Evidence based management essay sample

Evidence Based management (EBM) is a current emerging trend that seeks to apply managerial decisions and practice through engaging the best available scientific evidence. EBM has its roots in medicine practice where practitioners use the available data to make decisions about patients which may save or end the life of a patient. In business environments it is harder to get and gather evidence because the problems are diverse and they occur randomly. This is further complicated by the fact that the evidence is not based on core facts as in medicine but its weak owing to non recurrence of problems in business world. To cap it all, it is hard to generalize diverse problems into one ‘ curable’ solution as it happens in medicine (Phillip, 2005).

Managers in my field of specialty (business) are slowly awakening to EBM and are slowly implementing it although it is not the management style of choice. This is due to its complicated logistics in application and in most cases the evidence is always too much or too little and never the right one. This non conclusive evidence and the persuasive stories behind the evidence erode the credibility of this practice. Here in business, managers define evidence differently from how it is known in medicine (Phillip, 2005). In medicine, evidence can be defined as concrete facts arising from recorded data of a similar situation as opposed to evidence in business field where the facts are completely sporadic and random with no clear correlation. The source of evidence used in EBM is drawn from obsolete past experience. Experience is the best way to impart knowledge and wisdom which can prove to be valuable incase a similar situation arises in the future. Apart from experience, managers look up to top performers to mimic them and try to transfer that into the organization.

Barriers that arise in EBM emanate from the fact that the basis of management knowledge is greatly flawed and there are no known procedures that are applicable to all business practices. Many and great players in business subscribe and ascribe to different diagnostic procedures and solutions to different problems. It has been hard to sieve through all these great ideas and compress them to simple and concrete ideas because each and everyone claim that their methodology is the best for immediate success.

In order to increase EBM in business arena, several factors have to be considered and implemented which include stopping of recycling of old ideas into new ideas. Many unscrupulous people and magazines just rename ideologies in order to peddle EBM ideologies to make a quick buck. To minimize recycling of old ideas, sources of work need to be acknowledged to encourage innovations. Another strategy of increasing practice of EBM is through being suspicious of ideas that are peddled around as being breakthrough practices or case studies done. Many fraudsters and tricksters know for a fact that managers are under pressure to perform and deliver therefore they exploit that opportunity to peddle bogus schemes about EBM and other management practices. In addition, collective responsibility and action may be worthwhile in implementing new practices that require coordinated and pooled reasoning. Innovations and knowledge are rarely developed through lone thinkers but by bringing together many ideologies from great thinkers and geniuses (Phillip, 2005). Since time immemorial, it is communal ideas and working together that helps organization achieve their goals and targets.

Reference

Phillip, E. (2005). Expert political judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know? Princeton: Princeton Press.