The search for successful welfare technology (WFT) implementation: Norwegian municipalities implementing a WFT coordinating role-a qualitative study

The implementation of welfaretechnologies (WFT) is currently taking place across European healthcare delivery. The implementation is accompanied by research demonstrating further that digital health implementation in healthcare is a complex and challenging process, and more attention to the management of large-scale implementation of WFT is needed. This article addresses the question of how to implement WFT and explores the implementation of welfare technology coordinating roles currently taking place in several Norwegian municipalities. The article is based on a qualitative study in five Norwegian municipalities. Thirty-two semi-structured individual interviews were conducted in 2021 with a strategic selection of administrative participants involved in the WFT implementation process. A thematic analysis was done following Gioa’s model for structuring the empirical material. The analysis evolved as an iterative process, pending between empirical codes and concepts, themes, and aggregated dimensions. The main finding was that the implementation of a WFT coordinating role was experienced as challenging by the municipal administrations. We identified three categories that provided further contents to this main finding: (1) the challenge of delimiting the role (2) the challenge of gaining commitment from other actors in the organisation (3) the challenge of locating the role in the organisation. Based on the findings, this study demonstrates further how WFT implementation can be a challenging conduct. The study also contributes to more insight into how such challenges can be constituted and suggests that further attention should be paid to (i) how WFT change designs relate to conflicting interests and heterogeneity in the organisation and to (ii) how WFT change interventions interact with underpinning processes and structures in municipal organisations.