Keeping knowledgeable: how NHS chief executive officers mobilise knowledge and information in their daily work

Background: Evidence-based practice has permeated professional life as a normative ideal. The resulting movement of 'evidence-based management' is premised on assumed positive consequences of managers making organisational decisions informed by research, rather than by personal experience alone. However, we know little about how health-care managers engage with information and knowledge in practice, especially at the highest level.