The role of operational research in organizational decision making

An increase in the complexity of modern organisations and their interactions with the environment and each other has lead to a corresponding increase in the complexity of the organizational decision making process and the various factors on which decisions need to be based. Although there is currently much debate amongst both OR academics and practitioners as to how OR should respond to this increase in complexity the public manifestations of this debate have been confined largely to academics talking to each other.This paper is intended to contribute to a rectification of this situation by indicating how OR is currently used in one particular large, bureaucratic, high technology organization, and how it is spontaneously evolving to meet the demands of increased complexity. This discussion is based on an empirical study, and on experience of the author of OR in this and other similar organizations.It is concluded that very few major decisions appear to be directly influenced by OR studies although the latter are frequently used in a ‘justification’ role to support decisions already taken. An increase in awareness is however becoming apparent of the many indirect benefits that may accrue to the organization from the OR process. The nature of these indirect benefits and the ways in which they might be increased are discussed.