What Can COVID-19 Tell Us About Evidence-Based Management?

• Author: Kaifeng Yang
• Published date: 01 August 2020
• Date: 01 August 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0275074020942406
• Subject Matter: Using COVID-19 to Advance Learning, Management, & Policy OutcomesEvidence-Based Decision Making for Public Health Management

https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074020942406

American Review of Public Administration

2020, Vol. 50(6-7) 706 –712

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/0275074020942406

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Evidence-Based Decision Making for Public Health Management

“In a time of uncertainty, facts provide clarity. In a time of

anxiety, facts comfort. In a time of misinformation, facts cor-

rect. In a time of division, facts unite. In a time of crisis, facts

matter most.” The CNN coronavirus ad says it beautifully

about the importance of facts in fighting the COVID-19 pan-

demic. To some degree, this relates to the clash between

President Trump and the media over information and misin-

formation regarding COVID-19, as well as the network’s

worry that many of the COVID-19 decisions are not based

on facts, or not evidence based.1

The worry, that many COVID-19 decisions are not evi-

dence based, is particularly agonizing for many public

administration scholars, who have seen evidence-based man-

agement (EBM) becoming an important area of research and

practice (Haskins & Margolis, 2015; Heinrich, 2007;

Jennings & Hall, 2012; Maynard, 2006; Parkhurst, 2017;

Shillabeer et al., 2011; Vanlandingham & Drake, 2012).

Countries such as Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom,

and the United States have made steady progress on EBM. In

the United States, the Evidence-Based Policymaking

Commission Act of 2006 established a bipartisan commis-

sion to facilitate EBM in federal government, and more con-

crete steps were formulated in the Foundations for

Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018. The Obama

administration pushed this agenda in its executive orders,

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidelines, bud-

get decisions, and exemplary initiatives (Haskins & Margolis,

2015). Many nonprofits such as the MacArthur Foundation

and the Pew Center for the States joined the chorus.

However, the worry is not surprising, given many have

questioned the utility and feasibility of EBM in a political

world (Hammersley, 2013; Pfeffer & Sutton, 2006; Smith,

2013). Nevertheless, with some exceptions (e.g., European

Center for Disease Prevention and Control, 2019; Lipsitch

et al., 2011; Smith, 2013), much less attention has been

paid to EBM in emergency management and particularly

public health emergencies. Government responses to

COVID-19 provide a great opportunity to rethink EBM in

situations such as a pandemic, which are characterized by

uncertainty, high potential loss, time pressure, and compet-

ing values.

Given the time constraint and the space limit, this essay is

not a research-based article and does not follow a typical

structure of literature review, research design, and findings.2

Instead, it offers educated reflections on three issues that are

of particular interest: They are salient during this pandemic

and they embody dimensions of EBM that have often been

neglected. The three issues are as follows: What should be

considered evidence in pandemic-like situations? How can

we make evidence more accessible to decision makers in

942406ARPXXX10.1177/0275074020942406The American Review of Public AdministrationYang

research-article2020

1Renmin University of China, Beijing, China

2Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA

Corresponding Author:

Kaifeng Yang, School of Public Administration and Policy, Renmin

University of China, Beijing 100872, China.

Email: yangkaifeng@ruc.edu.cn

What Can COVID-19 Tell Us About

Evidence-Based Management?

Kaifeng Yang1,2

Abstract

People worry that many COVID-19 decisions are not evidence based, but applying typical evidence-based management (EBM)

in a pandemic seems difficult. A pandemic is characterized by uncertainty, high potential loss, time pressure, and competing

values, all posing challenges to EBM. Drawing on events in government responses to COVID-19, this essay focuses on three

issues: What should be considered as evidence in pandemic-like situations? How can we make evidence more accessible

to decision makers in such situations? And, does evidence have a role in ethical judgments in a pandemic? The essay argues

that EBM must be extended to address pandemic-like situations. The evidentiary standard should take into consideration

“appropriateness,” “reasonableness,” and “intuition,” paying attention to the stages of a pandemic and the type of errors we

want to avoid. In addition, the essay calls for building policy capacity in terms of coproducing and applying evidence in and

outside government, as well as strengthening public managers’ capacity in evidence-based ethical analysis.

Keywords

COVID-19, evidence-based management, pandemic, evidence