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Anne Mette Møller

Associate Professor

Subjects
Leadership Public management Organisation Digitalisation Qualitative methods Welfare

Primary research areas

Front­line work and street-level bur­eau­cracy
Front­line pro­fes­sion­als and man­agers in pub­lic or­gan­iz­a­tions work every day to provide pub­lic ser­vices such as health­care, school­ing, eld­er­care, and child wel­fare. I study how they make things work, in­clud­ing how they nav­ig­ate a com­plex web of policy goals, pro­fes­sion­al norms, and cit­izen needs and ex­pect­a­tions.
Pro­fes­sion­al know­ledge and prac­tice
I study how front­line pro­fes­sion­als in pub­lic or­gan­iz­a­tions ex­er­cise pro­fes­sion­al judg­ment, in­clud­ing how dif­fer­ent forms of know­ledge are mo­bil­ized in prac­tice, as well as broad­er ques­tions around the nature of re­search util­iz­a­tion, the im­pact of schol­arly know­ledge on prac­tice, and ideals such as evid­ence-based policy and prac­tice.
Lead­er­ship of front­line pro­fes­sion­als
Front­line work in­volves many chal­lenges, in­clud­ing pro­fes­sion­al un­cer­tainty, dif­fi­cult pri­or­it­iz­a­tions, mor­al di­lem­mas, and emo­tion­al strain. I seek to de­vel­op an un­der­stand­ing of how re­la­tion­al and col­lect­ive forms of lead­er­ship can mit­ig­ate these chal­lenges and en­able front­line pro­fes­sion­als to carry out their work in the best pos­sible way.
Policy im­ple­ment­a­tion and trans­la­tion
Policy does not im­ple­ment it­self. I study how ab­stract policy is en­acted in prac­tice through en­coun­ters between cit­izens and the state, in­clud­ing how policy goals (e.g., evid­ence-based prac­tice) or man­age­ment ideas (e.g., the Buurtzorg mod­el in eld­er­care) are trans­lated into prac­tice, and how front­line work­ers’ dis­cre­tion­ary de­cisions shape policy-as-prac­ticed.
Di­git­al­iz­a­tion
Di­git­al­iz­a­tion is trans­form­ing the pub­lic sec­tor, re­shap­ing forms and prac­tices of ser­vice de­liv­ery and in­ter­ac­tions between cit­izens and the state. This is not a new de­vel­op­ment b. I study how policy im­ple­ment­a­tion and pub­lic ser­vice de­liv­ery is shaped by a con­tinu­ous lay­er­ing of di­git­al tech­no­lo­gies in daily prac­tice.
Qual­it­at­ive and in­ter­pret­ive meth­od­o­logy
My re­search is pre­dom­in­antly based on qual­it­at­ive and in­ter­pret­ive meth­od­o­lo­gies, in­clud­ing or­gan­iz­a­tion­al eth­no­graphy, qual­it­at­ive in­ter­view­ing, ab­duct­ive ana­lys­is, and prac­tice-based the­or­iz­ing. I teach qual­it­at­ive meth­ods on all levels and have pub­lished a text­book and sev­er­al chapters on qual­it­at­ive meth­od­o­logy.

I ex­plore how people make pub­lic policy work in prac­tice

I study professional knowledge and decision-making, public leadership, and policy implementation to understand how public professionals and managers make public policy work in practice – and how leadership may enable frontline workers to mitigate challenges associated with their work: professional discretion, the need for prioritization, and moral dilemmas and emotional strain that arise from interactions with citizens.  

I teach and supervise on all levels, including executive education. I strive to combine academic excellence with practical relevance and societal impact. I am affiliated with the CBS Leadership Center, King Frederik Center for Public Leadership, and VIVE – The Danish National Center for Social Science Research. I engage directly with stakeholders through keynotes, workshops, and leadership seminars. 

I received the Inge Lehmann grant from the Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF) in 2023 and was appointed CBS Executive Fonden Chair of Leadership & Organization in 2024. 

Publications

See all publications

August 2025

Same Position, Different Roles?

How Professional, Organizational, and Public Policy Logics Shape Frontline Managers’ Role Conceptions

Anne Met­te Møl­ler, Associate Professor

Mathilde Cecchini
Go to publication

April 2025

Inside the Digital State

Frontline Work in the Context of Digital Layering

Anne Met­te Møl­ler, Associate Professor

Go to publication

2025

Indsamling af interviewdata

Anne Met­te Møl­ler, Associate Professor

Carsten Strømbæk Pedersen

Bente Halkier
Go to publication

Recent research projects

Re­cord Keep­ing in Front­line Work

Case re­cords are in­teg­ral to pro­fes­sion­al work. This pro­ject ex­plores how front­line pro­fes­sion­als nav­ig­ate ad­min­is­trat­ive, pro­fes­sion­al, and re­la­tion­al pur­poses of re­cord-keep­ing in prac­tice.
Read project summary

Pub­lic Bur­eau­cracy and Di­git­al Trans­formation

Based on eth­no­graph­ic field­work in two pub­lic agen­cies, this pro­ject of­fers a nu­anced un­der­stand­ing of how di­git­al trans­formation re­shapes struc­tures, prac­tices, and val­ues in the pub­lic bur­eau­cracy.
Read the book: Public Bureaucracy and Digital Transformation

Or­gan­iz­ing know­ledge and de­cision-mak­ing

Mo­tiv­ated by de­bates over evid­ence-based prac­tice, this PhD thes­is ex­plores when and how is know­ledge mo­bil­ized to in­form de­cision-mak­ing and pro­fes­sion­al judg­ment in street-level or­gan­iz­a­tions
PhD thesis summary and free download

Outside activities

Af­fil­i­ated Re­search­er, VIVE , 2023 -

I col­lab­or­ate with ex­perts from VIVE – The Dan­ish Na­tion­al Cen­ter for So­cial Sci­ence Re­search on se­lec­ted pro­jects
Learn more about VIVE

Af­fil­i­ated Re­search­er, King Fre­derik’s Cen­ter for Pub­lic Lead­er­ship , 2023 -

I col­lab­or­ate with King Fre­derik’s Cen­ter for Pub­lic Lead­er­ship to cre­ate and share know­ledge about pub­lic lead­er­ship
King Frederik Center for Public Leadership

Lead­er­ship work­shops and sem­inars , 2018 -

I reg­u­larly con­duct work­shops and sem­inars on lead­er­ship de­vel­op­ment and oth­er top­ics for mu­ni­cip­al­it­ies, edu­ca­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions, etc.

Key­notes, talks, present­a­tions , 2018 -

I have giv­en key­notes on, e.g., know­ledge mo­bil­iz­a­tion, di­git­al­iz­a­tion, and lead­er­ship of front­line pro­fes­sion­als