Operational Research and the Social Sciences

Twenty five years ago, in 1964, The Operational Research Society's first International Conference (held at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge) took as its theme "Operational Research and the Social Sciences". The Conference sessions were organised around topics such as: Organisations and Control; Social Effects of Policies; Conflict Resolution; The Systems Concept; Models, Decisions and Operational Research. An examination of the published proceedings (J.R.Lawrence ed., 1966, Operational Research and the Social Sciences, Tavistock, London) reveals a distinct contrast between the types of contribution made by the representatives of the two academic communities involved. Nevertheless, the Conference served to break down some barriers, largely of ignorance about the objects, methods and findings of each concern. In the ensuing twenty five years, although debate has continued about the relationship between OR and the social sciences, mutual understanding has proved more difficult to achieve than many must have hoped for in 1964.

O.R. and the Social Sciences Plenary Sessions.- A Behavioural Science Perspective on Operational Research Practice.- An Operational Researcher Looks at the Social Sciences.- On Flexibility and Freedom.- O.R. and Social Science: Fundamental Thoughts.- Operational Research as Negotiation.- The Visibility of Social Systems.- Post Modernism: Threat or Opportunity.- O.R. as a Problem Situation: From Soft Systems Methodology to Critical Science.- Critical Heuristics of Social Systems Design.- O.R.: Social Science or Barbarism?.- On Technical, Pragmatic and Ethical Action. A Challenge for O.R.?.- O.R. as a Social Science.- Social Sciences for O.R. — An Overview.- O.R. Images in Organisation Theory: A Critique.- Social Science and O.R.Technology.- O.R. — Technology.- Auto-reflexive Algondonic Looping of PedagogicOperational Research.- O.R. and Social Sciences: A Story of On-Off Relationships.- The Total Organisational System (TOS): Why Operational Research and the Social Sciences Cannot Match.- O.R., the Social Sciences and Policy-Making in a Network of Professions.- Effectiveness Versus Efficiency: Operations Research in a New Light.- Methodology.- Dualism in Social Theory and Systems Practice.- A Scientific Approach to Methodology.- The Application of the Theory of Directed Graphs in the Social Sciences.- Applying the Data Dictionary Concept to Models of Social and Industrial Systems.- Participation, Productivity and Stability: Experiments on Fair Democratic Income Policy Decisions.- Institutions and Intelligent Systems.- Limitations of Managerial Communication Research: No Significantly Different Methods Explore Status and Sex of Managers.- Poverty and Non-Farm Employment in LDCs.- Systems and O.R..- Methodologies for Messes.- “What a Mess!” The Case of the Necessary Myth.- On the Concept of Mess.- The Limits to Human Organisation: The Emergence of Autopoietic Systems.- From Measurement and Control to Learning and Redirection: Using ’Soft’ Systems Thinking in the Evaluation of Human Action.- Is Speaking Man an Ethical Creature?.- Invention of “Master System” as Distinct from Expert System — Its Superior Role in the Perspective of the Computer Evolution.- The Social System of National Health Care.- Optimal Location of School Facilities.- Intervention and Change.- Firm Specific Knowledges: Their Critical Scrutiny.- Intervention and Change Process. Interaction between Communication and Formalisation.- The Challenge of the New Organisation.- Project Based Work Groups and the Organisation.- New Paradigm Research as Part of a Holistic Production Planning and Control System For a Carpet Manufacturing Firm in Scotland.- Production Planning Systems for Corporations with Separated and Competing Production Units.- Operational Research and Production Management: The Case of OPT.- A Framework for the Design of Effective Structures for Organisations Facing Rapid Technological Change.- How Intervention Procedures May Be Related to Different Kinds of Change.- Changing Social Change.- Design and Planning.- Planning as Responsible Scheming.- An Application of Utility Function Theory to Large-Scale Public Decision Problem.- Decision Analysis Models as a Framework for Policy Dialogue.- Computer Supported Decision Making System in the Preliminary Design.- Pragmatic Structures for Social Interaction.- Operationl Research in Organisational Design with Special Reference to Design of Public Sector Organisations in Developing Economies.- Information Systems.- Role Analysis in Information Systems Development.- Information Systems Evaluation: Understanding Subjective Assessments.- Evaluation of Information Systems: A Case Study of a Manufacturing Organisation.- The Organisation as an Information System.- The Formation of IS Strategy: A Case Study of a Building Society.- An Artificial Intelligence Approach to Building A Process Model of Management Policy Making.- Information Systems and Operational Research.- Operational Research Applications in Information System Design.- A Structuring Approach in Designing Information Systems Environments.- O.R. and Rule-Based Expert Systems.- Problems of Measurement.- Practical Issues in Planning: A Case of Methodology.- Toward a Stakeholder Paradigm in Corporate Productivity Measurement and Analysis.- Assessing Economic Inequality.- Optimal Scaling for Ordered Categories.- Modelling Social Behaviour.- Cognitive Mapping as Conceptual Modelling.- Modelling Social Behaviour in Management Education.- Qualitative and Quantitative Models of Social Behaviour with Respect to Health Promotion and Waste Disposal.- A Formal Representation of Interorganisational Interactions for Public Decisions.- Thank You for Not Smoking: Simulating the Growth of a New Social Norm.- On Leadership and Effective Control in Police Forces.- Morality and Moral Behavior: A Study on Operationally.- An Experimental Investigation of Subjective Discount Rates.- Power, Conflict and Control.- Domination: Strategic Premise Setting as Ideological Instrument.- Conflict and Consensus: Ethical Operational Research.- Threats to Innovation; Roadblocks to Implementation: The Politics of the Productive Process.- Waste Management Planning in an English County: A Case Study of O.R. in Action.- Conflict Management in Cooperative Games: Searching for Consensus and Covergence.- Conflict Resolution in Group Decision Making: A Rule-Based Approach to Analysis and Support.- O.R. and the Decision Maker.- Managing the O.R. — Management Interface.- Psychological Aspects of Forecasting with Statistical Methods.- The Use of Philosophy and Psychology by the Operational Research Analyst in Influencing the Decision-maker.- Behavioural decision Theory and Operational Research.- Problem-Perceptions as “Real” Decision-Inputs: A Case-Study in Managerial Decision-Making.- The Use of Probability Axioms for Evaluating and Improving Forecasts.- Models and Executive Decision Makers.- A Synthesis of Descriptive and Prescriptive Models for Decision Making.- Work.- Quality of Working Life and Organisational Effectiveness.- Career Planning and Management.- Routinisation of Work and the Quality of Working Life: A Study Among Canadian Nurses.- Operational Research and Project Control in the Computer Industry.- Post-Industrial Society.- Ideas on a Meaning-Generating Work and a Self-Reflecting Social Science.- Post-Industrialism, Post Modernity and O.R.: Toward a ’Custom and Practice’ of Responsibility and Possibility.- Play and Organisations.- As if it Mattered Anyway….A Requiem and Overture for Operational Research.- Author Index.