Evidence-based practice

Question 1

Why is it beneficial to use evidence-based practices?

Answer 1

Helps managers make better informed decisions. Evidence-based practice helps managers derive a holistic view of the organisational problem by ensuring they look at multiple sources of data (i.e. organisational data, research evidence).

Question 2

What are the sources used in evidence-based practice?

Answer 2

• Scientific literature
• Organisational data
• Stakeholder’s concerns
• Professional expertise

Question 3

What is considered good evidence-based practice?

Answer 3

Using multiple, reliable sources of information, which has been gathered in a conscientious, explicit, and judicious manner.

Question 4

Conscientious

Answer 4

There has been a commitment of effort & resources to find evidence.

Question 5

Explicit

Answer 5

Evidence gathered is reliable and trustworthy

Question 6

Judicious

Answer 6

The quality of evidence has been critically appraised

Question 7

When using multiple resources, it is important to…

Answer 7

Evaluate the evidence by considering its reliability and relevance. Different sources may tell the same or different stories.

Question 8

What are the 6 steps of evidence-based practice evidence gathering?

Answer 8

(1) Ask
(2) Acquire
(3) Appraise
(4) Aggregate
(5) Apply
(6) Assess

Question 9

Step 1 - Ask

Answer 9

Translate the problem into a question (just like in consulting you want to get to the core of the issue by asking yourself: what is the problem being faced? Is this actually a problem for us? If so, what might be the causes? Looking at multiple sources of data).

Question 10

Step 2 - Acquire

Answer 10

Search & gather evidence to help answer questions.

Question 11

Step 3 - Appraise

Answer 11

Judge the trustworthiness (reliability) & relevance of the findings.

Question 12

Step 4 - Aggregate

Answer 12

Pull all the evidence together (build an overall picture using the best quality evidence).

Question 13

Step 5 - Apply

Answer 13

Make a decision incorporating the evidence (Is this/ is this not a problem)

Question 14

Step 6 - Assess

Answer 14

Evaluate the effects of the decision.

Question 15

What is the purpose of using evidence-based practice in solving organisational problems?

Answer 15

Simple - a more informed a decision likely results in a more favourable outcome (an outcome the firm wants).

Question 16

Example: Low Employee Engagement

Answer 16

(1) Ask: Does low EE have negative effects on employee performance?

(2) Acquire: Looking at organisational data, what happens to customer satisfaction levels when EE goes up or down?

(3) Appraise: Given our questions, how reliable & relevant are these finding from scientific studies?

(4) Aggregate: Putting all this best-quality evidence we have together, what can we say about whether and to what extent low EE is likely to be having negative effects?

(5) Apply: Given the answers we have to our questions, it appears unlikely that low EE is having strongly strongly negative effects on performance, therefore, we decide not to intervene to increase EE and rather explore other ways to enhance performance (i.e. increase job satisfaction, employee well-being).

(6) Assess: What happens over time to EE and performance levels in the absence of interventions to increase EE?

Question 17

If the firm discovers that low EE is likely to be a significant problem for their firm, the firm should…

Answer 17

REPEAT the exact same process (used to identify low EE as a significant problem) by using EPB evidence-gathering approach and asking similar questions to EACH of the four sources in order to identify likely solutions.

Question 18

So we perform the EPB evidence-gathering approach 2 times!

Answer 18

1 - Apply EPB to determine if low EE (for example) is a significant problem for the firm.

2- Apply EPB to solve for possible solutions.