Becoming the Evidence-Based Manager: Making the Science of Management Work for You

by Gary P. Latham

NEW 2ND EDITION WILL BE PUBLISHED JUNE 5TH, 2018 Over the past decade, the call for evidence-based management has been on the rise. Managers have become increasingly skeptical of advice that is based soley on anecdotes, otherwise known as the "art of management"; they demand, instead, proof that the management practices espoused by the authors in the field are truly effective. Becoming the Evidence-Based Manager delivers the goods, covering a wide range of critical management skills, such as hiring, inspiring, training, developing, motivating and coaching. Readers are rewarded with a thorough understanding of how to put the science of management to work for themselves and their organizations. An organizational psychologist by training and experience, author Gary Latham brings a unique perspective to the art-versus-science debate as he underscores the critical role that empirical research plays in successfully hiring and managing employees. Latham advocates using the "situational" interview style in the hiring process over the "free-flowing" one, for example, as it's proven more effective in assessing a candidate's skills and aptitude. Written in an accessible, conversational style, Becoming the Evidence-Based Manager draws upon 50 years of management research, and provides front-line managers with key lessons and tips to help them put research to everyday use on the job. From hiring and training to supervising and appraising, managers and leaders will learn proven techniques for achieving high performance from their employees.

Genres: Business, Psychology, Leadership, Nonfiction

218 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 16, 2009

Reviews

[Jordan Coy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book on managerial skills in general and evidence-based management in particular. This book is a fantastic start to learning the best practices in managing teams and organizations.

Evidence based management is the science of managerial practices and techniques that are backed up by research and empirical evidence. This book details the practices that have significant effects in the real world and have measurable results.
Some of the major points by chapter:

Chapter 1: Interviews and hiring.
Most interview strategies do not work. The most effective form is situational interviews.
How to create a Situational Interview:
1. Conduct a job analysis
2. Create situational interview questions that describe a dilemma faced by interviewee
3. Create a scoring guide for answers (page 6)

Chapter 2: Executing strategy.
Goal setting is one of the most reliable and time-tested practices a manager can implement.
Create SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound Goals (page 37)

Chapter 3: Developing and Training team
Mind set and attitude of the team matters in training. Self-talk (positive internal dialog) sets the stage for effective training and development (59)
Visualization (Mentally practicing your task in your thoughts) improves actual performance (63)

Chapter 5: Create resilient systems when facing setbacks.
Change the expected outcomes, you change someone’s behavior (102).
The “empathy box” helps illustrate this (101-103)

I highly recommend this book for studying management and leadership skills. This book doesn't rely on gimmicks or pithy messages (like many leadership books). Instead, it condenses the studies and research done on managerial techniques and promotes what practices have empirical evidence in producing results.

5/5 Excellent management book

[Jevgenij · Rating 2 out of 5]

The chapter on hiring tools is fine more or less, but it quickly goes down hill from there. For an "evidence-based" book there is very little information on the research that the claims are based upon. I really would like to see the research and its results for how company's vision statement affects anything.
In general, several summary statements are interesting , but notes on implementation details are too abstract or far fetched, useless in other words.

[Steffy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overview of science backed practices in people management, covering interviewing, performance reviews, motivating employees and more.

[Rev. Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Based on the the theories of Organizational Psychology, this is an easy read, with some really good ideas for enhancing employee motivation, helping employees to develop self-efficacy, and ways to develop resiliency in the face of setbacks. My SHRM accreditation now allows for 20 of my 60 CEU's to be obtained from reading books and taking a test on their content, so this was my first choice to begin that process.

[Bianca Woods · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's some very solid management in this book, which would have normally caused me to give this a 4. Unfortunately this book also has the most distracting layout I've ever encountered, which made reading through this book and all it's sidebar examples deeply disjointed.