Quality managers make quality decisions. The manager must take into account the likely consequences of decisions when choosing the best course of action. As the manager of Imagine Nation, a clinic that specializes in going to facilities and working with Medicaid covered clients. Our government grants have been cut by 15% and as a manager must decide how to best manage with a reduced budget Rundall, Martelli, and Arroyo (2007) developed a tool called the “Informed Decisions Toolbox.” They suggest that using this toolbox will help make better decisions. The toolbox emphasizes evidence-informed management decisions. By gathering and examining the best available evidence, any manager will be able to make an informed, knowledge- based decision. The Informed Decisions Toolbox involves six steps. An informed decision may involve any of these six steps. The six steps include framing the question, finding sources of information, assessing the accuracy of the evidence, assessing the applicability of the evidence, assessing the “action ability” of the evidence, and determining if the information is adequate Rundall, Martelli, and Arroyo (2007).
Though I may use parts of all these tools, the tool that as a manager would find most important is assessing the applicability of the evidence. In determining how best to deal with a 15% budget cut, as the manager must do research relevant to the problem at hand. According to Rundall, Martelli, and Arroyo (2007) “The barriers to the use of research evidence by managers include time pressures, perceived threats to autonomy, the preference for colloquial knowledge based on individual experiences, difficulty accessing the relevant evidence base, reliance on external consultants and others to determine the quality of the information, and lack of resources” (p. 325). Even though as the manager prefer colloquial knowledge based on