This episode accompanies Module 8 of the course, which is about the data, information and evidence gathered within the organisation to aid our multi-source evidenced-based decision making. The appraisal of this evidence is covered in Module 9 and its corresponding podcast episode.

In this episode we consider some of the things we need to think about before either using existing organisational data or collecting data specifically geared to address our question or area of interest. As with other sources of evidence, there are a myriad of obstacles and roadblocks to be aware of in our search for organisational data and information to inform our decision making.

There is a tendency for people to place organisational evidence in high regard, but as we will see, this faith can often be misplaced – not for nefarious reasons, but in some cases simply due to a lack of understanding when designing systems, or using data that has been churned out for years without anyone just asking where the data comes from.

As ever, we keep asking questions!

Host: Karen Plum

Guests:

• Eric Barends, Managing Director, Center for Evidence-Based Management
• Martin Walker, Director of Banking & Finance at Center for Evidence-Based Management
• Jeroen Stouten, Professor of Organisational Psychology, KU Leuven University

Article by Jeffrey Pfeffer & Robert Sutton

Find out more about the course here: https://cebma.org/resources-and-tools/course-modules/