Development of a theory of implementation and integration: Normalization Process Theory

By Carl R. May, F. Mair, Tracy Finch, A. MacFarlane, C. Dowrick, Shaun P. Treweek, T. Rapley, Luciana Ballini, B. N. Ong, A. Rogers and 8 more. Implementation science : IS, 2009

1,211 citations recorded by the source corpus.

BackgroundTheories are important tools in the social and natural sciences. The methods by which they are derived are rarely described and discussed. Normalization Process Theory explains how new technologies, ways of acting, and ways of working become routinely embedded in everyday practice, and has applications in the study of implementation processes. This paper describes the process by which it was built.MethodsBetween 1998 and 2008, we developed a theory. We derived a set of empirical generalizations from analysis of data collected in qualitative studies of healthcare work and organization. We developed an applied theoretical model through analysis of empirical generalizations. Finally, we built a formal theory through a process of extension and implication analysis of the applied theoretical model.ResultsEach phase of theory development showed that the constructs of the theory did not conflict with each other, had explanatory power, and possessed sufficient robustness for formal testing. As the theory developed, its scope expanded from a set of observed regularities in data with procedural explanations, to an applied theoretical model, to a formal middle-range theory.ConclusionNormalization Process Theory has been developed through procedures that were properly sceptical and critical, and which were opened to review at each stage of development. The theory has been shown to merit formal testing.

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8d2b3d523cbe55a820faa145e7a51c12e78e117c

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

1. L. Pfadenhauer
2. Mark A. Johnson
3. Tracy Finch
4. Carl R. May
5. A. Gerhardus
6. Elizabeth Murray
7. Paolo Zanaboni
8. Kati Mozygemba

Citations in the corpus

• Factors that promote or inhibit the implementation of e-health systems: an explanatory systematic review. (2012, methodology): “Second, we have interpreted our results in the light of an explanatory framework – Normalization Process Theory (NPT) 5,6 – that specifies mechanisms of importance in implementation processes.”
• Normalising the “new normal”: Changing tech-driven work practices under pandemic time pressure (2020, unknown): “Cognitive participation draws focus on tech-driven work practices that employees do to build and sustain the new practice during the Table 1 Applying NPT to Examine Changing Tech-Driven Work Practices (adapted from May & Finch, 2009; May et al., 2009).”
• Towards a general theory of implementation (2013, background): “This model was then developed into Normalization Process Theory, a generic and middlerange theory of implementation [8,10].”
• Theoretical explanations for maintenance of behaviour change: a systematic review of behaviour theories (2016, unknown): “May & Finch, 2009; May et al., 2009).”
• Making sense of complexity in context and implementation: the Context and Implementation of Complex Interventions (CICI) framework (2017, background): “The implementation process refers to the social processes, through which interventions are operationalised in an organisation or community [84].”
• Adoption of telemedicine: from pilot stage to routine delivery (2012, background): “More recently, May and colleagues developed a Normalization Process Theory (NPT) to explain the implementation, embedding and integration of complex health interventions into everyday practice [42].”
• Implementation, context and complexity (2016, methodology): “As in our earlier work [22, 24], we define implementation as follows:”