Erez Grant

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Separating Data from Intuition:
Bringing Evidence into the Management Classroom

RUNNING HEAD: Teaching Evidence-Based Management

Amir Erez and Adam M. Grant

For helpful feedback, we thank Jean Bartunek, Ken Brown, and three anonymous reviewers. We are also grateful to Ute Hülsheger for sharing the article on findings from medicine.

Teaching Evidence-Based Management
Separating Data from Intuition: Bringing Evidence into the Management Classroom
ABSTRACT
Evidence based management promises to improve managerial decision making and organizational outcomes. However, the principles cannot take root unless educators focus their attention on teaching evidence-based management in the classroom. To stimulate reflection and dialogue about effective practices, we describe our approaches to incorporating research findings into the classroom. We also share insights from ten scholars who teach from an evidence-based perspective. We conclude by discussing lessons that we have learned from our own students about how to successfully teach evidence based management.

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Teaching Evidence-Based Management

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When managers make decisions, they often rely heavily on personal experiences and popular practices (Abrahamson, 1996).While these types of experiences feel closer to real knowledge than data presented in journals, they are also open to many biases, fleeting fads, dogmas, and false beliefs (Pfeffer & Sutton, 2006). In her presidential address to the Academy of
Management in 2005, Denise Rousseau called for improving organizational practices through
Evidence Based Management (EBM). EBM involves harnessing systematic research and translating it into organizational practices (Rouseau, 2006). The aim is for practitioners to develop expertise and decision making styles that are based on the available scientific evidence
(e.g., Barlow, 2004; DeAngelis, 2005; Lemieux- Charles & Champagne, 2004; Rousseau, 2006;
Walshe & Rundall, 2001).
In

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