Basic HTML-Version
04 / 12 personalquarterly
9
nagement principles and research findings. If you take the
reading route, one book I would recommend is called “Beco-
ming the Evidence-based Manager” by Gary Latham (2009).
Chapters address how to: select high-performing employees;
inspire employees to execute strategy; develop and train high-
performance teams; evaluate, coach, and motivate high emplo-
yee performance, and develop workforce resilience. For each
chapter, Latham starts with a description of “what works” and
“what doesn’t work,” followed by “effective tools in practice”
(e.g., the effective selection procedures he covers are situa
tional interviews, patterned behavior interviews, job simulati-
ons, realistic job previews, ability tests, and some personality
tests). The final chapter describes two case studies where ma-
nagers notably improved organizational performance by using
evidence-based principles, including Woodlands (which I dis-
cussed a bit earlier).
Another good source is the “Handbook of Principles of Orga-
nizational Behavior” by Ed Locke (2009). Relative to Latham’s
book, the Handbook provides more detailed information about
the background research, but less focus on how to implement
it. The major topics covered are: selection (hiring); training
and development; turnover and satisfaction; motivation; team
dynamics; leadership; organizational processes, and entrepre-
neurship.
A third possible source is the recently published “Oxford Hand-
book of EBMgt”. Several authors in the Handbook talk about
the difficulties they encountered when they first became ma-
nagers and wanted to learn about the best ways to manage. The
Handbook was designed, in part, to help such managers; it has
sections devoted to practice, research, teaching, and criticism.
Readers might learn from the experiences of other practitio-
ners who have gone down the evidence-based path, as well as
from the chapter by librarian Roye Werner (2012) describing
available print and internet sources. (One of my personal favo-
rites is Google Scholar, which often provides links to free copies
of scholarly articles addressing the “Googled” topic).
PERSONALquarterly:
And what actions could managers take in
their organizations to implement EBMgt?
Sara Rynes:
The other major way to get started is to begin collec-
ting data inside your own organization, particularly when you
are about to start implementing a new practice or program.
In that situation, it is advised that you: (a) collect “before”
measures of outcomes you hope to influence (e.g., customer
satisfaction or employee turnover), (b) use the best available
evidence about factors that contribute to those outcomes,
(c) plan new practices based on this evidence, (d) monitor the
outcomes, and (e) further adjust based on what you have lear-
ned. This is very similar to the “plan, do, check, act” sequence
employed when implementing Total Quality Management pro-
grams. Theresa Welbourne (2011) advises a similar practice
in HR (which she calls “Fast HR”), where HR managers imple-
ment programs to address the biggest problems that are trou-
bling line managers or employees “right now.” By addressing
important problems and making sure that new practices are
producing the desired effects, HR managers gain credibility as
effective architects of organizational change.
References
Ayres, I. (2007): Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-numbers is the new way
to be smart. New York: Bantam Books.
Briner, R. B./Denyer, D./Rousseau, D. M. (2009): Evidence-based manage-
ment: Construct clean-up time? Academy of Management Perspectives, 23(4):
19-32.
Gawande, A. (2009): The checklist manifesto: How to get things right. New
York: Metropolitan Books.
Giluk, T. L./Rynes, S. L. (2012): Research findings practitioners resist: Less-
ons for management academics from evidence-based medicine. In Rousseau,
D. M. (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of Evidence-Based Management: 130-164.
New York: Oxford University Press.
Highhouse, S. (2008): Stubborn reliance on intuition and subjectivity in
employee selection. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on
Science and Practice, 1(3): 333-342.
Johns, G. (1993): Constraints on the adoption of psychology-based personnel
practices: Lessons from organizational innovation. Personnel Psychology,
46(3): 569-592.
Latham, G. P. (2009): Becoming the evidence-based manager: Making the
science of management work for you. Boston, MA: Davies-Black.
Locke, E. A. (2009): Handbook of principles of organizational behaviors:
Indispensible knowledge for evidence-based knowledge. 2nd Edt.Chichester,
U. K.: John Wiley & Sons.
Pritchard, R. D./Harrell, M. M./DiosGranados, D./Guzman, M. J. (2008):
The productivity measurement and enhancement system: A meta-analysis.
Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(3): 540-567.
Rousseau, D. M. (2012): Envisioning evidence-based management: In Rous-
seau, D. M. (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Evidence-Based Management: 3-24.
New York: Oxford University Press.
Rynes, S. L./Colbert, A. E./Brown, K. G. (2002): HR professionals’ beliefs
about effective human resource practices: Correspondence between research
and practice. Human Resource Management, 41(2): 149-174.
Sanders, K./van Riemsdij, M./Groen, B. (2008): The gap between research
and practice: A replication study on the HR professionals’ beliefs about effec-
tive human resource practices. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 19: 1976-1988.
Schmidt, F. L. (2009): Select on intelligence. In Locke, E. A. (Ed.), Handbook
of Principles of Organizational Behavior, 2nd. Ed.: 3-18. Chichester, UK: John
Wiley & Sons.
Schmidt, F. L./Hunter, J. E. (1998): The validity and utility of selection
methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85
years of research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 124(2): 262-274
Tenhiälä, A./Giluk, T. L./Simon, C./Oh, I.-S., Kepes. S./Kim, S. (2012):
The research-practice gap in HR: A cross-cultural study. Paper presented at the
Academy of Management annual meeting, Boston: August 6.
Tetlock, P.E. (2000): Cognitive biases and organizational correctives: Do
both disease and cure depend on the politics of the beholder? Administrative
Science Quarterly, 45(2): 293-326.
Welbourne, T. (2011): Fast HR – Enhancing service excellence. Organizational
Dynamics, 40: 292-301
Werner, R. (2012): Buried treasure: A business librarian’s insights on finding
the evidence. In Rousseau, D. M. (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of Evidence-
Based Management: 262-271. New York: Oxford University Press.