Evidence-Based Management: Origins, Challenges, and Implications for Social Service Administration

Factors Associated With Managerial Innovation in Public Human Service Organizations

“…The second of these bivariate and multivariate findings suggests a possible link between the literatures on evidence-informed management and managerial innovation and experimentation in the human services, in that practitioners who seek out work colleagues to identify relevant information to resolve organizational problems may also be more likely to express interest in innovationminded practice (Austin et al, 2012;Briggs & McBeath, 2009). These findings also allude to the social context of innovative managerial behavior; that is, innovation may be more likely to occur when managers interact with colleagues who support their efforts.…”

“…This process is likely to lead to a dynamic work environment in which new ideas are developed into strategies that are in turn tested to better address service delivery challenges (Briggs & McBeath, 2009;Kovner, 2014;McBeath et al, 2015). These innovative managerial efforts also serve as an anticipatory strategy to ensure that evidence collected in the past remains relevant for future agency work.…”

Re-Envisioning Macro Social Work Practice

“…Reflecting the main approaches to evidence-based clinical practice, models of evidence-informed macro practice include: a) the design, testing, and refinement of research-based policy, community, and organizational/managerial interventions to enhance service effectiveness (Briggs & McBeath, 2009;Heinrich, 2007); and b) the integration of available research, practitioner expertise, community and cultural considerations, and service user preferences to support macro practitioner decision-making (McBeath & Austin, 2015). Although funders and policymakers are increasingly interested in the former, the latter will likely be more useful to macro practitioners given its comparatively smaller resource demands, intuitive familiarity, and adaptability to diverse organizational and community practice settings.…”

Management Practices to Enhance the Effectiveness of Substance Use Disorder Treatment

“…Emerging evidence suggest that EBMPs play an important role in the effectiveness of behavioral health services by supporting the process of service delivery [3][4][5][6]. EBMPs are therefore increasingly important to respond to the high demand for public accountability, organizational performance and implementation fidelity in health and human services [7].…”