Evidence-based management - Find problems based on evidence, make correct decisions and break myths.
“The best organizations have the best talents”, “monetary reward systems drive corporate performance”, “companies will die if they don’t change”… These are all familiar maxims, and they also drive companies. daily activities; too many business philosophies are based on these flawed "best practices", but all they provide are superficial, vulnerable, and "cure-all" mistakes. Information. If leaders make decisions based on this dubious information or intelligence, they are putting their organizations on the edge of a precipice.
Through evidence-based management, business leaders will see solid factual evidence and take actions based on these best evidence to win the competition; they will also adopt healthy Use a questioning attitude to examine some daily management theories and measures that are said to be effective.
A hundred years ago, Taylor's apprentice Cook conducted extensive research on school management issues and put forward suggestions for implementing performance pay. Since then, some people in the United States have been carrying out reforms in this area, and a certain proportion of schools have adopted performance-based pay plans. If you only look at the system provisions and experience summary reports, then nine times out of ten you will get the impression that the school's performance-based salary system can improve efficiency and teaching quality. But wait, you may be overlooking some important premises. In fact, the implementation of performance-based pay in schools implies the following assumptions: First, teachers play a decisive role, or even the only determining factor, in students' learning and achievement; second, learning conditions can be accurately measured by annual examinations. Test scores can accurately reflect the actual level of students; thirdly, economic incentives can greatly, or at least fully, stimulate teachers' work motivation, and performance-based pay can enable teachers to make greater and more effective efforts; finally, teaching is the responsibility of every teacher Activities that are independent and do not depend on others in the school or have very low dependence. Now, use your common sense and your past learning experience to judge whether the above assumptions are reliable. If you feel that your common sense is not enough to make a judgment, you can read relevant research reports; if it is not enough, you can search for more data until you have sufficient evidence.
A large number of studies have shown that the performance pay system in schools is absurd because none of the implicit assumptions are true. If a teacher said: "I teach as a career just to make money," would you believe that he is a good teacher? Can performance pay prevent teachers from "letting go" in exams to falsely improve students' scores? Can teachers still work as a team in order to get high compensation for themselves? Obviously, adopting a performance pay system is not suitable for teachers.
So, is it true that the performance pay system cannot be used at all? Not really. For some jobs, the quality of which depends entirely on individual efforts, where work results can be accurately measured, where there is no uncertainty in operations, and where creativity is not required, then it may be appropriate to implement a performance pay system for such jobs. The essence of evidence-based management is that everything should be based on evidence and seek truth from facts. Better organizational performance can be achieved by adopting the best evidence rather than being misled by myths.
Evidence-based management is simple to say, but it faces great resistance to implementation. Everyone knows that organizations are hierarchical. However, evidence-based management requires evidence to speak for itself, and data will level the organizational hierarchy because everyone is equal before facts and evidence. But corporate executives tend to inflate themselves. There is a type of executive who will not accept facts that are inconsistent with their ideas. Therefore, facts and evidence are useless to such people. Also, most people like to hear good things. Regarding lying, in addition to condemning the liar, we must also see that the listener's words and deeds reveal the signal "I would rather listen to lies" so that lies can succeed. An organization without bad news cannot implement evidence-based management. In addition, there are so many management books, so many consulting companies, and a large amount of information that is logically contradictory and has completely different views, which will make managers at a loss.