ISSN: 0975-766X CODEN: IJPTFI Available Online … of Educational Management, Department of Educational Management, Kamalvand Branch, Islamic Azad University, Khorramabad, Iran. Email:

Ahmad Mostfaie* et al. International Journal Of Pharmacy & Technology

IJPT| June-2016 | Vol. 8 | Issue No.2 | 13197-13208 Page 13197

ISSN: 0975-766X CODEN: IJPTFI

Available Online through Research Article

www.ijptonline.com THE FEASIBILITY STUDY FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF EVIDENCE-BASED

MANAGEMENT IN DEPARTMENTS OF EDUCATION IN KERMANSHAH CITY Yahya safari

1, Ahmad Mostfaie

2*

1Department of radiology, Paramedical School, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.

2MSc of Educational Management, Department of Educational Management, Kamalvand Branch,

Islamic Azad University, Khorramabad, Iran.

Email: [email protected]

Received on 13-05-2016 Accepted on 12-06-2016

Abstract

Evidence-based management means using unique knowledge which derived from researchers scientific researches and

show a new way for knowledge management. The aim of this research is the feasibility study for establishment of

evidence-based management in departments of education in Kermanshah city. The statistical population contains all the

managers of departments of education in Kermanshah which were 130 people. The sample size estimated 87 people by

simple random sampling method based on the Cochran formula.

The data collection tool was a questionnaire which its validity was confirmed in previous studies and its reliability

calculated 0.83 by Cronbach's alpha coefficient. For analyzing the data the descriptive statistic, one-sample t-test,

ANOVA and Friedman test was used. The results showed that from manager’s point of view the possibility for

establishment of evidence-based management, based on the component of practice skill, practice, cultural readiness, cost-

effectiveness, and efficiency and Simultaneous use of other form of management was statistically significant (P<0.05).

But for equipment and necessary facilities and accessing to the required resources, there wasn’t any possibility. For

prioritizing the component, practice skill was in the first rank and accessing to the required resources was in the last rank

(P=0.001).

It have been suggested that the authors provide the possibility for the establishment of evidence-based management in

departments of education by preparing infrastructure and accessibility of required resources.

Keywords: Feasibility study, Evidence-based management, Managers, Education & Training departments



Introduction

Managerial decision is Controversial but most of the managers decide under pressure and by incomplete information.

While some managers judge their choices based on the reality and evidence and most of them rely on the outdated

information, personal experience, personal observance and emotions (1). There were two stages for evidence-based act:

creating evidence which focuses on the academic background of a career and practical use of this evidences and making

informed decision based on these realities (2). Most of the evidence-based management records was focuses on medical

philosophy evidence and are the examples of success in the field of health caring (3). The main attention in previous

records was to the researcher’s role which facilitates evidence-based management process while the manager’s role and

how evidence could be used as a basis for decision is the fact that not have been discussed yet (4). The departments of

education and organization management is among the hardest, most effectiveness and elegant management due to its role

in fostering active and talented humans and provide humans requirement in society (5). Evidence-based management

means using the unique knowledge which derived from scientific research and study of researchers and is a new way for

knowledge management (6). Karimian et al. (2015) by analyzing evidence-based medical educating periodical method in

universities of country and abroad showed that, however in most educations the speech method was used but an integrated

approach is an important part of students education. Effectiveness studies almost evaluate the knowledge and consent and

there was less evidence about the practice periods (7). Aslrousta(2014) concluded that the intellectual management in

teachers, managers and staffs education & training departments in Karaj city was in a level of higher than average and it

was desirable (8). Ashktorab et al. (2014) by evaluating the correlation of considering the property of evidence-based

action and acceptance of behavior in nursing students, based on the Rager’s diffusion innovation model, reported an

positive relation between variables (P<0.01). Understanding the relative advantages, observability and applicability are

the predictors of accepting evidence-based performance (9). Rezazadeh Mahmoudkiani (2014) showed that there wasn’t

any background for establishment of intellectual management system in terms of human and structure component in

education & training departments of Tehran. But relational system make it possible to implement this system. In fact there

is no possibility for implementing the intellectual management system (10). In Kazemi (2014) study the employers of

conducting and head quarter reported the establishment situation of knowledge management in education & training

departments of Kermanshah thoroughly in terms of policies, strategies and conducting system, receiving and education,



encourage and reward system and communication system decision lower than the average and desirable level and in

educational dimension in a desirable level (11). AdibHajbaghery, AziziFini (2012) concluded that the participant,

references books, researches, student’s requirement, knowledge of teaching, experience and basic information of the

teachers are the examples of evidence (12). Ghanizadeh Grayeli (2011) study showed an inappropriate organizational

structure of Tehran’s education & training departments for applying the knowledge management. The information and

technology component and the human resources organization have a proper situation for applying knowledge

management but the organizational culture component don’t have a proper situation for it (13).in Mohamadi (2010) study,

the possibility of establishment for efficient management from the motivational dimension in Fars’s education & training

departments have not confirmed, due to the employers ability, understanding the role, organizational supporting,

evaluating the performance and environmental legislation . However the existence of effective factors on employer’s

performance have been confirmed (14). Adibi et al. (2011) showed that the establishment of virtual education system in

secondary school of Semnan from the hardware dimension is possible and there is a possibility for establishment of

infrastructure software in a moderate level to high and for the electronic content, virtual lessons and human resources

specialist and cultural measures it was in an average level (15).Esmaeli and Ebrahimian (2009) introduced a new

paradigm with the title of evidence-based knowledge management (6). Safari (2015) evaluate the concept of evidence-

based medical science by the Phenomenological method and concluded that the faculty’s member behavior should change

from inactive to active and their negative attitude should be change to positive and removing the barriers and providing

related facilities is necessary (16). De Waal A, Kerklaan L (2013) reported that the evidence-based management

approach could help the improvement of higher educational institution (17). Wright et al. (2012) showed that a

combination of evidence-based management and crisis management is effective in deep understanding of content and

students crisis management is emerged from the evidence-based approach and engagement in learning (18). The Jafari et

al. (2013) study’s results represent that publishing knowledge from all the employers point of view in Ahvaz education &

training departments was in a proper condition and higher than the average level and the organizations component,

software, maintaining and attracting knowledge were in average level and the component of creating knowledge was

lower than the average level (19). Yang et al. (2011) showed that different dimension of knowledge management was

related with innovation and sharing information in educational hospital of Taiwan (20). Beverley (2009) concluded that



sharing knowledge and learned lessons lead to the better caring, increasing the employers motivation and become a

chance for researching, innovating and better relation of information technology system and communication (21).

Simonsen et al. (2008) carried out the lesson class evidence-based management (from research to practice) and suggested

the bellows methods: The physical arrangement of classrooms environment, educational management, the designing

methods for the increase of appropriate behavior and reduce inappropriate behaviors (22). With this introduction in

present study, knowledge evaluated as a tools for better deciding and continuous improvement of management. For

passing the different way of management particularly in teaching as a sensitive and difficult challenging field it is

necessary to create a new way in this field in addition to advantaging the efforts of other researchers. For this reason this

research is a hundred percent feasibility study for establishment of evidence-based management in education & training

departments of Kermanshah. In a case of readiness for implementing this management, it is acceptable to make an

improvement in management process particularly in decision and planning of the mentioned organization.

Material and Methods

This study is applied in terms of its aim and is a descriptive survey in terms of methods. The statistical population

contains all the evaluated departments’ managers of Kermanshah city which include the deputies, administers and officers

of administration and three area of Kermanshah which contain 130 people. Based on the determining Cochran sample size

formula with the simple random sampling method 87 person were selected for participating in the study. The data

collection tool was a questionnaire for the feasibility study of evidence-based management. In this questionnaire first the

personal characteristic of responders was asked and then 53 items with the separation of feasibility study component were

asked as bellow:

Practice skill, cultural readiness, cost-effectiveness of implementing, the availability of infrastructure and necessary

equipment, the accessory level to the requirement resource for establishment and the efficiency level, evaluating the

practice and finally the possibility of simultaneous use of evidence-based management with conventional method.

For answering the main questions the Likert scale with five choices was used and the responders were asked to determine

their opinion with choosing one choices (1- strongly disagree 2- disagree 3. Neutral 4. Agree 5. Strongly agree). This

question was validated by Alikhani (2011) (23) and after changing the items, the final version was prepared by evaluating

the seven specialist masters opinion in the field of human resources management and educational management and was



confirmed in present study. The reliability of the questionnaire was estimated 0.83 by using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient.

For describing the results the descriptive statistical method was used which contain the frequency distribution tables,

percentage, graphs, central index of mean, standard deviation and in the inferential statistics the Kolmogorov–Smirnov

test was used for evaluating the normality of data distribution and one-sample t-test, ANOVA and Friedman test was

used too. The data analysis process has done by SPSS v.18 software.

Results and Discussion

The frequency distribution of the studied individual’s gender showed that 82.8% of them were male and 16.1% of them

were female. The average and standard deviation of their age was 41.78 and 5.85 respectively and the average and

standard deviation of their experience was 10.08 and 6.15 respectively. Also, 10.03%, 47.01% and 37.09% of them have

associated bachelor and master degree respectively. 10.3% of them were in the technological specialist field, 5.7 in

research, 18.4% education (primary, elementary and secondary, technical and vocational), and 4.6% evaluation, 4.6%

designing and planing,6.9% Administrative and Personnel, 3.4% cultural and in the training human resources field 3.4%

of them were active individuals. The data which related to the feasibility study component was presented in table(1)based

on the descriptive statistics, mean, standard deviation, variances and the maximum and minimum score in statistical

sample index.

Table-1: Mean standard deviation, variance and the component of feasibility study.

Variables Number Mean Standard

deviation Variance Min Max

The skill level for practice 87 4.48 0.359 0.156 3.68 5

Cultural readiness 87 4.04 0.572 0.327 3 5

The cost-effectiveness 87 4.02 0.810 0.656 2.50 5

The availability of Infrastructure and

equipment

87

3.16 0.924 0.855 1.67 5

The availability of needed resources 87 2.96 0.818 0.670 1 5

Effectiveness 87 3.89 0.599 0.359 2.86 5

Application Management 87 4.03 0.606 0.368 3 5



The possibility of using evidence-based

management and other managements

87

3.68 0.567 0.322 2.80 5

The theoretical means results of this research was number 3 (due to the Likert scale 5 choices range, the average of this

scale was considered 3). According to the above results except the mean component (the accessibility level to the required

resources), the average of other component was higher than the theoretical average. Then for evaluating the main

variables, separately the questions, one-sample t-test was used and its result presented in table2.

Table-2: One-sample-t-test results.

Variables Mean

Standard

deviation

(S.D)

Degrees of

freedom

(df)

t P

The skill level for practice 4.48 0.359 86 35.088 0.001

Application Management 4.03 0.606 86 15.84 0.001

Cultural readiness 4.04 0.572 86 17.053 0.001

The cost-effectiveness 4.023 0.81 86 11.77 0.001

The availability of

Infrastructure and

equipment

3.163 0.92 86 1.649 0.103

The availability of needed

resources 2.96 0.818 86 -0.426 0.671

Effectiveness 3.89 0.599 86 13.93 0.001

The possibility of using

evidence-based

management and other

managements

3.68 0.567 86 11.216 0.001

The one-sample T-test results represent the feasibility study of evidence-based management component among the

education & training department's managers separately as bellows:

The practice skill of evidence-based management was exist among the managers with the mean of higher than the average

(P<0.05). In line with this results, Aslrousta (2014) (8) showed that using integrated management was in a higher level

than the average and desirable. Ghanizadeh Grayeli (2011) (13) reported that the information technology and human



resources of organization component condition was proper for applying knowledge management. Adibi et al. (2011) (15)

evaluated the establishment of virtual education in terms of specialist human resources and cultural measures in an

average level. Mohamadi (2010) (14) recognized the employers ability in a sufficient level and in Jafari et al. (2013)

study the employers knowledge was in a proper level and higher than the average. The present study is not consistent with

Kazemi (2014) (11) study which evaluated the establishment of knowledge management in the dimension of policies and

strategies, leadership system, communication management and knowledge management system lower than the average

and desirable level. In fact if the conditions and organizational context were available and organizational supporting

system were provided the managers become ready in line with paying attention to the evidences and establishment of

evidence-based management. Also, there is a possibility to don’t have necessary skills for implementing this management

method. The managers used the evidence-based management with the mean of higher than average (P<0.05). This results

is consistent with, Aslrousta (2014) (8), Ghanizadeh Grayeli (2011) (13), Safari (2015) (16) and Simonsen et al. (2008)

(22) study. But it is not consistent with Karimian et al. (2015) (7) results which find less evidence for practice of

educational periods. With this results it could be said that in educational organization due to the fact that the managers

have an extensive relation with their business referral, unlike the producing and industrial organization showed more clear

evidences. But it is necessary to collect the evidences with different ways in other organizations and the policies and

decisions make with different methods. The managers, accept the evidence-based management with the mean of higher

than average ( P<0.05). This result was consistent with Ashktorab (2014) (9) study which predict the relative

understanding of advantages, observability and applicability of the evidence-based performance and acceptance of

evidence-based performance. Also, it is consistent with Ghanizadeh Grayeli (2011) (13), Mohamadi (2010) (14), Adibi et

al. (2011) (15), Simonsen et al. (2008) (22) study’s results too. But it is not consistent with Rezazadeh Mahmoudkiani

(2014) (10) study’s results which showed that there wasn’t any background for establishment of intellectual management

system in terms of human resource and structure component. In fact it could be said that from the manager’s point of view

who were aware of the organizational culture, the accessibility fields for implementing the managerial method are

available. The existence of paying attention culture to the knowledge learning from the side of managers and recognizing

the true decision and evidence-based maybe one of its reason. From the managers point view advantaging the evidence

based management with the mean of higher than the average is cost-effectiveness (P<0.05). although in previous studies,



this results have not been processed but for explanation it could be said that according to the sensitive role of organization

in the country, the existence of evidence for majors decision could prevent many mistakes and rash decisions and cause

the decisions to be made in a realistic condition not with doubt and provide the development and promotion of

organization. Therefore, this cost for infrastructure and education is logical and economical. There wasn’t any necessary

equipment and facilities for implementing evidence-based management (P>0.05). This results was not consistent with

Ghanizadeh Grayeli (2011) (13), Adibi et al. (2011) (15), Jafari et al. (2013) (19) studies and also it is not comparable

with Safari (2015) (16) study which showed that it was necessary to remove barriers from the evidence-based medical

science and provide related facilities in educational organization. There is no facilities for managers to recognize the new

managerial methods such as researches centers. The researches centers provide accessing to the scientific database and

new researches results in order to make a decision with low errors due to the latest scientific achievement and consulting

with other managers through multi-media system and virtual teaching room. Providing technical infrastructure such as the

desirable speed and bands wide for internet connection is the other necessitates which is far from its ideal condition in

Kermanshah’s education & training departments. There is no accessibility to the required resources for establishment of

evidence-base management among the managers (P>0.05). This results is not consistent with Karimian et al. (2015) (7),

Adib Hajbaghery et al. (2012) (12) results which believed the participants, references books, researches, students

requirement, teaching sciences, students and teachers basis data as evidence. And also it is not consistent with Adibi et al.

(2011) (15), Safari (2015) (16), Beverley (2009) (21) and it could be concluded from the managers point of view that the

organization presented restricted resources for them which these facilities don’t have the ability for responding the

managers requirement. In the field of scientific management, the extensive theories, dispersion of condition and diverging

in the field of humanities unlike the science and engineering the researches doubted for their theories. The managers have

not present their experiences, failures and success and their reason in a writing experience form for the others. While in

the medical science field there is a comprehensive database of health care experiences of different care centers which

categorized thoroughly and systemic and presented for doctors, researchers and medical science masters. Unfortunately

there have not done any effective measure in the field of humanity particularly in the field of management. The evidence-

based management have the mean efficiency of higher than the average among the managers (P<0.05). The results of the

bellows studies confirmed this results Karimian et al. (2015) (7), De Waal (2013) (17) which showed that the evidence-



based management approach could improve the higher educational institution. Wright et al. (2012) (18) which showed

that by evidence-based management the engagement in learning was published, Yang et al (2011) (20) showed that the

different knowledge management was related to innovation and sharing data and Beverley (2009) (21). It could be argued

that implicit data collection and detected procedures in management subjects and forming the bank and even

comprehensive organization of managing data in a case of being formed caused the managers to after telling the problems,

present the proper questions which related to them and collected the required data by researching and used the proposed

scientific methods and observed its effect and analyze it and after getting the feedbacks modifying the deficiencies. The

results showed the Simultaneous application of evidence-based management with the other managements among the

managers with the mean of higher than the average (P<0.05). This results was consistent with the Karimian et al. (2015)

(7), Wright et al. (2012) (18), Simonsen et al. (2008) (22) study’s results. It means that the traditional management

contain the primary mechanism of each organization and its existence is effected the coordination, organizing and

surveillances. Beside the scientific and traditional management, advantaging the new management methods and technique

could have complementary role and cause promotion of most of the organizations. Therefore the traditional management

is not in conflict with the new methods and could provide the advantaging condition of new management technique. In

table3 the Matrix prioritizing evidence-based management component is present from the manager’s point of view.

Table-3: The prioritizing matrix of evidence-based management component in terms of providing infrastructures.

Components Mean Mean of

rank Rank

Skills practice, based on evidence-

based management 4.48 6.67 First

Effectiveness of evidence-based

management 4.03 5.54 Second

The cost-effectiveness of the

implementation of evidence-based

management

4.02 5.44 Third

Cultural readiness of acceptance of

evidence-based management 4.04 5.41 Fourth



Application of evidence-based

management 3.89 4.5 Fifth

The possibility of using evidence-based

management with other managements 3.68 3.81 Sixth

The availability of infrastructure and

necessary equipment 3.16 2.74 Seventh

The availability of resources required

for deployment 2.96 1.90 Eighth

In table 4 the Friedman test results about the evidence-based component prioritization have been presented.

Table-4: The Friedman test results about the evidence-based management component prioritization.

Parameter Value

Number 87

Chi square 273/034

Degrees of freedom (df) 7

P 0.001

According to the table4 the prioritization of evidence-based management component is different from the responders

point of view (P=0.001). In a way that (the practice skill) is in the first rank and (accessing the required resources) is in

the last rank. Also the one way variance analysis results showed that according to the fact that the f level (α=0.05) was

significant, therefore there was a significant relation between the samples individuals opinion about the establishment of

evidence-based management based on the special field.

Conclusion

According to the results of this study about the existence of component and lack of equipment and facilities dimension

and accessibility to the required resource for implementing the evidence-based management, it have been suggested that

the responsible person provide necessary infrastructure and equipment for accessibility to the required resource and

possibility of evidence-based management in education & training departments.

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Corresponding Author:

Ahmad Mostfaie*

Email: [email protected]

Documents

ISSN: 0975-766X CODEN: IJPTFI Available Online … of Educational Management, Department of Educational Management, Kamalvand Branch, Islamic Azad University, Khorramabad, Iran. Email: