Evidence-based management (EBMgt or EBM) is an emerging movement that explicitly uses current best practices in managerial decision-making. Evidence-based management is rooted in evidence-based medicine, which is the rigorous statistical and experimental process that new pharmaceuticals go through prior to being deemed safe to use. This results in treatments that are the maximally effective and safe for patients. Applying this to business simply means utilizing the scientific method, which integrates rigorous and objective hypothesis testing, in order to identify best practices.
Research and Evidence-Based Management
Evidence-Based Management is modeled after Evidence-Based Medicine, which emphasizes the importance of scientific research in decision-making.
The Scientific Method
Evidence-based management bases managerial decisions and organizational practices on the best available scientific evidence. Practicing EBMgt requires managers to collect data, run tests, generate hypotheses, and objectively interpret the findings to create an accurate depiction of the efficacy of a given managerial style or decision. This is quite challenging, because management is much less tangible and measurable than many other scientific disciplines.
An example of EBMgt in practice could be a group of managers in an organization trying to determine how to improve job satisfaction. They could conduct a comprehensive and objective (therefore blind) survey across a large number of organizations, collecting enough data on the organizational reimbursements for employees, employee satisfaction, and company cultures to determine if a positive company culture is more relevant than salary to job satisfaction. After collecting n number of responses, this data could be assessed statically for a confidence interval, revealing the conclusion to be either significant or insignificant to future management decisions.
Integration with Organizations
While there is a rich body of academic literature pertaining to tested and true managerial strategies, real-world application of such resources is relatively rare. MBAs and degree holders in business have some exposure to this literature, but rarely move it from the theoretical realm to actual practice. Motivating real-life applications of these studies for management could prove advantageous for companies looking to improve their managerial effectiveness.
An important component of evidence-based management is helping managers understand the importance of backing up decisions with sound scientific reasoning. Unfortunately little shared language or terminology exists between managers, which makes it difficult for managers to hold discussions of evidence-based practices. For this reason, the adoption of evidence-based practices is likely to be organization-specific, where leaders take the initiative to build an evidence-based internal culture.