Cooperation between strands of practice: challenges and opportunities for the renewal of OR

Collaboration between OR groups following different ‘strands of practice’, namely adhering to different ways of conducting OR practice, is difficult. We demonstrate the existence of this problem in two contexts. Firstly, we found several different strands of practice within an independent, entrepreneurial OR firm. Though these strands had the potential to be highly complementary, their co-existence within one firm led to serious tensions and their potential synergy has not yet been realised. When the independent OR firm achieved successful renewal by transforming one of their strands of practice into a new approach to projects, this very success created a new set of competitive challenges. Secondly, an independent OR consulting firm working with a client's internal research group found that the latter's approach conflicted with its own, resulting in an unsuccessful project. We conclude that the ‘micro-level’ problems of collaboration between individual practitioners and between groups, though largely neglected in the OR literature, can be serious impediments to success and renewal of OR practice.     

Operational research and critical systems thinking—an integrated perspective

On the basis of a review of the role of systems thinking in the history of OR, Part 1 of this essay proposed a systematic understanding of OR as applied systems thinking. Further, it identified the contribution of ‘critical’ systems thinking (CST) in a combined ability of its two strands, critical systems heuristics (CSH) and total systems intervention (TSI), to enhance the conceptual sophistication of OR. Part 2 aims to translate this understanding into a framework for good professional practice. How exactly can CST strengthen the competence profile of OR professionals? Drawing on three experience-based archetypes of professional service and some basic argumentation-theoretical considerations, a new understanding of OR and applied systems thinking as argumentative practice emerges. In this new understanding CST finds a systematic place and some exemplary uses of CSH and TSI can be located—an integrated perspective.     

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.     

The role of OR in shaping the future: smart bits,helpful ways and things that matter

This paper attempts to set out a personal view of the future of OR in the UK. Against a context of a changing political, economic, social and technical environment those areas where OR can contribute are identified. Three areas are selected and illustrated with examples from personal experience. Firstly, in a world awash with data, the smart bits, the algorithms are often primitive. OR is successfully established in this area and can maintain itself as the pre-eminent provider of smart bits. Secondly, OR has developed helpful ways, consulting approaches, to guide successful interventions. Here OR competes with other professional groups. OR has developed unique approaches but will need to contest the ground, vigorously and with imagination. Thirdly, OR can contribute to things that matter, important strategic, political and social issues of the day. OR will have no automatic right to be heard. The contribution will depend on the motivation and skill of key individuals. The recent trend away from in-house OR groups to external consultancies and small firms provides OR with the opportunity to become the discipline that underpins consultancy, offering exciting opportunities for young academics and practitioners.     

Policy analytics need more than a spreadsheet: a case study in funding formulae

This article presents two case studies, concerning the allocation of £Billions by a mechanism communicated via spreadsheet models. It argues that technical analytic skills as well as policy development skills are a vital component of governance. In the UK, Central Government uses funding formulae to distribute money to local service providers. One commonly stated goal of such formulae is equity of service provision. However, given the complexity of public services, together with variations in need, delivery style and the exercise of stakeholder judgement as to which needs should be met and how, such formulae frequently obscure the process by which equity has been taken into account. One policy ‘solution’ to managing such tensions is to seek ‘transparency’. With respect to funding formulae, this commonly involves publishing the underlying data and formulae in spreadsheets. This paper extends the argument that such ‘transparency’ requires an audience that understands the policy assumptions (and related conceptualisations), data sources, methodological approaches and interpretation of results. It demonstrates how the search for policy ‘transparency’ is also met by the technical quality assurance goals that the operational research community would recognise as best practice in the development both of software generally and spreadsheet models specifically. Illustrative examples of complex formulae acting to subvert equity are drawn from the English Fire and Rescue Service and Police Service allocation formulae. In the former, an increase in the amount of deprivation, as measured by one of six indicators, has the perverse effect of decreasing the financial allocation. In the latter, metropolitan areas such as London are found to gain most from the inclusion of variables measuring sparsity. The conclusion from these scenarios is that the steps needed to for technical quality assurance and policy transparency are mutually reinforcing goals, with policy analysts urged to make greater use of technical analytic skills in software development.     

Frameworks of Inquiry: OR Practice Across the Hard—Soft Divide

The growing interest in understanding the practice of OR has, not unnaturally, tended to concentrate upon experience with those ‘soft’ methodologies which address both process and content management issues. This paper uses a detailed account of one practitioner's work in a ‘traditional’ area of OR (linear programming) to demonstrate how process-related issues are handled there, and argues that more extensive reporting of such conventional practice is essential for the health of the discipline. In particular, it suggests that an emphasis on discussing the development of working relationships between OR practitioners and their clients might usefully supplant the contemporary emphasis on the ‘project’.     

Information in the operations research process

The article deals with information in the OR process. The value of an ‘optimal’ model solution which is not implemented is not very high. Many errors are due to a too narrow formulation of the problem, often a formulation which has focused on purely technical and economic aspects, or a formulation which has been adapted for a standard model. The concepts and models treated in the article take their point of departure in the actual problem. The models can be used as a frame of reference by various individuals and groups which are involved in OR work.     

The Future of Operational Research is Past

After a brief discussion of the diagnoses of others of OR's ailments, a detailed examination is made of the impacts of academic OR on its practice. These impacts include the dispersion of OR in organizations, the displacement of OR workers, and the dissolution of its interdisciplinarity. Then the changes in OR's environment which should have evoked adaptive responses from it, but didn't, are considered. The increasing inappropriateness of OR's methodology is discussed by focusing on the deficiencies of its concept and practice of optimization, and its pursuit of objectivity. These deficiencies, it is argued, can only be overcome by a comprehensive reconceptualization of the field, its methodology, the way it is practised, and the way students are educated to practise it.     

Evaluating soft OR: some reflections on an apparently ‘unsuccessful’ implementation using a Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) based approach

This paper reflects on a case study in which a soft OR problem structuring approach, based on Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), was used to help in the design of an information system for health service users providing care in the community in a part of the South and West Health Region in the UK. The paper reflects on why an apparently ‘successful’ structuring led to an apparently ‘unsuccessful’ implementation. As part of this reflective process, the paper makes a contribution to the soft OR literature by reviewing some of the approaches taken in the literature to the evaluation of success of problem structuring using soft OR. This review reveals a lack of evaluative criteria, a lack of clarity over the identification of users, and a failure to differentiate criteria associated with ‘structuring’ and ‘implementation’ issues. An evaluative framework is proposed, which is applied retrospectively to the case study.     

Teaching real-life OR to MSc students

The nature of the ‘messiness’ of the real projects in which we are involved determines how our OR practice proceeds. In order to train the future generation of Operational Researchers, we need to prepare them with the skills to deal with this messiness. The teachers themselves firstly must have these skills and have fresh experience of using them. This paper discusses the synergies to be experienced between teaching, consulting, research and in-company training. These abilities then need to be passed on to the students. Technique training provides an important tool-kit but the key skills have to be learned through guided experiential learning, with the learning loop closed by guided reflection (fostered and aided by mentors).     

Writing practitioner case studies to help behavioural OR researchers ground their theories: application of the mangle perspective

Behavioural research into the practice of OR needs to be grounded. Case studies written by practitioners can potentially help address this need but currently most do not. The paper explores a way of describing OR projects that place the emphasis on the ‘actors’ who provide the motivating force and the consequences of their actions. The ‘mangle’ perspective focuses on the dynamic intertwining of people, technology and concepts; this can provide the basis for an insightful narrative describing the reality of the project in terms of the planned approach, the problems met and the outcomes. Two examples are given, one of a conventional model building exercise, the second of a ‘soft OR’ intervention: both describe projects conducted by practitioners for commercial purposes. It is concluded that, by using the mangle perspective, the OR case writer can winnow the wheat from the chaff in order to write a succinct informative narrative, a narrative that could be utilized by behavioural OR (BOR) researchers. It is further concluded that BOR researchers should engage with ‘practice theory’ to deepen their understanding of what actually happens in projects.     

Supporting strategic conversations: the significance of a quantitative model building process

This paper reports on the use of a quantitative system dynamics simulation model building process that followed on from a ‘soft OR’ strategy making intervention with a top management team. The work was carried out for the Chief Constable and top team of a UK police force. The output of the ‘soft OR’ strategy making process provided the reason for, and so focus of, the simulation model. The focus of the strategic conversation was on exploring the tension between the supply of resources (in this case police officers) and the demands placed on those officers. The project involved a series of strategic conversations with members of the top team that were stimulated through the process of building a system dynamics model. The process was facilitated by two modellers—one focussing on managing the strategic enquiry, while the other considered the implications of the conversation for the construction of the system dynamics model. Through the process of gradually building the system dynamics model, a number of issues and lessons were raised for the development and delivery of effective strategy making and the strategic management of public organisations. In addition there were implications for operational research model building processes, especially when operating at senior levels and within a strategic context.     

Success and survival—a comment

It is proposed that consideration of the prospects for operational research should pay attention to changes, actual or projected, in the material base of its potential users. These include the IT revolution, the global restructuring of labour, de-layered management, smaller more autonomous business units, and privatisation of public services. It is argued that these developments have eroded OR's traditional institutional base, and are likely to continue to do so. Opportunities for offsetting gains are suggested in the areas of strategic analysis and of interaction support, both resting on the exploitation of participatory analytic methods. The ‘third’ or voluntary sector might also prove to have growth potential. Threats to the occupational cohesion and culture of OR are identified, together with some possible remedies.     

Beyond internal OR groups

The paper reviews the prospects of OR applied by dispersed practitioners, small providers of OR services, academics and OR consultants, in other words OR applied by those not located inside internal OR groups. Many in the UK have regarded the activities of OR groups as the defining practice of our profession. The Survival and Success of OR Groups (SSOR) study indicates that within a fairly stable population of OR practitioners the number of internal OR groups is in decline while the number of external, consulting groups is growing. There are good reasons in terms of the diffusion of innovation for assuming that this trend will continue. Against that possibility, the OR profession in the UK needs to reassess the defining aspects of OR and the implications for the activities of the profession in the future. Using the language of strategy, the profession needs to identify its core competencies, define how they are distinctive, consider how they can be developed and maintained, and determine through which channels they can be delivered. One of the key battlegrounds is within the management consultancies where the competing approaches of management science and organisational development vie for supremacy.     

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.     

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.     

The OR worker in practice

The experience of OR workers ‘in the field’ are compared with Eilon's archetypes of OR workers. Being a change agent may be desirable for the OR worker and for the status of his/her profession, in practice it is hard to achieve because it implies sharing power with management.