Evidence Based Management Principles and Importance of Asking

Question 1

What is Evidence-Based Management?

Answer 1

Good quality decisions require both critical thinking and use of the best available evidence. Few pay attention to the quality of evidence. Result: decisions that rely on unfounded beliefs, fads and fashions. Barends & Rosseau, 2018.

Question 2

What 6 approaches does EBM take into account?

Answer 2

Asking: translating a practical issue or problem into an answerable question

Acquiring: systematically searching for and retrieving the evidence

Appraising: critically judging the trustworthiness and relevance of evidence

Aggregating: weighing and pulling together the evidence

Applying: incorporating evidence into the decision-making process

Assessing: evaluating the outcome of the decision taken

EBM is about making decisions through the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of the best available evidence from multiple sources by using the above six approaches to increase the likelihood of a favourable outcome.

Question 3

What counts as evidence?

Answer 3

• Information, facts or data supporting a claim, assumption or hypothesis.
• Scientific research, local organisational or business indicators
• Professional experience
• Stakeholders can provide important information on potential consequences and interests related to the decision

Information that is available, information from many sources, information that is conceivable, information that is trustworthy, information that is verified.

Question 4

Why do we need EBM?

Answer 4

Personal judgement alone is not very reliable.
Highly susceptible to systematic errors- cognitive and information processing limits make us prone to biases that have negative effects on the quality of decisions we make.

Question 5

What sources of evidence should be considered?

Answer 5

Scientific Literature i.e. academic journals.

Organisational evidence i.e. financial data, business measures such as return on investment or market share. Hard numbers like staff turnover rates. Soft elements like perceptions of the organisation’s culture.

Practitioner Evidence- professional experience and judgement of managers, consultants, business leaders, and other practitioners.

Stakeholders- those implicated and involved with a business. Their values and concerns. Internal and external stakeholders.

Question 6

Why do we have to critically appraise evidence?

Answer 6

Evidence is never perfect and can sometimes be misleading. Carefully and systematically assessing its trustworthiness and relevance. Involves asking basic questions.

Question 7

Why focus on the ‘best available’ evidence?

Answer 7

It is important to be able to critically appraise evidence to determine what is the best. When thinking about ‘best’ we can define this as trustworthy. Dependent on context of situation you are investigating.

Question 8

Misconceptions of EBM- EBM ignores practitioner’s professional experience

Answer 8

This misconception contradicts the definition of EBM that evidence is multidimensional. EBM is about using evidence from multiple sources, holisitic, multifaceted approach. Practitioner’s personal experience may be a valuable source of evidence depending on the context.

Question 9

Misconception 2 of EBM- EBM is all about numbers and statistics

Answer 9

Again, EBM is about selecting evidence from multiple sources to get rich insight from multiple perspectives about a business decision. Statistical thinking and understanding is important- reliable, objective, quantitative, but it does not just rely solely on this.

Question 10

Misconception 3- Managers need to make decisions fast and do not have time for EBM

Answer 10

EBM is usually about preparing organisation/self in advance to make key decisions well. EBM involves identifying best available evidence you need, preferably before you need it. Whilst some decisions need to be made quickly, split-second decisions require trustworthy evidence. The nature of organisational decisions, especially important ones, provide plenty of opportunity to collect and critically evaluate evidence about the nature of the problem.

Question 11

Misconception 4- Each organisation is unique, so the usefulness of evidence from scientific literature is limited

Answer 11

Whilst organisations do differ in many ways, they also face very similar issues. PETER DRUCKER- most management issues are repetitions of familiar problems cloaked in the guise of uniqueness.

Question 12

Misconception 5- if you do not have high-quality evidence, you cannot do anything

Answer 12

Sometimes little or no quality evidence is available. Especially pertinent given fast, advancing, new technologies. Practitioner must supplement lack of evidence by learning by doing. I.e. pilot testing, treating any course of action as a prototype.

Question 13

Misconception 6- good quality evidence gives you the answer to the problem

Answer 13

Evidence is not an answer. To understand evidence we need a critical mindset and to understand context. Evidence is meaningless without context and additional information. Evidence is not conclusive. Tentative conclusions. Does not tell you what to decide, but it does help you to make better informed decisions.

Question 14

Evidence for EBM

Answer 14

Plenty of scientific research that suggests that taking an evidence based approach to decisions is more likely to be effective. Human mind is susceptible to systematic errors- we have cognitive constraints and are prone to biases.

Question 14

Evidence for EBM- Kahneman

Answer 14

Thinking fast and slow.
Psychological rooted theory.
Suggests that human decision-making is prone to systematic biases and errors.
2 systems.
EBM encourages system 2 thinking. Helps managers avoid impulsive, intuitive decisions which are vulnerable to biases. For example, Availability Heuristic (overestimating the importance of readily available), Confirmation Bias (seeking evidence that supports existing beliefs).
Framing Effects- Kahneman suggests decisions can vary based on how info is presented. Evidence for EBM. Asian Disease Problem- participants asked to choose between 2 public health programmes. Positive frame v negative frame.

Question 15

Importance of Assumptions in EBM

Answer 15

Main function of ‘asking’ is to identify assumptions. Assumptions are claims, assertions or hypotheses that we believe to be true, even though there is no evidence available yet. Assumptions can have a multitude of consequences. Therefore, it is critical to identify assumptions and check whether they are based on evidence. But, sometimes assumptions are hidden. Are assumptions backed by trustworthy, high-quality evidence.

Example: CEO of Yahoo cancelled work from home, as she made the assumption that being physically together would improve the company, as interactions and experiences are profound. Could have negative impacts.

Asking is so important, as if the definition of an assumed problem is incorrect, how are you able to address it.

Albert Einstein- If i were given 1 hour to save the world, I would spend 59 minuted defining it and 1 minute solving it. implementing a solution when there is no definable problem could have negative ramifications. Therefore, EBM always starts with asking what is the problem you are trying to solve and what is the evidence for the problem?

Question 16

PICOC

Answer 16

Conceptual tool to help you find evidence that takes into account your professional context.
Population- who?
Intervention- what or how?
Comparison- compared to what?
Outcome- what are you trying to achieve?
Context- in what kind of organisation/circumstance?

Your PICOC will help you determine whether evidence from external sources will be generalisable and applicable to organisational context. Helps clarify the decision problem, guide evidence search, ensure relevance of evidence and improves decision quality.