What is evidence-based public management?

It seems natural to start with a description of evidence-based public management.  For a fuller treatment, check out my textbook (Public Administration Research Methods from Routledge).  The basic argument is that decision in public management should be driven by careful data analysis rather than instinct, habit, and political expediency.




The evidence-based practice movement has emerged in a variety of fields.  Two fields have seen the movement take on a relatively advanced form.  In medicine, evidence-based medicine has called for the careful testing of a wide variety of medical practices rather than the reliance on physicians' instincts and (sometimes decades old) training and habit.  In eduction, the "No Child Left Behind" reform movement is grounded in a belief that decisions about investments in education should be guided by data.  In both fields, there were concerns that many techniques (either prescription medicine strategies or curriculum design) were driven by salespeople who has products to push.

One could have similar concerns about public management.  There are a number of companies seeking to sell new geographic information system (GIS)-based approaches to policy implementation like CopStat or CitiStat.  Are these worth it?  Evidence-based practice approaches argue that we should ask to see the data to prove its cost effectiveness and not rely on it sounding like a good idea.  The same strategy could apply to human resources strategies (Is there evidence that a new human resource management program will save money?  Is there evidence that a new training program will increase productivity?).

In the end, the argument for evidence-based public management is simple.  We should look for evidence of effectiveness before investing substantial resources.

It is also important to consider what evidence-based public management is NOT.  There is nothing inherent in the argument for evidence-based public management that demands a specific type of evidence.  For example, a careful qualitative study may provide convincing evidence -- that is to say that not all evidence need be quantitative data.  What matters is the quality of the data; not its particular type (where quality involves a good fit to the question being asked).

Evidence-based public management does NOT demand paralysis.  One has to make decisions in pubic management.  A public manager may not have the time or the resources to conduct (or even find) the perfect study to provide needed evidence.  In the end, a public manager has to make a decision based on the best available evidence.  It is not enough to hide behind the need for evidence to delay decisions when action is needed immediately.