Erez Grant
1
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.
2
Teaching Evidence-Based Management
3
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
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.
2
Teaching Evidence-Based Management
3
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
References: Andre, R., & Frost, P. J. 1997. Researchers hooked on teaching: Noted scholars discuss the synergies of teaching and research Aronson, E. 1999. The power of self-persuasion. American Psychologist, 54: 875-884. Ashcraft, M. H., & Radvansky, G. A. 2010. Cognition. New York: Prentice Hall. Brittain, J. W., & Sitkin, S. 1986. Carter racing. Dispute Resolution Research Center: http://negotiationexercises.com Barlow, D. H. 2004. Psychological treatments. American Psychologist, 59: 869–878. Burke, L. A., & Rau, B. 2010. The research-teaching gap in management. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 9: 132-143. Charlier, S. D., Brown, K. G., & Rynes, S. L. 2011. Teaching evidence-based management in MBA programs: What evidence is there? Academy of Management Learning & Chatterjee, A., & Hambrick, D. C. 2007. It’s all about me: Narcissistic chief executive officers and their effects on company strategy and performance Cialdini, R. B. 2001. Influence: Science and practice (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Clinebell, S. K., & Clinebell, J. M. 2008. The tension in business education between academic rigor and real-world relevance: The role of executive professors Cortina, J. M., Goldstein, N. B., Payne, S. C., Davison, H. K., & Gilliland, S. W. 2000. The incremental validity of interview scores over and above cognitive ability and Dane, E., Rockmann, K. W., & Pratt, M. G. 2012. When should I trust my gut? Linking domain expertise to intuitive decision-making effectiveness Davis, M. S. 1971. That 's interesting!: Toward a phenomenology of sociology and a sociology of phenomenology DeAngelis, T. 2005. Shaping evidence-based practice. APA Monitor, 35(3): 26–31. Dokko, G., Wilk, S. L., & Rothbard, N. P. 2009. Unpacking prior experience: How career history affects job performance Fried, Y., & Ferris, G. R. 1987. The validity of the job characteristics model: A review and metaanalysis. Personnel Psychology, 40: 287- 320. Goodman, J. S. & O’Brien, J. 2012. Teaching and learning using evidence-based principels. In D Grant, A. M. 2011. How customers can rally your troops: End users can energize your workforce far better than your managers can Grant, A. M. 2012. Leading with meaning: Beneficiary contact, prosocial impact, and the performance effects of transformational leadership Grant, A. M. 2013. Give and take: A revolutionary approach to success. New York: Viking Press. Grant, A. M., Campbell, E. M., Chen, G., Cottone, K., Lapedis, D., & Lee, K. 2007. Impact and the art of motivation maintenance: The effects of contact with beneficiaries on Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. 1980. Work redesign. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Hambrick, D. C., & Cannella, A. A. Jr. 2004. CEOs who have COOs: Contingency analysis of an unexplored structural form Heath, D., & Heath, C. 2007. Made to stick: Why some ideas survive and others die. New York: Random House. Heath, C., Larrick, R. P., & Klayman, J. 1998. Cognitive repairs: How organizations compensate for the shortcoming of individual learners Heslin, P. A., Latham, G. P., & VandeWalle, D. 2005. The effect of implicit person theory on performance appraisals Humphrey, S. E., Nahrgang, J. D., & Morgeson, F. P. 2007. Integrating motivational, social, and contextual work design features: A meta-analytic summary and theoretical extension of Jenkins, D. G., Jr., Mitra, A., Gupta, N., & Shaw, J. D. 1998. Are financial incentives related to performance? A meta-analytic review of empirical research Jiang, B., & Murphy, P. J. 2007. Do business school professors make good executive managers? Academy of Management Perspectives, August: 29-50. Kahneman, D. 2011. Thinking fast and slow. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Kahneman, D., & Klein, G. 2009. Conditions for intuitive expertise: A failure to disagree. Kandel, E. R., Schwartz, J. H., & Jessell, T. M. 2000. Principles of neural science. New York: McGraw-Hill. Khurana, R., & Nohria, N. 2008. It’s time to make management a true profession. Harvard Business Review, 86: 70-77. Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading Change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Langer, E. J., Blank, A., & Chanowitz, B. 1978. The mindlessness of ostensibly thoughtful action: The role of “placebic” information in interpersonal interaction Latham, G. P. 2007. A speculative perspective on the transfer of behavioral science findings to the workplace: “The times they are a-changin.” Academy of Management Journal, 50: Latham, G. P., Erez, M., & Locke, E. A. 1988. Resolving scientific disputes by the joint design of crucial experiments by the antagonists: Application to the Erez-Latham dispute Latham, G. P., & Stuart, H. C. 2007. Practicing what we preach: The practical significance of theories underlying HRM introversions for a MBA school Lemieux-Charles, L., & Champagne, F. 2004. Using knowledge and evidence in healthcare: Multidisciplinary perspectives Lilienfeld, S. O., Lynn, S. J., Ruscio, J., & Beyerstein, B. 2009. 50 great myths of popular psychology: Shattering widespread myths about human behavior Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. 2002. Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task