Evidence-Based Practice Assignment Sample

Introduction - Evidence-Based Practice

Get Free Samples Written by our Top-Notch Subject Experts For Taking Online Assignment Help Services

Evidence-based practice is all about the building of better decisions or informed action that possesses the desired impact. The practice relies on the approach of critical thinking and the availability of evidence for extracting good decisions. Decision making is a crucial aspect of business as it determines business success. It has been seen that businesses incorporated such practices to reduce the chance of errors in their judgment process. The present report emphasizes the context of evidence-based practices and their use in the way of informed decision making. In order to demonstrate the context in a precise way, Avado, a reputed UK organization has been selected respectively. Various interpretations of data are also going to be depicted in the second part of the report for providing better insights and understanding regarding the context and present scenario

Part 1

1.1 Evaluation of the concept of evidence-based practice

Practices regarding Evidence-based involves the findings of approaches and solutions in order to deal with the management practices as well as to derive the expected outcomes on the basis of empirical evidence. It is a systematic process by which a decision can be evaluated against the relevant data. The concept was first originated in the field of medicine by Gordon Guyatt in 1991 to make decisions and since then the concept has been adopted in various sectors. As per the evidence of the CIPD professional map, the practice entails the levigation of data and evidence in solving problems, creating insights, developing ideas and measuring the impact (Cipd, 2021). 

In business, the concept is widely used especially in the area of resources management for the purpose of reducing irrational thinking or biases in the path of decision making. By making accurate and bias-free decisions business firms are not only benefiting from the maximization of profit but are also able to minimize the decision costs by staying objective. Furthermore, the practice utilizes available evidence and skills of critical thinking for the purpose of resulting in rational decisions that possess a long term impact on the business firm's operation (Barends et al. 2021). Moreover, the core reason behind the practice of evidence base is to generate good decisions that are achieved by drawing available evidence and utilizing critical thinking. The formation of good decisions helps to lead actions in a more likely way to have the desired impact and also ensures less resilience on anecdotes that facilitate possible outcomes.

1.2 Assessment of the use of evidence-based practices in order to support sound decision making of people practitioners

Practice of evidence-based is mainly applied in supporting the making of sound decisions as well as suitable judgment in a specific concern. Managers or people practitioners are susceptible to errors and bias in the way of decision making when they rely upon the decisions on past experiences. The practice helps the people practitioners to become more resilient towards considering facts rather than assumptions in the way of decision making. In various ways, the practice can be fostered within the organizational settings such as incorporating critical questions and assessing the outcomes through informational sessions and others. The adoption of such kinds of practices helps to align the organizational practices with the taken strategic goals of the organization, which help to create a direct impact on the business performance respectively (Lukeš et al. 2019). It can also be added that the practice of the approach of the evidence-base in an operational way not only benefits the people practitioners but also the business firms.

In modern business, the effective utilization of resources has become the key source for deriving a competitive edge. As the area of human resources, is greatly concerned with various issues, thereby the people practitioners of Avado can use the concept for the purpose of making sound decisions that are effective in well handling the human resources thereby, the business organization can avail immense profitable opportunities in their path of operation. Using of the concept also can help the people practitioners to retain balance in various actions such as the offering of existing resources, balancing the compensation amount and hiring the talent that would contribute to improving the business creditability and remove ethical bias from the business culture (Delen and Ram, 2018). Additionally, by making the good decision in a timely, the organization can also be more responsive to consumers' demand in their existing marketplace which is beneficial for revenue increment. It has been seen that non-rational decisions eventually affected operational competency and slow down the business growth and there comes the rationale of such concept’s practice.

1.3 Evaluation of appropriate tools and methods to recognize and diagnose the challenges and opportunities 

In business, all organizations are affected by some external or internal factors that created future risks or opportunities. Those factors are mainly part of the business firm's general environment and need to be analyzed in order to be aware of their consequences on the business. Various range of tools and methods are used in order to diagnose future issues and opportunities in business such as PESTLE analysis, SWOT analysis, Porter's five analysis, interviews, use of questionnaires, working sampling and others respectively.

In the context of recognizing the current issues and opportunities, tools of SWOT analysis can be beneficial for Avado that focuses on the evaluation of both external and internal environment, which regulates the organizational operational sustainability. SWOT stands for opportunities, strengths, threats and weaknesses in which weakness and strength focus on the internal aspects and in comparison to that, the other two-component included the external environment that impacted the organization. It can be also stated that the tool is simple to use and mostly used in the way of accessing the target market ambience related to business expansion (Valentová and Bre?ka, 2019). In addition, by applying the tool the selected organization can be able to deter threats and capitalize on opportunities that help to adhere to the fulfillment of business goals by making the strategy more impactful. Sometimes, the production of lots of information may create confusion for HR professionals in the path of taking decisions.

On the other hand, the use of questionnaires as a method of evaluating the business opportunities as well as challenges can also adopt by Avado. The method is effective in order to gain insights regarding various cons and pros that are associated with business operation in a specific market palace. It can be also added that the method allows the business firms to collect valid information that is accurate for coming to a precise decision. Moreover, with the help of methods and tools Avado can able to gain a better understanding of their operation and boat their performance towards success.

1.4 Explanation of the main principles of critical thinking and describes its application to assist objective and rational debate to work colleagues and individuals 

Critical thinking can be denoted as an ability of individuals that enable to reflect ideas, arguments, and opinions objectively along with deep thinking. The main principle of critical thinking includes sceptical thinking which indicates being open-minded and at the same time sceptical towards the evidence. As opined by Blair. and Scriven (2019), in the way of critical thinking the premises of arguments or assumptions should be examined properly to draw any conclusion or judgment that are effective for making sound decisions as well. Furthermore, principles that are related to critical thinking also include understanding all of the terms, gathering complete information, examining the bigger picture and evaluating own values and biases to focus on erroneous conclusions.

Critical thinking is a potential skill for people practitioners that enable them to reflect on the organizational objectives by improving their ability of decision making. The principle allows the professionals to differentiate between the issues and risks by utilizing logic and other cognitive acts such as creativity, imagination and others. Employees can use also these skills in their job responsibilities and taking appropriate decisions that help to influence their performance growth. Apart from that, by following the principle in the path of decision making, people practitioners can foster the building of potential strategy and also assist the organizational objectives (Birken et al. 2018). In various situations, the skill can be applied by HR practitioners with the focus on resolving the situation by eliminating biases from the decisions. However, it can be stated that good decisions are evolved with rational thinking that requires the presence of critical thinking and taking decisions on the basis of principles. 

1.5 Assessing various ethical theories as well as perspectives and importance of these to influence moral decision-making

Ethical theories refer to formal statements based on what companies need to do while facing a certain ethical issue and dilemma. Ethical theories can be divided into three different types such as utilitarian, virtue, and deontological theories. As stated by Everett and Kahane (2020), a utilitarian ethical theory is based on utilitarianism that is equated with the aim of doing utmost good for greatest number of people. This theory of ethics denotes that companies and industries need to focus on doing well for all of their employees for betterment. This idea refers to ethical decisions that are made on the basis of consequences of actions. Evidence-based practices are beneficial for making crucial decisions in organizations as they can provide valid proof of whether ethics are maintained in decision-making or not. This ethical theory provides an opportunity to guess the outcomes of their chosen decisions to determine ethical activities. The theory is efficient for making effective decisions that are also ethical and beneficial for employees and other workers of organizations. Utilitarian theory helps organizations in case of maintaining ethical consideration in their decision-making procedures.

Additionally, it also aids outcomes of the chosen decisions of organizations through maintaining ethics. The company, Avado, can utilize this theory of ethics for streamlining their decision-making processes with ethics. This can help the organization to maintain a good relationship with employees and employees in return take participation in decision making. On the other hand, utilitarian ethics present conflict questions regarding finding the society segments that need consideration. It can be added that when a solution extremely harms minority groups the situation can be denoted as an unethical decision chosen by company. Contradiction can happen in this type of situation when companies suggest that this decision has potential to benefit a large number of employees in organizations. Evidence-based practice in case of organizations such as Avado helps to measure maintaining of ethics in a certain decision taken by organizations.

The theory can also be called consequentialism as it has to rely on consequences of decisions and it is not a “good fit” for professional ethics of public relations. As per views of Benlahcene et al. (2018), deontological ethics refers to a prominent concept and it is based on the idea of treating humans with respect and dignity as they have human rights. This theory is based on deontological ethics that suggest people possess a duty for respecting others' rights as well as treating other humans accordingly. The major concept behind this theory is that objective obligations are required by all people. The theory is also helpful for Avado, in case of maintaining ethics in their management of human relations. 

Virtue ethics develop from philosophical reasoning that gains attention in areas of public relations. The theory included in this ethics is based on the actions and activities that make a person good. Additionally, this theory also considers the discussion about what makes professionals in public relations good. As stated by Proctor (2019), virtue-related ethical theory requires an understanding of decision-makers about effective virtues that are beneficial for public relations. Additionally, this theory considers decisions of decision-makers to highlight particular virtues based on their understandings. As per example of this theory of ethics, when honesty is the prior importance for good public relations, all decisions need to be made with ethics for ensuring honesty. All of these ethical theories are important in case of influencing and informing decision-making. The mentioned company named Avado can use this theory in case of highlighting its major virtues in its decision-making.

Practices that are based on evidence in different companies and organizations are useful for determining whether ethical theories are implemented in the moral decision-making procedures of companies or not. Utilitarian theory of ethics is based on the ethical decision-making of people that benefits a large number of people. This theory helps to consider ethical perspectives while taking crucial moral decisions for a large number of people. On the other hand, other two theories of ethics are directly not linked with decision-making procedures however; help to make moral decisions ethical.

1.6 Range of approaches taken by people practitioners in order to identify possible solutions to issues that are related to people's practice

The area of people's practice complies with various types of issues that not only affected the grabbing of business opportunities but also make the management difficult for HR personnel. It can be stated that HR practitioners play an integral role in the path of decision making within an organization. Various types of approaches of decision making can be incorporated by the HR executive of Avado in the context of finding out the possible solutions to mitigate various challenges of people practices such as problem-outcome frame, best fir, six-thinking hats, future pacing and others. On the basis of the nature of the issues, the approach has been chosen by the HR personnel.

Six thinking hats is an effective approach of decision making that can be taken by people practitioners of Avado for the area of group decisions and also for individual decisions as the approach involves a parallel process. Each of the hats is a metaphor for various thinking ways as mentally wearing indicates that the style of looking towards a problem is varied from person to person thereby mitigating solutions also differ respectively (Bamgbade et al. 2019). On the other hand, white color indicates decisions that are based on facts, emotional decisions are denoted by red color, green represents creative decisions and judgmental action is denoted by black. By following all of the hats the HR personnel of Avado can able to ensure the prosperity of the business and offer guidance to the employees. The approach also can help the people practitioners to come up with effective informal decisions for the purpose of business success.

Framing outcomes and problems are the other approach of decision making that can also be applied by the HR personnel of Avado in the context of extracting various solutions related to specific problems in operation. The framing comprises interpretations of schema depending upon the corresponding situation (Gill, 2018). It is also essential for the people personnel to frame the organizational problems accurately to meet their business objectives respectively. For example, as turnover is one of the potential issues thereby the HR of Avado can frame it as an individual problem and evaluate solutions in a different way. Another example is compensation that affected the practices. It has been seen that some business firms have taken a decision for enhancing employees' compensation after determining the performance analysis.

1.7 Organizational approaches to measuring non-financial and financial performance

Organizational performance can be measured by the use of non-financial and financial indicators. As opined by Leuz (2018) good management of performance is pivotal for the purpose of organizational success. Performance management aims to maintain, monitor and improve the worker's performance by aligning their activity to the firm’s objectives. However, in various ways, business organizations can foster the measurement of their non-financial and financial performance. Financial indicators include net profits, return on investments, cash flows and productivity. Cash flow indicates the amount of revenue that a business posses with as a result of its market operation whereas non-financial performance is includes benefits given to stakeholders, agreement on service levels and parameters of consumer satisfaction.

By measuring both the people practitioners of Avado can able to integrate various ways by which action is fostered greatly for the purpose of performance improvement of the organization. Apart from that through calculating qualitative and quantitive data the HR personnel of Avado can obtain appropriate decisions regarding their business growth. The primary benefits of measuring both areas help to result in compliance efficacy along with long term strategic sustainability (Galanaki et al. 2019). Measurement of non-financial assets helps to provide adequate information that is effective in retaining the effectiveness of the operation. Besides some limitations is also there that includes expensive to conduct and time-consuming. 

1.8 Explanation of the organizational value creation through a variety of people's practices and identification of ranges of methods used to measure the impact of people's practices

The people's practices help to create values within an organization in various ways that help to enhance the operational efficacy. In order to satisfy the consumer's needs, enhance the investment return and others the creation of values is necessary for businesses. Value creation has been done through promoting a positive culture in business, such as building the employee's morale and others that are facilitated by HR personnel. The ability of HR is vital for the context of adding more value to the organization. The various methods can be used by practitioners of Avado in the context of measuring the impact of people practices such as 360 feedback, tools of cost-benefit, and return on investment.

The tools of cost-benefit are help to analyze the decisions that should be implemented in terms of accelerating the business profits. By using the analysis of cost-benefit the practitioner of Avado can able to set a budget and reduces the bonus amount by regulating the people's practices which may help to create a positive impact as well (Diery et al. 2020). On the other hand, Avado can also able to raise its performance by rewarding its workers with a six score that in turn also influences the organizational performance. Furthermore, the selected company is also can use the tools of return of investment in order to measure the profitability that is gained from any specific investment. By doing so business firms are able to retain balance in their financial aspect and grab the benefit of consumer engagement.

Part 2

2.1 Data analysis and review

Year	Administration total in department	Drivers total in department	Production total in department	Total costing yearly
2016	8260	43365	80535	£132160
2017	4130	37170	111510	£152810
2018	16520	66080	169330	£251930
2019	36144	48192	240960	£325296
2020	27108	96384	337344	£460836

Table 1: Costing of three departments

(Source: Created by the learner)

Year	Turnover rate in administration	Turnover rate in drivers	Turnover rate in production
2016	12.5	14.89	10.129
2017	6.25	12.765	14.02
2018	25	22.69	21.298
2019	37.5	11.3	20.77
2020	28.125	22.69	29.09

Table 2: turnover rate per year

Analysis of findings

From the above table, it can be stated that labour turnover has become a potential challenge for the selected organization over the past few decades. The three departments including production, administration, and drivers are the most affected areas under the concern in the business operation. As per the data, in 2016 the total cost of three departments was £132160, whereas in 2017 the costs gradually raised with the increasing rate of turnover in each of the departments. It can be stated that, among all the departments, the turnover has affected much the production department that in turn result in the business growth’s declination. Furthermore, in the comparison of the last two years with the past three, it can be stated that the existence of the issue contributes to the financial burden and disrupted the culture of the selected organization.

2.2 Analysis of the findings

• Analysis from Table 1: Lack of enhancing career opportunities is a major issue for turnover of employees. As per table 1, nearly about 24 employees have left their jobs due to fewer opportunities for career enhancement. On the other hand, reason behind employee turnover is a boring and monotonous world and for this reason, about 45 employees quit their jobs. On the other hand, nearly about 68 employees left their jobs due to a lack of opportunities for flexible working schedules. According to Davidescu et al. (2020), flexibility in a job working schedule is a basic right of humanity and also come under human needs of employees. Height number of employee turnover has been seen in case of poor payment in the organization in Avado and accounted for 94. Nearly about 82 employees left their jobs for pursuing other careers and around 52 employees quit their jobs due to behavioral issues of managers. Nearly about 34 employees quit their jobs due to conflict in workplace among employees. On the other hand, a lack of incentives also plays a crucial role in case of employee turnover. Table 1 show that about 87 employees left their jobs ‘due to limited incentives and rewards provided by the company Avado.
• Analysis from Table 2: Numerical data from table 2 shows that in case of payroll turnover rate of employees according to several reasons. It shows that nearly about 17 employees left their job roles due to unachievable targets set by their respective managers. According to Di Vaio and Varriale (2018), managerial management, as well as behavior of management, plays a crucial role in employee turnover as they have potential to motivate as well as demotivated employees. On the other hand, due to monotonous and boring work nearly about 12 employees quit their jobs. Around 8 employees left their job because of pursuing higher education and 7 employees quit their job due to misbehavior of managers in workplace. 

2.3 Recommendation to reduce employee turnover along with rationale

In the context of mitigating the concern of employee turnover, the HR personnel of the chosen organization can be focused on the above-mentioned approaches respectively. The rationale behind the recommendation includes the provision of unethical decisions for the purpose of entails sustainable practices within the organization. Some recommendations are as follows

• Motivation is the cornerstone behind the engagement of employees and also ensuring the workforce productivity. In order to reduce the rate of turnover in the operational pathway, the people practitioners need to give focus on offering compensation, giving praise and also recognizing the individual's effort that may help to trigger the worker's motivation in an effective way. It can be stated that giving praise also encourages the consumers to give their best in their job that in turn benefits the organizational growth
• It is also recommended to the HR professionals in order to prioritize the hiring process. Right people’s hiring can be proven effective in order to build morale and also for showcasing certain behaviors in the organizational culture. The presence of an ethical culture can also help to reduce the concern and also enhance the engagement of more talent in the business process(Lehane et al. 2019)
• The provision of flexible hours of working and training is also effective in order to mitigate the context of employee turnover in the current situation. It has been also seen that retention of quality of life helps the workers to feel motivated as well as associated with the organizational process that in turn may help decrease the ratio of turnover among the organizational settings. Thereby it can be stated that Avado can able to boost its operational productivity by focusing on the ratio of turnover by implementing the recommended approaches in operation.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, from the above discussion, it can be stated that the evidence-based practice is effective in terms of making rational decisions in business operations that in turn help to enhance the profitability of the business. By making good decisions, Avado can able to penetrate its target market and meet its operational objectives as well. In the way of decision making, the integration of critical thinking may help to suppress the chance of ethical biases and help to foster the accuracy of the decisions. Lastly, it can be also stated that, in order to handle the turnover issues in employability, the practice can prove beneficial for Avado in their existing as well as new marketplace.

References

Journals

Avadolearning, (2020). About us. Available at: https://www.avadolearning.com/ [Accessed on:19 / 05/22 ]

Bamgbade, J.A., Nawi, M.N.M., Kamaruddeen, A.M., Adeleke, A.Q. and Salimon, M.G., (2019). Building sustainability in the construction industry through firm capabilities, technology and business innovativeness: empirical evidence from Malaysia. International journal of construction management, pp.1-16.

Barends, E., Littell, J.H. and Rousseau, D.M., (2021). Priming the pump at the Campbell Business and Management Coordinating Group. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 17(1), p.e1147.

Benlahcene, A., Zainuddin, R.B., Syakiran, N. and Ismail, A.B., (2018). A narrative review of ethics theories: Teleological & deontological Ethics. Journal of Humanities and Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), 23(1), pp.31-32.

Birken, S., Clary, A., Tabriz, A.A., Turner, K., Meza, R., Zizzi, A., Larson, M., Walker, J. and Charns, M., (2018). Middle managers’ role in implementing evidence-based practices in healthcare: a systematic review. Implementation Science, 13(1), pp.1-14.

Blair, J.A. and Scriven, M., (2019). Teaching critical thinking. Blair AStudies in Critical Thinking. Windsor Studies in Argumentation, 8, pp.31-36.

Cipd, (2021). Evidence-based practice for effective decision-making. Available at: https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/strategy/analytics/evidence-based-practice-factsheet#gref [Accessed on:19 / 05/22 ]

Davidescu, A.A., Apostu, S.A., Paul, A. and Casuneanu, I., (2020). Work flexibility, job satisfaction, and job performance among Romanian employees—Implications for sustainable human resource management. Sustainability, 12(15), p.6086.

Delen, D. and Ram, S., (2018). Research challenges and opportunities in business analytics. Journal of Business Analytics, 1(1), pp.2-12.

Di Vaio, A. and Varriale, L., (2018). Management innovation for environmental sustainability in seaports: Managerial accounting instruments and training for competitive green ports beyond the regulations. Sustainability, 10(3), p.783.

Diery, A., Vogel, F., Knogler, M. and Seidel, T., (2020), June. Evidence-based practice in higher education: Teacher educators' attitudes, challenges, and uses. In Frontiers in Education (Vol. 5, p. 62). Frontiers.

Everett, J.A. and Kahane, G., (2020). Switching tracks? Towards a multidimensional model of utilitarian psychology. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 24(2), pp.124-134.

Galanaki, E., Parry, E., Bu?i?nien?, I. and Panayotopoulou, L., (2019).Evidence-based HRM: a Global Forum for Empirical Scholarship.pp-128

Gill, C., (2018). Don't know, don't care: An exploration of evidence based knowledge and practice in human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 28(2), pp.103-115.

Lehane, E., Leahy-Warren, P., O’Riordan, C., Savage, E., Drennan, J., O’Tuathaigh, C., O’Connor, M., Corrigan, M., Burke, F., Hayes, M. and Lynch, H., (2019). Evidence-based practice education for healthcare professions: an expert view. BMJ evidence-based medicine, 24(3), pp.103-108.

Leuz, C., (2018). Evidence-based policymaking: promise, challenges and opportunities for accounting and financial markets research. Accounting and Business Research, 48(5), pp.582-608.

Lukeš, M., Longo, M.C. and Zouhar, J., (2019). Do business incubators really enhance entrepreneurial growth? Evidence from a large sample of innovative Italian start-ups. Technovation, 82, pp.25-34.

Proctor, C. (2019). Virtue ethics in psychotherapy: A systematic review of the literature. International Journal of Existential Psychology and Psychotherapy, 8, 1-22.

Researchgate.net, (2018).DECISION MAKING AND ‘MESSY’ METHODOLOGICAL RESEARCH APPROACHES.Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Steps-for-a-rational-decision-making-process_fig1_322469076 [Accessed on:19 / 05/22 ]

Valentová, M. and Bre?ka, P., (2019). Implementation of the critical thinking strategies in the school subject technology: A preliminary study. TEM journal, 8(3), p.998.