Ingrid Marie Leikvoll Oskarsson

• Oskarsson, Ingrid Marie L. & Hungnes, Tonje (2026). Competency models are no silver bullet for solving health-care managers’ challenges. Perspectives from frontline managers in municipality health care. Leadership in Health Services. ISSN 1751-1879. 39(5), p. 115–115. doi: 10.1108/lhs-09-2025-0156. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Purpose This study aims to explore how frontline managers (FLMs) in Norwegian municipal health care perceive the relevance and practical usefulness of the management competency assessment partnership (MCAP) competency model. While competency models are widely promoted to strengthen health-care management and leadership, fewer studies have examined how such models are experienced by FLMs who work under considerable operational and contextual constraints. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative study was conducted using three focus group discussions with 14 FLMs from three Norwegian municipalities. Before discussions, participants completed the MCAP questionnaire and reflected individually on its strengths, limitations and relevance. Data were analysed inductively using qualitative content analysis. Findings The analysis revealed two interrelated findings. First, FLM perceived MCAP as a relevant and comprehensive model that reflected the formal expectations for their role. Second, they questioned its practical usefulness when considered in relation to everyday work. Large spans of control, broad task scope, time pressure and limited room for manoeuvre constrained managers’ opportunities to develop, prioritise or enact several competencies. This was particularly consequential for interpersonal communication and change management, which were highlighted as the most important competencies by the informants. Originality/value This study contributes a conceptual lens for interpreting competency models as espoused theories and contrasting them with the theories-in-use that managers develop to meet everyday operational demands. It shows that competency mapping alone is no silver bullet for strengthening management. Effective competency development requires organisational conditions that enable FLMs to enact and sustain the competencies that models such as MCAP define.

• Oskarsson, Ingrid Marie L.; Ødegård, Atle; Rødal, Jorunn & Liang, Zhanming (2026). Translation, Cultural Adaptation and Validation: Exploring the Transferability of a Health Management Competency Model to the Norwegian Healthcare. Journal of Healthcare Leadership. Volume 18, p. 1–14. doi: 10.2147/jhl.s572228. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Purpose: The healthcare sector faces complex challenges that demand a highly competent management workforce. Although considerable efforts have been made to develop management competency frameworks that provide lists of core competencies for health managers, few frameworks have undergone rigorous validity and reliability testing. The present study aimed to translate and culturally adapt the Management Competency Assessment Partnership (MCAP) tool for use in the Norwegian healthcare context and to evaluate its psychometric properties. Methods: An eleven-step translation and cultural adaptation procedure was developed in accordance with established guidelines. A pilot study was conducted using the adapted MCAP tool with 53 healthcare managers in Norway. The resulting test scores were analyzed using inter-item correlations and exploratory factor analysis to assess the construct validity and reliability. Results: The comprehensive translation and cross-cultural adaptation procedure contributed to the Norwegian version retained strong fidelity to the original tool. Preliminary findings demonstrated acceptable reliability and supported the construct validity of the MCAP tool test scores within the Norwegian healthcare context. Conclusion: A rigorous translation and cross-cultural adaptation process is essential to preserve conceptual integrity when implementing assessment instruments across contexts. The preliminary findings of this study adds to previous cross-contextual validation studies using the MCAP tool, further supporting its utility as a representative framework for assessing health management competencies.

• Oskarsson, Ingrid Marie L. & Vik, Erlend (2024). Suggesting a holistic framework for understanding healthcare services leadership competence – a critical interpretive synthesis. Leadership in Health Services. ISSN 1751-1879. 37(5), p. 99–129. doi: 10.1108/LHS-08-2023-0059. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Purpose: Healthcare providers are under pressure due to increasing and more complex demands for services. Increased pressure on budgets and human resources adds to an ever-growing problem set. Competent leaders are in demand to ensure effective and well-performing healthcare organisations that deliver balanced results and high-quality services. Researchers have made significant efforts to identify and define determining competencies for healthcare leadership. Broad terms such as competence are, however, inherently at risk of becoming too generic to add analytical value. The purpose of this study is to suggest a holistic framework for understanding healthcare leadership competence, that can be crucial for operationalising important healthcare leadership competencies for researchers, decision-makers as well as practitioners. Design/methodology/approach: In the present study, a critical interpretive synthesis (CIS) was conducted to analyse competency descriptions for healthcare leaders. The descriptions were retrieved from peer reviewed empirical studies published between 2010 and 2022 that aimed to identify healthcare services leadership competencies. Grounded theory was utilised to code the data and inductively develop new categories of healthcare leadership competencies. The categorisation was then analysed to suggest a holistic framework for healthcare leadership competence. Findings: Forty-one papers were included in the review. Coding and analysing the competence descriptions resulted in 12 healthcare leadership competence categories: (1) character, (2) interpersonal relations, (3) leadership, (4) professionalism, (5) soft HRM, (6) management, (7) organisational knowledge, (8) technology, (9) knowledge of the healthcare environment, (10) change and innovation, (11) knowledge transformation and (12) boundary spanning. Based on this result, a holistic framework for understanding and analysing healthcare services leadership competencies was suggested. This framework suggests that the 12 categories of healthcare leadership competencies include a range of knowledge, skills and abilities that can be understood across the dimension personal – and technical, and organisational internal and – external competencies. Research limitations/implications: This literature review was conducted with the results of searching only two electronic databases. Because of this, there is a chance that there exist empirical studies that could have added to the development of the competence categories or could have contradicted some of the descriptions used in this analysis that were assessed as quite harmonised. A CIS also opens for a broader search, including the grey literature, books, policy documents and so on, but this study was limited to peer-reviewed empirical studies. This limitation could also have affected the result, as complex phenomenon such as competence might have been disclosed in greater details in, for example, books.

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• Oskarsson, Ingrid Marie L. (2026). Exploring and piloting healthcare management competency in Norway : conceptual clarification, contextual adaptation, and initial evaluation. Høgskolen i Molde - Vitenskapelig høgskole i logistikk. ISSN 9788279624097. Full text in Research Archive

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