4. Learning Outcomes
1. Describe Evidence-based practice (EBP) in Management and its basic
principles and its core and functional capabilities.
2. Identify problems that require decision-making based on knowledge of
research fundamentals and EBP principles and capabilities (ASK)
3. Establish the search strategy to acquire the best available evidence relevant to
the problem (ACQUIRE)
4. Ascertain the methodological appropriateness, quality, and trustworthiness of
evidence (APPRAISE)
5. Integrate different types of relevant evidence towards finding solutions to the
problem (AGGREGATE)
6. Generate and implement best solutions to the problem with due consideration
of their social and ethical implications (APPLY)
7. Evaluate feedback obtained on applied solutions for necessary adjustment
(ASSESS)
8. Generate insights and decision-making awareness through self-reflection
(ASSESS)
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5. EBP Capability Cognitive processes Learning activities - example
Ask Metacognition
Problem identification
Causal analysis
Question specification
• Surfacing assumptions activity
Acquire Information retrieval
Apply search strategies
Assess methodologically
appropriateness of methods
as per source
• Mini-CAT
Appraise Methodological
appropriateness
Methodological quality
• Mini-CAT
Aggregate Probabilistic reasoning • Mini-CAT
• Evidence maps and gaps
Apply Conditional thinking
Apply contextual knowledge
• From evidence to practice
• Implementation plans
• Logic models
Assess Critical reflection
Close metacognitive loop
• Decision post-mortems
• AARs
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8. Open-plan offices - Assumptions
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• What is the claim being made regarding
open-plan offices by senior managers?
• What is the assumed problem?
• Consequences of open-plan offices?
• Assumed causal mechanism(s)?
• Is there any evidence to support claim?
9. 1. Start with a statement/strong belief/claim that a
manager has or senior managers have about a
particular problem or practical issue. Could start with a
case.
2. Formulate a question to establish what is known in the
scientific literature about the problem/practical
issue/opportunity.
3. Students search for at least 5 scientific studies in teams
(prioritising meta-analysis or systematic reviews) and
rate the trustworthiness of the studies, distil the key
findings and implications for practice.
Mini-CATs
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10. Based on our evidence, how sure can you
be that the assumed cause has led to an
observed effect? How do you know? How
trustworthy is your evidence??
Critical appraisal of evidence
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13. • Students take the findings of a meta-analysis or
systematic review, mini-CAT, CAT, evidence map, and
develop an implementation plan based on the findings.
• Students need to pay particular attention to the practical
implications.
• Students need to address the following questions:
How would you apply these findings to practice?
What would be some important considerations or
boundary conditions in implementation?
From evidence to practice (1)
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14. 1. Stage 1 of applying evidence to practice: Identifying evidence-based
solutions
What can be done by organisations to manage the problem?
Are there studies that support the effectiveness of these interventions?
2. Stage 2 of applying evidence to practice: feasibility, risks, and
boundary conditions
Does the evidence for your interventions have ecological validity or
applicability in the context?
What barriers and constraints (including operating constraints) exist to
implementing these interventions?
What are the most feasible interventions?
3. Stage 3 and 4 of applying evidence to practice: decision,
implementation, assessment
Complete the logic model overleaf and identify any appropriate outcome
measures.
From evidence to practice (2)
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15. Logic model template
15
Project/Interventions:
Goal:
INPUTS ACTIVITIES OUTCOMES
What we
invest
Implementation:
What we do
Participants
short-term
results:
Learning
intermediate
results: Action
long-term
results:
conditions
OUTCOME MEASURES: Assess & evaluate performance and achievement of program
objectives
Assumptions Internal & External Challenges
Editor's Notes
Emphasise metacognition supporting problem solving – problem-based learning main instructional method. Educational science shows that metacognitive skills improve students problem-solving abilities.
Emphasis metacognitive skills in all functional capabilities and the importance of reflection as an integrative layer to critical and analytical thinking.
So, what we did is first to look at the educational, teaching and learning requirements of each one of the EBP capabilities to then project them into learning activities
In the framing of the problem, assumptions are often hidden.
Once the problem has been identified, it is important to think about your own understanding of the problem.
Does an effect really exist or is it just popular opinion?
Is the assumed cause of the problem, the problem itself, and organisational consequences causally plausible?
Is the causal mechanism plausible (links the cause, problem, and consequence)?
In this learning activity students surface and develop awareness of their own or others’ beliefs and attributions and their underlying causal assumptions including assumptions about causal mechanisms (linking a practice or intervention to an outcome).
For example asking students to consider and articulate the assumed effects of open-plan offices on work behavior - including how and through what mechanisms or processes open-plan offices impact performance. Then students are required to search for theory and/or scientific evidence to test their claim and assumption. Another example is using a case where senior managers think an increase in errors in the marketing operations of a global bank are due to the ‘risk culture’ in the bank (risk culture is the assumed cause of the assumed problem). Students then have to think about senior managers’ assumptions regarding the causal relationship between risk culture and errors and engage the scientific literature in these areas.
EBP capabilities used: Meta-cognitive skills, Critical and analytical thinking, acquiring.
Senior managers want to move to open-plan offices to increase collaboration.