Evidence Based Perspective
Academy of Management Learning & Education, 2007, Vol. 6, No. 1, 84 –101.
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Educating Managers From an Evidence-Based Perspective
DENISE M. ROUSSEAU SHARON MCCARTHY Carnegie Mellon University Evidence-based management (EBM) means managerial decisions and organizational practices informed by the best available scientific evidence. In this essay we describe the core features of educational processes promoting EBM. These include mastering behavioral principles where the science is clear and developing procedural knowledge based on practice, feedback, and reflection. We also …show more content…
Students in schools of medicine and education learn about the causal processes underlying human physiology, child development, and cognitive psychology (e.g., Sackett et al., 2000; Sherman, 2002). The ultimate goal of evidence-based teaching is the learners’ acquisition, memory, and retrieval of principles of cause– effect relationships, enabling their professional practice to reliably yield desired results. Even where principles are couched in conditionals, they provide learners with a more mindful and systematic way of diagnosing and solving managerial problems (cf. Langer, 1991). Principles must be mastered, and deeply, reflectively understood, so practitioners can solve the array of problems they will face over the course of their careers. Principles based on evidence are the basis for procedures that translate these principles into action. Evidence-based training thus involves learning both principles (knowing what) and procedures (knowing how). For example, training to become a school teacher involves the principle that students learn more when they actively process information (e.g., Ruhl, Hughes, & Schloss, 1987). This principle translates into the practices associated with student-centered learning, where students are active agents in their own education (in contrast to …show more content…
Specific goals are more effective motivators of performance than general goals. 2. Challenging goals are more effective motivators of high performance than less challenging goals. 3. Goal acceptance is critical to goal achievement when goals are not set by the employee. 4. Prevention or control-oriented goals (with a ceiling or natural limit, such as 100% safety or zero defects) create vigilance and negative emotion in employees, whereas promotion or growth-oriented goals (with no limits such as increasing staff competency) promote eagerness and positive emotion.
Teaching present or future managers to apply evidence-based goal-setting principles would involve presentation of the above four principles, followed by exercises that develop each into actions, techniques, and practices the individual can reliably perform, such as translating work plans into appropriate goals in terms of specificity, content, and process. Teaching principles would
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Educating Managers From an Evidence-Based Perspective
DENISE M. ROUSSEAU SHARON MCCARTHY Carnegie Mellon University Evidence-based management (EBM) means managerial decisions and organizational practices informed by the best available scientific evidence. In this essay we describe the core features of educational processes promoting EBM. These include mastering behavioral principles where the science is clear and developing procedural knowledge based on practice, feedback, and reflection. We also …show more content…
Students in schools of medicine and education learn about the causal processes underlying human physiology, child development, and cognitive psychology (e.g., Sackett et al., 2000; Sherman, 2002). The ultimate goal of evidence-based teaching is the learners’ acquisition, memory, and retrieval of principles of cause– effect relationships, enabling their professional practice to reliably yield desired results. Even where principles are couched in conditionals, they provide learners with a more mindful and systematic way of diagnosing and solving managerial problems (cf. Langer, 1991). Principles must be mastered, and deeply, reflectively understood, so practitioners can solve the array of problems they will face over the course of their careers. Principles based on evidence are the basis for procedures that translate these principles into action. Evidence-based training thus involves learning both principles (knowing what) and procedures (knowing how). For example, training to become a school teacher involves the principle that students learn more when they actively process information (e.g., Ruhl, Hughes, & Schloss, 1987). This principle translates into the practices associated with student-centered learning, where students are active agents in their own education (in contrast to …show more content…
Specific goals are more effective motivators of performance than general goals. 2. Challenging goals are more effective motivators of high performance than less challenging goals. 3. Goal acceptance is critical to goal achievement when goals are not set by the employee. 4. Prevention or control-oriented goals (with a ceiling or natural limit, such as 100% safety or zero defects) create vigilance and negative emotion in employees, whereas promotion or growth-oriented goals (with no limits such as increasing staff competency) promote eagerness and positive emotion.
Teaching present or future managers to apply evidence-based goal-setting principles would involve presentation of the above four principles, followed by exercises that develop each into actions, techniques, and practices the individual can reliably perform, such as translating work plans into appropriate goals in terms of specificity, content, and process. Teaching principles would