Implementing Evidence-based Management (Roussea)

Question 1

What is evidence-based management?

Answer 1

(1) The process of translating human behaviour principles then (2) into practice, (3) to solve organisational problems.

Question 2

Example: Making Feedback People Friendly

Answer 2

(1) principle: human beings can process only a limited amount of information.
(2) practice: provide feedback on a small set of critical performance indicators using terms people readily understand.
(3) solve organisational problems: performance of unit improves.

Question 3

What should managers consider when using principles for evidence-based management?

Answer 3

Ask yourself:
- Is the principle credible?
- Is the principle’s insight suited to the setting? (I.e. what indicators can be applied to the unit).

Question 4

Attribution Bias

Answer 4

Managers may make incorrect assumptions about the causes of success or failure, impacting decision-making, relationships, and hinder teamwork and cooperation.

Question 5

Types of Attribution Bias

Answer 5

• Fundamental Attribution Bias
• Self-serving bias

Question 6

Fundamental attribution bias

Answer 6

When people overestimate the influence of other people’s personality traits and underestimate the impact of situational factors when explaining the causes of an event of behaviour.

Question 7

Why is evidence-based management important?

Answer 7

We want to improve the quality of managerial/ organisational decision-making. Evidence-based management encourages managers to look for principles that account for their observations & to pay attention to evidence derived from scientific methods. Higher-quality managerial decisions are developed with available facts, grounded in reliable & valid information.

Question 8

Open-book management (Case, 1995; Ferrante & Rousseau, 2001)

Answer 8

• Use of discrete facts (indicative of quality i.e. employee attitudes & behaviour, machine performance, customers interactions).
• Use of organisational fact finding
• Use of experimentation (Pfeffer & Sutton, 2001)

Question 9

Big E evidence

Answer 9

Generalisable knowledge regarding cause-effect connections derived from scientific methods.

Question 10

Little E evidence

Answer 10

Evidence that is local/organisation specific through root cause analysis & other fact-based approaches.

Question 11

Fact-based approaches

Answer 11

Data systematically gathered in a particular setting to inform local decisions

Question 12

How should you assess the quality of research evidence?

Answer 12

Ask yourself:
- Is this strong or weak evidence?

Question 13

How do you assess whether you have strong or weak evidence?

Answer 13

Ask yourself:
- Is the evidence based on rules of scientific inference?
- Is the evidence gathered through randomised, controlled tests? (These tests are deemed stronger than longitudinal cohort analyses).

Question 14

Evidence-based practice (Sackett, Straus, Richardson, Rosenberg, & Haynes, 2000)

Answer 14

“Evidence-based practice is a paradigm for making decisions that integrate the best available research evidence with decision maker expertise & client/customer preferences to guide practice toward more desirable results.”

Question 15

What are the features of evidence-based practice?

Answer 15

• learning about cause-effect connections in professional practices
• isolating the variations that measurably affect desired outcomes.
• creating a culture of evidence-based decision making & research participation
• using information-sharing communities to reduce overuse, underuse, & misuse of specific practices
• building decision support to promote practices the evidence validates, along with techniques & artifacts that make the decision easier to execute of perform (e.g., checklists, protocols, or standing orders).
• having individual, organisational, & institutional factors to promote access knowledge & its use.

Question 16

How do managers successfully implement decisions?

Answer 16

To minimise the possibility of failure in implementation, managers need to be competent. Organisations should ensure managers engage with known management practices & real learning, not fads or false conclusions.

Question 17

What does real learning look like?

Answer 17

Learning valid principles governing organisations & human behaviour. These principles are repeatable over time & generalisable across situations.

Question 18

Examples of real management practices

Answer 18

• Goal setting & feedback (Locke & Latham, 1984)
• Feedback & Redesign (Goodman, 2001)

Question 19

Again, how can managers improve decision-making?

Answer 19

Managers need to learn why their decisions are wrong. They need to be able to use evidence (Big e & Little e) well to gain a comparative advantage over their less competent counterparts.

Question 20

Organisational Legitimacy is a product of evidence-based management

Answer 20

Legitimacy is a result of making decisions in a systematic & informed fashion, thus making a firm’s actions readily justifiable in the eyes of stakeholders.

Question 21

Why has it been hard for managers to implement evidence-based practice? (Research-practice gap)

Answer 21

• managerial decisions involve time lags & little feedback (e.g. hiring decisions).
• managerial decisions are influenced by other stakeholders who impose constraints (involves politicking & compromise) (Miller, 1992)
• managers may not always know they are making a decision given that there is an array of interactions that compose managerial work (Walsh & Randall, 2001)
• Management is often a private sector activity, so there is no body of shared knowledge, lacking shared scientific knowledge to add weight to an evidence-based decision.
• Future managers (business school students) need to be taught how to use scientific evidence in decision-making (e.g., there is a lack of models for evidence-based management).

Question 22

Uniqueness paradox (Sackett et al, 2000)

Answer 22

The uniqueness paradox can interfere with transfer of research findings across settings - the belief that the particulars of an organisation, its practices, & its problems are special & unique (Martin, Feldman, Hatch, & Sitkin, 1983)

Question 23

What must managers note about evidence-based practice

Answer 23

Evidence-based practice is not one-size fits-all. It’s the best current evidence coupled with informed expert judgement. Managers should learn to experiment & use research findings. The evidence becomes a guide for action & (evidence-based) solutions, which managers adopt to particular settings.

Question 24

Active learning + Active Practice

Answer 24

Self-reflection + Feedback