Evidence-based

management
“Wikipedia is the best thing
ever. Anyone in the world
can write anything they
want about any subject. So
you know you are getting
the best possible
information.”

Michael Scott
 Why should managers care?

No job is more vital to our society than that of a manager. It is

the manager who determines whether our social institutions
serve us well or whether they squander our talents and
resources.
Mintzberg
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever
that it is not utterly absurd
Bertrand Russell
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 What’s happening in management?
Here’s the gist of it
• It may not be but management
has come very late to evidence-
based practice
• The concept is not well-known
or understood by organizations,
managers or management
schools
• It seems that some
management practice is
dominated by fads and fashions
and not much into basing
decisions on good quality
evidence from multiple sources
• Evidence-based practice makes a
lot of sense
• But it doesn’t seem to happen as
much as it should
• It is not well-known in
management
• So what are the barriers?
• General misconceptions and
myths (HIPPO)
• Research-practice gap
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 What is EBMgmt?

The use of the best available

evidence from multiple sources to
increase the likelihood of a
favorable outcome.

• Be conscientious, explicit, and

judicious
• Probabilities and likelihoods
• Statistics is about reducing
uncertainties, not making
certainties
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 Why should managers care about
EBMgmt?
Few reasons

• Biases, strong and wrong beliefs

• Poor decisions, failure in organizations
• Upper management is not really
trained in decision making:
• Obsolete knowledge
• Intuition and personal experience
• Swayed by fads and fashions
• Specialist skills
• Mindless mimicry of top performers
• Dogma

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 Managerial barriers to EBMgt
The Paradox

Do this next New Big Thing

RIGHT NOW. It's totally
AWESOME.
OK. Sometimes it can be
awesome.
Alright. It's good in some
circumstances. It can help. Sure.
Can be harmful too. Problem is,
people just aren't doing it right.
Now I'm bored...

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 Dumbest Management Fad?!
Open-Plan Offices

The vision:
Removing spatial boundaries in the workplace will spur
employees to interact more, sparking fresh ideas, and
boosting collaboration

What evidence show:

Open office plans have found to reduce conditions
conducive to:
• Collaboration and collective intelligence
• Employee satisfaction
• Focus
• Psychological privacy

 
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Methodological pitfalls
External validity

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Asking helps identifying assumptions. Most daily life assumptions are harmless, if
turned incorrect. This is not the case in business decisions.
What is the assumed problem or opportunity?

Acquiring various sources (4 in EBMgmt). Whom to ask (and how many)? What to
ask? How to ask? All important decisions to make

Appraising where these evidence come from (scientific vs. practitioners)? And what are
the potential biases? There’s always biases. Can they be reduced? How

This is – for most – the daunting part of doing statistics and understanding the
differences between probability estimate and the truth

Is the evidence generalizable to our organizational context? Evidence can be valid

and reliable but come from a different sector

Is the evidence generalizable to our organizational context? Evidence can be valid

and reliable but come from a different sector. What are the ethical issues? Is the
evidence actionable? Did you consider moderators?

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 General misconceptions and myths
about EBM
• Evidence can prove things. No. Just probabilities or
indications based on limited information and
situations.
• Evidence tells you the truth about things. No.
Truth is a whole different thing.
• Evidence means quantitative ‘scientific’ evidence.
No. Evidence in general just means information –
like the use of ‘evidence’ in legal settings –
anything might count if it’s valid and relevant.
• Evidence-based practice means practitioners
should not use their professional expertise or gut
feel. No. Expertise /gut is also evidence which can
be as valid as any other and is needed to apply
evidence. Gut feel relevant only for some types of 10
 General misconceptions and myths
about EBM
• Doing evidence-based practice means doing what
the research evidence tells you works. No.
Research evidence is just one of four sources of
evidence. Evidence-based practice is about
practice not research. Evidence doesn’t speak for
itself or do anything.
• New exciting single ‘breakthrough’ studies
provide the best evidence. No. It’s about what a
body of research says. Single studies don’t matter.
• Collecting valid and relevant evidence gives you
The Answer to The Problem. No. Evidence rarely
gives you The Answer but helps you make better-
informed decisions and develops understanding.
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 General misconceptions and myths
about EBM
• If you don’t have evidence you can’t do anything.
No. You always have evidence. But you practice
explicitly knowing the quality of evidence
available. It’s not about perfection or a
completely knowable world. It’s not an all-or-
nothing thing.
• Experts (e.g., consultants and management
school professors) know all about the evidence
so you just need to ask them. Rarely true.
Experts are biased, limited knowledge and have
vested interests (as their expertise is likely related
to their power or other resources). It’s about
making our own judgements and overcome “trust
me I’m a doctor”-type deference.
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 E D
T
MYTH:

U S
Professionals base decisions on
evidence
B
OBHR 601 EDITION
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