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

Evidence-based management is emerging in the helping professions in response to heightened demands for public accountability and organizational performance. This paper defines evidencebased 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 evidencebased management processes into social service agencies, and the implications of evidence-based management for social service agency practice and social work management.

Author(s): 
Briggs, Harold E. and McBeath, Bowen
Year of Publication: 
2009
Geographic location: 
Resource Type: 
Journal article - open access
Language: 
English
Section: 
Resource Database