This summary includes all reading material (articles of week 1 - week 4) for the course Evidence-Based Management.
Week 1:
Barends, E., Briner, R., & Rousseau, D. M. (2015). Evidence based practice: The basic principles. Center for Evidence Based Management. Booklet at CEBMa. org retrieved at...
making evidence based organizational decisions in an uncertain world
is decision based evidence making ne
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Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA)
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Evidence-Based Management (6013B0509Y)
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WEEK 1
Barends, E., Briner, R., & Rousseau, D. M. (2015). Evidence based practice: The basic principles.
Center for Evidence Based Management. Booklet at CEBMa. org retrieved at October 8, 2019.
1 What is Evidence-Based Practice?
The basic idea of evidence-based practice is that good-quality decisions should be based on a
combination of critical thinking and the best available evidence. It is an approach to decision-making
and day-to-day work practice that helps practitioners to critically evaluate the extent to which they can
trust the evidence they have at hand. It also helps practitioners to identify, find and evaluate additional
evidence relevant to their decisions.
Many managers pay little attention to the quality of that evidence → results in bad decisions based on
unfounded beliefs. The bottom line is bad decisions, poor outcomes, and limited understanding of
why things go wrong.
Evidence-based practice is about making decisions through the conscientious, explicit and
judicious use of the best available evidence from multiple sources by …
1. Asking: translating a practical issue or problem into an answerable question
2. Acquiring: systematically searching for and retrieving the evidence
3. Appraising: critically judging the trustworthiness and relevance of the evidence
4. Aggregating: weighing and pulling together the evidence
5. Applying: incorporating the evidence into the decision-making process
6. Assessing: evaluating the outcome of the decision taken
… to increase the likelihood of a favorable outcome.
2 What counts as evidence?
When we say ‘evidence’’, we mean information, facts or data supporting (or contradicting) a claim,
assumption or hypothesis.
● Scientific research suggesting generally applicable facts about the world, people, or
organizational practices
● Local organizational or business indicators, e.g. company metrics or observations of
practice conditions
● Professional experience, e.g. an entrepreneur’s past experience of setting up a variety of
businesses should indicate the approach that is likely to be the most successful.
Regardless of its source, all evidence may be included if it is judged to be trustworthy and relevant
(just like in a court of law)
3 Why do we need evidence-based practice?
Personal judgement on its own is not a very reliable source, because it is highly susceptible to
systematic errors .
Practitioners frequently also take the work practices of other organizations as evidence. Through
benchmarking and so-called ‘best practices’ practitioners sometimes copy what other organizations
are doing without critically evaluating whether these practices are actually effective and, if they are,
whether they are also likely to work in a different context.
,There are also many many barriers to evidence-based practice.
● Only few have been trained in the required skills
● Important organizational information may be difficult to access and what is available can be
of poor quality
● Practitioners are often not aware of the current scientific evidence available on key issues in
the field
4 What sources of evidence should be considered?
According to the principles of evidence-based practice, evidence from four sources should be taken
into account:
The scientific literature
= scientific research published in academic journals.
● volume has escalated hugely over the past few decades
● much relevant research from outside the management discipline
● new research is always being produced, which often changes our understanding
● essential to know how to search for studies and to be able to judge how trustworthy and
relevant they are.
The organization
● can be ‘hard’ numbers (e.g. staff turnover rates ) or ‘soft’ elements (perceptions)
● essential to identifying problems that require managers’ attention
● essential to determining likely causes, plausible solutions and what is needed to implement
these solutions
Practitioners
= professional experience and judgment of managers, consultants, business leaders and other
practitioners
● accumulated over time through reflection on the outcomes of similar actions taken in similar
situations
● also referred to as ‘tacit’ knowledge
● differs from intuition and personal opinion because it reflects the specialized knowledge
acquired by repeated experience and practice of specialized activities
● can be vital for determining whether a management issue really does require attention, if the
available organizational data are trustworthy, whether research findings apply in a particular
situation or how likely a proposed solution is to work in a particular context.
Stakeholders
= stakeholder values and concerns reflect what stakeholders believe to be important, which in turn
affects how they tend to react to the possible consequences of the organization’s decisions.
● organizations that serve or respond to different stakeholders can reach very different decisions
on the basis of the same evidence
● important for ethical reasons
● provides a frame of reference from which to analyze evidence from other sources
● provides important information to predict the outcomes
, 5 Why do we have to critically appraise evidence?
Evidence can be over-stated, such that a seemingly strong claim turns out to be based on a single and
not particularly reliable piece of information. All evidence should be critically appraised by carefully
and systematically assessing its trustworthiness and relevance.
Critical appraisal always involves asking the same basic questions.
● Where and how is the evidence gathered?
● Is it the best available evidence?
● Is there enough evidence to reach a conclusion?
● Are there reasons why the evidence could be biased in a particular direction?
Evidence-based practice is about using the best available evidence, and critical appraisal plays an
essential role in discerning and identifying such evidence.
6 Why focus on the ‘best available’ evidence?
A fundamental principle of evidence-based practice is that the quality of our decisions is likely to
improve the more we make use of trustworthy evidence – in other words, the best available
evidence. For some decisions, there may be no evidence from the scientific literature or the
organisation at all, thus we may have no option but to make a decision based on the professional
experience. This limited-quality evidence can still lead to a better decision than not using it, as long as
we are aware of its limitations when we act on it.
7 Some common misconceptions of evidence-based practice
Evidence-based practice misconceptions are a major barrier to its uptake and implementations .
Therefore, it is important that they are challenged and corrected.
Misconception 1 : Evidence-based practice ignores the practitioner’s professional experience
Evidence-based practice does not mean that any one source of evidence is more valid than any other.
Misconception 2: Evidence-based practice is all about numbers and statistics.
It is not exclusively about numbers and quantitative data, although many practice decisions involve
figures of some sort. Evidence-based practice is not about doing statistics, but statistical thinking is an
important element.
Misconception 3: Managers need to make decisions quickly and don’t have time for
evidence-based practice.
The need to make an immediate decision is generally the exception rather than the rule. The vast
majority of management decisions are made over much longer time periods – sometimes weeks or
even months – and often require the consideration of legal, financial, strategic, logistical or other
organizational issues, which all takes time.
Misconception 4: Each organization is unique, so the usefulness of evidence from the scientific
literature is limited.
Although it is true that organizations do differ, they also tend to face very similar issues, sometimes
repeatedly, and often respond to them in similar ways.
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