alder men også til inntekt. Til tross for en sosial profil i det nye pensjonssystemet vil kompleksiteten i regelverket medføre skjevheter, der de mest ressurssterke har større mulighet til å foreta dispo-sisjoner tilpasset systemet en de minst ressurssterke. Som en del av effektiviseringen av pensjonsforvaltningen har mye av informasjonen blitt kanalisert gjennom digitale selvbetjeningsløsninger. I dagens system skal mye av informasjonsutvekslingen skje via nettportaler og via epost eller telefonisk kontakt, og i mindre grad ansikt til ansikt for ek-sempel på lokale NAV-kontor. Til tross for økt tilgjengeliggjøring av informasjon har disse løsninge-ne innebåret en overføring av ansvar og risiko til borgerne knyttet til deres IKT-kompetanse samt deres evne til å kvalitets- og relevanssikre informasjonen. Rapporten bidrar til økt kunnskap om organisatoriske og digitale utfordringer knyttet til iverkset-tinger av regelverksendringer, og hvilke effekter dette kan ha for borgernes rettssikkerhet. Basert på undersøkelsen er en spissing av informasjonstiltak inn mot ulike grupper av årskull og grupper med ulike (forventede) inntektsnivå en viktig oppgave for forvaltningen.
Bay, Ann-Helén; Breit, Eric, Fossestøl, Knut, Grødem, Anne Skevik & Terum, Lars Inge (2015)
Nav som lærende organisasjon
[Report]. Institutt for samfunnsforskning.
Rapporten diskuterer hvordan Nav kan styrkes som en lærende organisasjon. Til grunn for diskusjonen ligger erkjennelsen av at Nav er en stor organisasjon med et svært komplekst oppdrag, noe som gir særlige læringsutfordringer – og læringsmuligheter. Navs utfordringer og muligheter som lærende organisasjon diskuteres med utgangspunkt i innsikt fra Nav-evalueringen, fra forskningen om profesjoner og profesjonsutøvelse, og fra den generelle forskningen om velferdsstaten og velferdstjenestene. Forslagene som presenteres framhever karriereplaner for medarbeiderne, styrking av ledelsen på lokalkontorene, utviklingsarbeid på fylkesnivå, og styrking av direktoratets rolle som fagdirektorat. Rapporten er basert på et notat som ble utarbeidet for en ekspertgruppe som leverte i april 2015.
Klemsdal, Lars; Andreassen, Tone Alm, Breit, Eric & Fossestøl, Knut (2014)
Organizational reforms as designed space for participation in local development processes