Evidence-Based Decision Making: The Case of Knowledge Worker Productivity AWA Workplace week 2014 NVZD Annual Meeting 2015 Eric Barends Rob Briner

1. The performance of
knowledge workers
EB Decision Making

2. Knowledge workers
Whether nurses, physicians, managers, or staff members, nowadays
most workers in healthcare organizations are highly dependent on
information and communication technology and are involved in
work that involves a high level of cognitive activity.

3. Discuss with your neighbour (1 min)
“Which factors have the highest impact
on the performance of knowledge workers?”

4. I Don’t Know
(but I know how to find out)
The 3 hardest words in management

5. A happy employee is a
productive employee
Most managers think …

8. GREAT! NOW WHAT?
Outcome

9. Lets have a look at the evidence
Professional
experience and
judgment
Organizational data,
facts and figures
Stakeholders’ values
and concerns
Scientific
research
outcomes
Ask
Acquire
Appraise
Apply
Assess

10. Step 1: ASK
Translate a practical issue into an
answerable question

11. Question
“Which of the factors that are related to
the performance of knowledge workers
are most widely studied and what is
known of their effect?”

12. Step 2: ACQUIRE
Search for the best available scientific evidence

13.  ABI, BSP, PsycINFO
 Scholarly journals, peer reviewed
 1980 – 2013
 English
 performance, productivity, knowledge work*
ACQUIRE

15. step 3: APPRAISE & AGGREGATE

16. Most widely studied
1. Task Cohesion 100+
2. Relationship conflicts 70+
3. Transactive memory 60+
4. Social cohesion 40+
5. Support for innovation 30+

17. Effect size?

18. Largest effect (r)
1. Social cohesion .5 / .7
2. Perceived supervisory support .5
3. Information sharing / TM .5
4. Vision / goal clarity .5
5. Trust .3 / .6

19. Step 4: APPLY

20. Step 6: APPLY
Evidence-based findings: 5 factors
What is it & how can you measure it?
How can you ‘enhance’ it?

21. Three examples
social cohesion supervisory
support
information
sharing

22. Social cohesion

23. Social cohesion
… a shared liking or team attraction that
includes bonds of friendship, caring,
closeness, and enjoyment of each other’s
company.

24. Social cohesion

25. Measuring social cohesion

26. Perceived supervisory support

27. …how employees feel the supervisor helps
them in times of need, praises them for a job
well done or recognizes them for extra effort.
Perceived supervisory support

28. Perceived supervisory support

29. Measuring perc. sup. support

30. Information sharing

31. Information sharing?
…refers to how teams pool and access their
knowledge and expertise – which positively
affects decision making and team processes.
This has led to the idea of a team ‘Transactive
Memory System’ (TMS), which can be thought
of as a collective memory in a collective mind
- enabling a team to think and act together

32. Information sharing

33. Measuring information sharing

34. In the next weeks,
before you make a decision, ask yourself:
 What exactly is the problem?
 What is the evidence available?
 Was any attempt made to explicitly
evaluate its trustworthiness?