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The development of management sciences/ operational research discourses: surveying the trends in the US and the UK.
- Source :
- Journal of the Operational Research Society; Aug2011, Vol. 62 Issue 8, p1452-1470, 19p
- Publication Year :
- 2011
-
Abstract
- 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- MANAGEMENT science
OPERATIONS research
COMPUTER software development
PERIODICALS
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 01605682
- Volume :
- 62
- Issue :
- 8
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Journal of the Operational Research Society
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 61460818
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1057/jors.2010.109