Denise Rousseau's take on Evidence Based Management

A few weeks ago, I got in touch with Denise Rousseau, professor of Organizational Behaviour the Carnegie Mellon University and one of the figureheads of the emerging 'Evidence Based Management' school of thought. She was visiting colleagues in Ireland, but took the time to answer a few of my questions. Jeffrey Pfeffer also replied, but was swamped in his work and preparing to leave the country for an extensive trip abroad. He'll probably give his point of view later. Bob Sutton hasn't been in touch yet. Today I got in touch with another leading thinker in this field. His name is Rob Briner, professor of Organizational Psychology from Birkbeck College, University of London, who already collaborates with Denise on the Evidence Based Management Collaborative. But, back to Denise.

1. What do you view as the core idea and purpose of EBM?
EBMgt in my opinion is family of approaches to improving the quality of managerial decisions and organizational practices by combining in a more systematic fashion
1) relevant findings from mgt/social science research,
2) business facts and metrics with
3) more skillful individual judgments.

2. What do you think would be the benefit(s) for organizations and society as a whole if management would be based more on evidence?
In both public policy and organizational decisions, we possess so much more relevant knowledge and information than is actually ever used. Improving the uptake of scientific evidence with better understanding of how people organize and make decisions  translates into better quality decisions and easier implementation.

3. What progress has the EBM movement currently been making?
I would say that there are three legs in the EBMgt tripod and on 2 of the 3 we see some progress, though much work remains to be done. The two legs were we see developments are;

• education where there is greater attention in teaching managers and other practitioners who can benefit from managerial knowledge (e.g., nurses, social workers, doctors, public policy professionals, etc.) and
• scholarship/research, where somewhat more attention is being paid to identifying what we can confidently know from mgt research, as opposed to always focusing on brand new ideas or new theories at the expense of assessing progress to date.  

You can probably gather that I believe the weakest link (but really all need work!) is managerial USE of quality business facts in making decisions let alone any use of or reliance on social science findings in the decisions being made.

Is there evidence of evidence based management getting a foothold in organizations? I am doubtful. Hit or miss, and it may be that as in medicine, it takes a generation before a new evidence-informed practice takes hold.

4. What future do you envision for EBM in (research and practice)?
This is the project of a community, perhaps several communities, and a generation, I think we are seeing ENERGY in several communities to move EBMgt forward. I am hopeful and patient!

Thank you very much.