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Evidence-Based Management: The Power of Evidence or Evidence of Power?

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Organizing and Reorganizing

Part of the book series: Organizational Behaviour in Health Care ((OBHC))

Abstract

Evidence-based health care (EBHC) has now enjoyed over 10 years of popularity in many clinical fields across the globe. Today, it seems axiomatic that all health care practice can, and should, be evidence-based — that is to say, practice should integrate individual clinical expertise ‘with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research’ (Sackett et al. 1996:71). But whilst EBHC can ‘work’ — at least when work means (quite specifically) that aggregate clinical outcomes are improved — its overall successes are overdrawn (evidence-based medicine rarely provides categorical, recipe-style answers for individual clinical situations). Indeed, much optimistic hype is accumulating about EBHC with some unintended consequences.

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© 2008 Mark Learmonth

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Learmonth, M. (2008). Evidence-Based Management: The Power of Evidence or Evidence of Power?. In: McKee, L., Ferlie, E., Hyde, P. (eds) Organizing and Reorganizing. Organizational Behaviour in Health Care. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230583207_6

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