The development of management sciences/operational research discourses: surveying the trends in the US and the UK

This paper explores the trends in American and British management science/operational research (MS/OR) during the last 25 years. We argue that British MS/OR has developed a soft and systemic approach to MS/OR practice, which has resulted in the emergence of a number of interpretive and critical-oriented methodologies. American MS/OR practice has remained closed to the positivistic discourse. Using a set of keywords and authors’ names associated with the main features of the interpretive and critical MS discourses, we surveyed articles published in three major US MS/OR journals. We compare these results with trends in the UK MS/OR scene. Findings appear to confirm the different directions taken by the MS/OR practice across the Atlantic. The paper posits possible reasons underpinning these differences: firstly, the particular methodological path followed by the British MS/OR, from early ‘soft systems’ applications in the early 1970s to the now well-established ‘Problem Structuring Methods’; and secondly, continuous engagement between the systems and MS/OR British communities (a dialogue that seems not to have occurred in the US). The paper contributes to a reflection on the MS/OR historical developments and contrasts these developments in both countries, two areas of OR significantly under-researched.     

On the roles of OR/MS practitioners in supporting strategy

This paper presents an exploratory account of how Operational Research/Management Science (OR/MS) practitioners understand their role in supporting an organisational strategy process. The role of strategy support is characterised by five dimensions: the activities supported within the strategy process; the nature of support provided; the orientation of the support provided; the tools used in providing support; and the nature of the relationship between consultant and client. The research draws on case studies of four OR/MS practitioners working as internal and as external consultants. The work of the practitioners is mapped onto the framework and gaps are identified. The research proposes a further dimension, namely, ‘the purpose of the support provided’, and suggests four purposeful support roles adopted by practitioners in supporting strategy within organisations: sensemaking/sensegiving; decision support tool development; problem solving/solution exploration; and process facilitation. The paper concludes with suggestions for further research.     

Supporting the strategy process: a survey of UK OR/MS practitioners

This paper reports the results of an online survey conducted with practitioner members of the UK Operational Research (OR) Society. The purpose of the survey was to explore the current practice of supporting the strategy process in terms of activities supported and tools used. The results of the survey are compared to those of previous surveys to explore developments in, inter alia, the use of management/strategy tools and ‘soft’ Operational Research/Management Science (OR/MS) tools. The survey results demonstrate that OR practitioners actively support the strategy process within their organisations. While a wide variety of tools, drawn from the OR/MS and management/strategy fields, are used to support the strategy process within organisations, the findings suggest that soft OR/MS tools are not regularly used. The findings also demonstrate that tools are combined to support the strategy process from both within and across the OR/MS and management/strategy fields. The paper ends by identifying a number of areas for further research.     

Beyond a System of Systems Methodologies

This paper describes a research programme which used the idea that there is a ‘system of systems methodologies’ to analyse the relationship between OR and other systems-based, problem-solving approaches, and to relate different systems methodologies to appropriate problem-contexts. The results are promising for those who wish to broaden the theoretical basis of OR in order to extend its domain of effective application. Further progress, however, depends upon reconstituting the research programme on surer theoretical foundations. Unless this is done, both the potential of the original work and its initial intent risk being lost. It is now necessary to go beyond ‘a system of systems methodologies’ and to embed that work in an explicit proposal for a critical management science.     

Alternative statistical regression studies of the effects of Joint and Service Specific advertising on military recruitment

Three different regression approaches use a large database developed by the Wharton Center for Applied Research (WCAR) to study the effects of Joint versus Service Specific advertising on military recruitment. (Here ‘Joint’ refers to advertising designed to serve recruitment for all four services simultaneously. Service Specific refers to advertising administered separately by each of the four services.) These regression approaches and the data and models are examined with special reference to US Army recruitment. The WCAR study led to a recommendation to replace Service Specific with Joint advertising. This recommendation was called into question by the RAND Corporation in its study that used a different regression approach. A third study that combines regressions with data envelopment analysis (DEA) is presented in this paper. This study utilizes recently developed methods based on DEA which, when incorporated in the regression, make it possible to distinguish between efficient and inefficient performances. The resulting regression yields results that show Joint advertising to be not only less efficient but also to attract potential recruits from the Army to other services. Implications for further research are set forth, which can also cast light on commercial practice by regarding Joint as a type of ‘category advertising’ and Service Specific as a type of ‘brand advertising’.     

The use of multimethodology in practice—results of a survey of practitioners

There is now a vast range of techniques and methodologies, both hard and soft, available to the OR/MS practitioner. After a period of concern about methodology choice, ie ‘which method when’, we are now moving towards a pluralistic approach of combining together several methods within an intervention—multimethodology. This paper reports on a survey of OR/MS practitioners to discover the extent of multimethodology usage and which particular combinations are most commonly utilised.     

Some Methodologies for Community Operational Research

As experience of conducting community OR projects grows and learning accrues, new approaches will be developed offering guidance on how best to proceed in alleviating the problems of community organizations. In the interim, it is sensible to consider which, if any, among the existing OR and systems methodologies might prove useful for this kind of work. In this paper it is argued that there already exist, within what might be described as ‘enhanced OR’, a number of approaches which are suitable for guiding community OR practice. This is demonstrated by outlining some of these methodologies, giving examples of their use with community organizations and showing their particular strengths in the community context. Some conclusions are drawn about the community OR enterprise.     

The contribution of critical realism as an underpinning philosophy for OR/MS and systems

Many issues are under debate as to the philosophical nature of OR/MS: is it science or technology? Is it natural or social science? Can it be realist as well as being interpretivist? There are also many debates within the philosophy of science itself. This paper proposes that a particular account of the philosophy of science, known as ‘critical realism’, is especially suitable as an underpinning of OR/MS. The structure of the argument of this paper is to outline the main positions within the philosophy of science and highlight their problems, especially from the point of view of OR/MS; then to introduce critical realism and to show how it addresses these problems and how it is particularly appropriate for OR/MS; and finally to illustrate this by considering examples of various practical OR methods.     

Beyond methodology choice: critical systems thinking as critically systemic discourse

Professional competence in applied disciplines such as OR/MS requires both technical expertise and critically reflective skills. Yet, a widespread misconception has taken hold of the OR/MS community: ‘critical’ and ‘emancipatory’ systems methodologies are opposed to ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ ones as if they were sensible alternatives. Accordingly, adequate ‘methodology choice’ is now widely considered a key condition of reflective professional practice; critical systems thinking (CST) is understood to deal mainly with this issue. The present paper argues that this conception of CST is neither theoretically sound nor conducive to reflective practice. An examination of the two major current strands of CST suggests some basic requirements of an alternative conception: (1) Reflective practice depends more on a framework of critical argumentation and discourse than on a framework of methodology choice. (2) A well-conceived discursive systems approach will give a proper place to the public sphere. (3) The much-discussed emancipatory orientation of CST inheres in the methodological requirements of discourse rather than in an arbitrary ‘commitment’ on the part of the systems practitioner. (4) Systemic boundary critique—the methodological core concept of critical systems heuristics (CSH)—allows us to translate these requirements into practical methodology. (5) Contrary to present conceptions of methodological pluralism or ‘complementarism’, boundary critique must not be subordinated to methodology choice, for it is constitutive of all critical inquiry and practice. These considerations lead to a reconstitution of CST, and to a new view of reflective professional practice in general, as critically systemic discourse.     

On the Nature of OR — Entering the Fray

In 1980 a seminar of operational researchers and practitioners from a variety of different countries concluded that there was a remarkable consensus about the way that the process of operational research and systems analysis should be understood and practised. Since then the development of new methods has continued apace, stimulated by interaction with the social sciences and paradigms other than natural science. This paper enters the debate, started in this journal, about the nature of OR's status as science or technology. It recognizes the historic claims of science on OR, but it suggests that for ‘private’ consumption, technology will prove more fruitful, and for ‘public’ consumption practitioners will increasingly adopt the label ‘consultant’. Ackoff's original six-step method of OR is updated to reflect current OR practice. The process suggested acknowledges the importance of context, socio-political factors and the growing role of facilitation.     

Changed views on mathematical knowledge in the course of didactical theory development—independent corpus of scientific knowledge or result of social constructions?

The study tries to show one line of how the German didactical tradition has evolved in response to new theoretical ideas and new—empirical—research approaches in mathematics education. First, the classical mathematical didactics, notably ‘stoffdidaktik’ as one (besides other) specific German tradition are described. The critiques raised against ‘stoffdidaktik’ concepts [for example, forms of ‘progressive mathematisation’, ‘actively discovering learning processes’ and ‘guided reinvention’ (cf. Freudenthal, Wittmann)] changed the basic views on the roles that ‘mathematical knowledge’, ‘teacher’ and ‘student’ have to play in teaching–learning processes; this conceptual change was supported by empirical studies on the professional knowledge and activities of mathematics teachers [for example, empirical studies of teacher thinking (cf. Bromme)] and of students’ conceptions and misconceptions (for example, psychological research on students’ mathematical thinking). With the interpretative empirical research on everyday mathematical teaching–learning situations (for example, the work of the research group around Bauersfeld) a new research paradigm for mathematics education was constituted: the cultural system of mathematical interaction (for instance, in the classroom) between teacher and students.     

On Linking Approaches to Decision-Aiding: Issues and Prospects

This paper arises from some current attempts to being together several approaches designed to help decision-makers faced with complex, ‘messy’ problems. These include, inter alia, the strategic choice methodology, hypergame analysis and other game-based approaches, and methods making use of cognitive mapping.Some general issues pertinent to ‘linkage’ are discussed: differences in theoretical background between the approaches are noted, and some implications of these explored. With these in mind, a number of possible forms of linkage are suggested. Within this general framework, the paper discusses some specific pieces of work already done, and considers the prospects for further progress. Though it concentrates on work involving certain specific approaches, the issues raised are relevant to the linkage and/or classification of other decision-aiding methods.     

A survey of OR utilization in Greece

A recent survey concerning OR utilization in firms and public organizations in Greece showed a rather poor profile. The survey covered 20 big organizations including the National Defense General Staff, national enterprises of public utilities, banks and firms from the textile, cement, oil, construction and other industries. Only a few of these organizations are using OR to a significant degree. The rest reported ‘poor’ or ‘no’ use of OR.Research/implementation problems most frequently appearing in public sector organizations include lack of data, insufficient qualified personnel and unfavorable attitude towards cooperation by affected parties. In private firms, the need for quick solutions and the use of OR analysts in line functions quite often imply the use of a ‘rule of thumb’ rather than a mathematical OR technique. In addition, OR study results quite often do not get implemented. One of the reasons is resistance by the affected parties, considering any proposal for reorganization put forward by other parties as a threat.The use of OR has proven beneficial for the using firm or organization. These benefits, however, are not as great as one might expect, due to the problems mentioned above. The future growth of OR utilization in Greece will depend on developments concerning the education of managers in OR methods, creation of OR groups in firms that will seek solutions to real-world, worth-while problems, publicizing successful OR applications, active support by top management, reforms in the educational system etc. The real push for OR utilization in Greece will come from drastic changes in administrative practices, which are directly related to the socioeconomic developments in the country.     

The effects of exogenous variables in efficiency measurement—A monte carlo study

A Monte Carlo study is conducted to compare the stochastic frontier method and the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method in measuring efficiency in situations where firms are subject to the effects of factors which are beyond managerial control. In making efficiency measurements and comparisons, one must separate the effects of the environment (the exogenous factors) and the effects of the productive efficiency. There are two basic approaches to account for the effects of exogenous variables: (1) an one-step procedure which includes the exogenous variables directly in estimating the efficiency measures, and (2) a two-step procedure which first estimates the relative ‘gross’ efficiencies using inputs and outputs, then analyzes the effects of the exogenous variables on the ‘gross’ efficiency. The results show that the magnitude of exogenous variables does not appear to have any significant effect on the performance of the one-step stochastic frontier method as long as the exogenous variables are correctly identified and accounted for. However, the effects of exogenous variables are significant for the two-step approach, especially for the DEA methods.     

Allfinanz,bancassurance and the future of banking

The purpose with this paper is first to analyse the strategies of Allfinanz (Bancassurance) in Germany and then to investigate if the German banks have become more efficient during the period since Allfinanz was introduced. Two methods are used to analyse efficiency: ‘financial ratio analysis’ (FRA) and ‘data envelopment analysis’ (DEA). FRA is useful in studying the change in productivity. DEA generates, efficiency scores and alternative and more efficient combinations of banks.     

Recent Developments in Critical Management Science

For much of its history management science had a quantitative and technical emphasis. More recently, there has been a move towards more subjective approaches such as ‘soft OR’ and ‘soft systems’. Currently, there is interest in ‘critical management science’ drawing on critical theory, particularly the work of Habermas. This paper reviews developments in critical management science, in particular critiques of traditional and ‘soft’ management science; Jackson and Keys' system of systems methodology; critical management science methodologies and the problem of power in bringing about change; and the postmodernist critique.     

Innovative research in OR/MS?

This paper is a contribution to the continuing debate about research priorities and publications in OR/MS. It categorises research publications in several different ways. First it uses approaches suggested in the information systems and operations management literature. It then takes previous examinations of leading OR/MS journals to gain a different perspective on the same issues. Finally, it uses a multi-faceted view of OR/MS to try to capture its full richness. These analyses confirm the view that much published research in OR is unengaged and focuses on decision mathematics or optimisation, apparently for its own sake. That is, most papers published in the leading OR/MS journals take little or no account of how their findings might be used in practice, nor do they express much concern about this issue. The reasons for this state of affairs are discussed, so as to consider whether a change might be overdue.     

Strategic operational research

Operational researchers have been slow to define and claim a strategic role for operational research (OR). This article discusses the OR activities of a number of leading-edge organisations, and argues that in several instances these activities have sustained a competitive advantage over a significant period of time, and are seen as a ‘strategic asset’ to the parent corporation. Finally, it is argued that OR people should begin talking about OR as a strategic asset, and that recognition of this strategic role provides a vision of a very exciting future for OR.     

Rethinking tradeoffs and OR/MS methodology

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of a process known as the ‘evaporating cloud’ (EC) as a way of enhancing OR/MS modelling. While other authors have described the use of the EC process to explore the tradeoffs in a traditional Economic Order Quantity model, this paper demonstrates the use of the EC with a facilities location problem, which was originally solved via mixed integer programming. We relate our findings to OR/MS modelling in general, and argue that the EC could contribute effectively to different phases of the problem-solving process, for example, aiding the problem-structuring phase and helping to find better solutions in many OR/MS modelling situations. We demonstrate that the EC is a valuable tool to use in modelling practice as a problem-structuring tool, as a way of dealing specifically with tradeoffs, and that it can therefore be a useful complement to OR/MS methodology, and contribute to OR/MS practice and teaching.     

Finding common weights based on the DM's preference information

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is basically a linear programming-based technique used for measuring the relative performance of organizational units, referred to as Decision Making Units (DMUs). The flexibility in selecting the weights in standard DEA models deters the comparison among DMUs on a common base. Moreover, these weights are not suitable to measure the preferences of a decision maker (DM). For dealing with the first difficulty, the concept of common weights was proposed in the DEA literature. But, none of the common weights approaches address the second difficulty. This paper proposes an alternative approach that we term as ‘preference common weights’, which is both practical and intellectually consistent with the DEA philosophy. To do this, we introduce a multiple objective linear programming model in which objective functions are input/output variables subject to the constraints similar to the equations that define production possibility set of standard DEA models. Then by using the Zionts–Wallenius method, we can generate common weights as the DM's underlying value structure about objective functions.