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

Abstract

Evidence-based management is emerging in the helping professions in response to heightened demands for public accountability and organizational performance. This paper defines evidence-based management and reviews its origins in the health care and business sectors and its recent incorporation into the social work profession. A case study describes the efforts of one social service agency to use evidence-based management to improve the performance of its child welfare and mental health programs. Consideration is given to the similarities between the dominant models of evidence-based management and evidence-based practice, the challenges facing administrators seeking to incorporate evidence-based management processes into social service agencies, and the implications of evidence-based management for social service agency practice and social work management.

KEYWORDS:

• evidence-based management
• evidence-based practice
• decision making
• organizational performance
• public accountability