The Business and Management Coordinating Group (BMCG) is one of the newest coordinating groups of the Campbell Collaboration, founded in 2017 with Julia Littell as Editor and Eric Barends and Denise Rousseau as Co‐chairs. Today Littell is Editor and Rousseau Associate Editor. The mission of the BMCG is to make systematic reviews on organizational research available to the broad public of business and management scholars, educators, and practitioners. This editorial describes the focus of BMCG and its challenges and opportunities.
The BMCG aligns with the initiative in professional schools and management practice to promote evidence‐based decisions in organizations, by managers and staff, boards and policymakers, and other stakeholders. Part of the wider movement toward evidence‐based practice in medicine and public policy, the evidence‐based practice movement in organizations (Barends & Rousseau, 2018) began as a response to the reliance on tradition, authority, and opinions consultants advance as a basis for action. It mirrors the origins of evidence‐based medicine in the 1990s and the then‐limited incorporation of scientific evidence into medical school education and physician practice.
Managerial decisions affect the working lives and well‐being of people around the world. As Henry Mintzberg (1989) said: “No job is more vital to our society than that of a manager. It is the manager who determines whether our social institutions serve us well or whether they squander our talents and resources.”
The focus of BMCG is evidence regarding organization‐related decisions and the diverse practitioners who contribute to them—from executives and entrepreneurs, coaches and consultants, workers and volunteers, to labor organizers and civil servants. With its organizational focus, BMCG is sector‐neutral, including for‐profit, nongovernmental and governmental organizations.
BMCG is in the “pump priming” phase, meaning that it is in the setup stage of operation. Our goals are (1) to develop a pipeline of systematic reviews related to organizational decisions and practices, (2) to promote systematic reviews as a practice in management and organizational research, and (3) to support training in systematic review methods. We promote the systematic review methodologies developed by Cochrane and Campbell (Higgins et al., 2020; The Campbell Collaboration, 2019).
Currently, we have nine approved titles on topics, ranging from the role of CEO financial incentives in firm performance and the uptake and use of structured interviews in employee selection, to the effect of workplace coaching on learning and performance.
We actively promote systematic reviews in management and organizational research by publishing guidance of their use (e.g., Littell et al., 2008; Rousseau et al., 2008), and presenting panels of scholars and librarians at major management conferences including the Academy of International Business and the Academy of Management. A shout‐out is due to the University of Calgary Professor Olga Petricevic and Librarian Zahra Premji, and Carnegie Mellon University Librarians Ryan Splenda and Sarah Young for their inestimable efforts to educate the Organization and Management Studies community regarding systematic reviews.
We are working on the pipeline of systematic reviews by collaborating with doctoral programs in Organization and Management Studies to train students and faculty in systematic reviewing methodologies. The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, for example, now sponsors a doctoral program for scholar practitioners grounded in systematic review training and development.
To promote broader systematic review awareness and skills, we are working with the Campbell Training and Development Coordinating Group, chaired by Jeff Valentine, to develop on‐line training. Hannah Rothstein and Howard White have graciously shared their knowledge and skills with the broad Organization and Management Studies community, providing training in several venues. Lack of awareness of systematic review methods and limited training in review methodologies are endemic in Business and Management. As part of the Center for Evidence‐Based Management, we have developed online training in evidence‐based management, now used in over 30 universities (https://cebma.org/resources-and-tools/course-modules/). Advancing systematic review training is the next step in priming the BMCG pump.
We hope to hear from you if you are interested in promoting, learning about, or conducting a Business and Management‐related systematic review (denise@cmu.edu).
REFERENCES
- Barends, E. , & Rousseau, D. M. (2018). Evidence‐based management: Making better organizational decisions, London: Kogan Page. [Google Scholar]
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