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Problem-Solving Trends in Management Science

Author(s): S. Benjamin PrasadSource: Management Science, Vol. 13, No. 2, Series C, Bulletin (Oct., 1966), pp. C10-C16Published by: INFORMSStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2627633

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MANAGEMENT SCIENCEVol. 13, No. 2, October, 1966Printed in U.S.A.

PROBLEM-SOLVINGTRENDS INMANAGEMENTSCIENCE

S. Benjamin Prasad*The Institute of Management Sciences (TIMS) is an internationalsociety to identify, extend, and unify scientific knowledge pertaining to man-agement. The articles published in the journal Management Science provide

a semi-official record of the pertinent problems which confront managers andwhich have drawn the attention of management scientists. By examiningthese problems, it was assumed, that it would be possible to determine ifdefinite problem-solving trends have been taking place in the field of "man-agement science."The purpose of this paper is to present data and some interpretationrelating to (a) the classes of problems in general, (b) as they relate to specificbusiness functional areas, and (c) the management science techniques em-ployed to solve the problems.The presentation is based upon a content analysis of 354 articles publishedin Management Science, January 1955 through September 1964, upon theclasses of 0. R. problems suggested by Professor Russell Ackoff in his Man-ager's Guide to Operations Research. Data presented in this analysis suggestthat the majority of problems were those concerned with allocation in theproduction functional area and that linear programming was the most widelyused technique. At the end of the paper it is suggested that "managementscience" is still evolving, and has a long way to go if it should emerge as ascience concerned with (top) managerial problems in industrialized anddeveloping countries.Management science is a term that is often associated or otherwise con-nected with the scientific rnethod and its application in the area of businessactivities. Here this term and operations research are used synonymously. Inthe minds of some scientists, questions such as, "Is there a science of manage-ment?", "Is management an art, a science, or a combination of both?" do arise,and literature on scientific business contains ample expressions of one'sopinions regarding these. For purposes of this study, it was assumed that

*Associate Professor, Management Department, College of Business Administration, Univer-sity of Nevada, Reno, Nevada.Professor Prasad is the author of several papers on management and is currently preparingtwo books for publication in 1967. The first of these, "Management in International Per-spective," will be published by Appleton-Century, New York. The second, "Modern In-dustrial Management," will be published by Chandler Publishing Company, San Francisco.Prasad received the M.B.A. degree from Marquette University in 1958. He was awardedthe Ph.D. degree in Management by the University of Wisconsin in 1963.C-10 BULLETIN Section Management Science

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there is such a thing as management science. The question with which thisinquiry is concerned is, "What has been the trend of problems dealt with,analyzed, researched, and published in a journal such as Management Science?"Although the pioneers in this field have repeatedly said that managementscience is more than a set of techniques, that it is a philosophy embodyingrefined scientific methods and that it follows a systematic approach, until nowthere was no attempt made to find out to what extent management science isevolving in that direction. One feasible way of doing so was to follow ataxonomic approach. A limited attempt is made in this paper to review andclassify some 354 papers with a view to determining what problem-solvingtrends have taken place, and what kind of reinforcements do these trends pro-vide for the claims of "management science."

Method Of AnalysisThe ten-year period from January 1955 through September 1964 wasselected for this study. All articles published in the 39 issues of ManagementScience were reviewed and analyzed. All the articles were classified into sixmajor areas.Area I consisted of the classification of the problem. Here Russell Ackoff'seight classes of operational research problems were used. These were inventory,allocation, queuing, sequencing, routing, replacement, competition, andsearch.Area IT consisted of the business functiornal areas. Here six businessfunctional areas were delineated. They were purchasing, production, market-ing, research and development, personnel, finance and accounting.Area III consisted of the managerial functional areas. Following the"process school" the areas were identified as planning, organizing, staffing,directing, coordinating, and controlling. Although most of the papers wereconcerned with planning it was deemed usefuil to take into account the endresult of each of the papers and to classify them according to the managerialfunctional areas.Area IV was concerned with the approach to the problem taken by theauthor. These approaches were defined as the specific technique or techniquesemployed. The techniques were identified as linear programming, dynamic

programmning,simulation, game theory, statistical, behavioral science, anddescriptive.Area V covered the recommendations which the author put forth in hisarticle to solve the problem. The major types of recommendations were iden-tified as use of new equipment, new procedures, training, reorganizing, etc.These recommendations called for some managerial action. In other cases rec-ommendations were either implicit or of the mathematical solution typerecommendations.Area VI dealt w'ith the nationality and affiliation of the author. By thisdefinition, authors were divided into two classifications: American and other.The term nationality is used in a loose sense here. The affiliation of theauthor meant whether he was in the business world as a manager, scientist,mathematician, or whether he was in the academic world as a faculty memberin an institution of higher learning. There is some possibility of overlappingOctober 1966 C-11

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in this area as some of the academic authors have had previous experiencein the business world, and many previous management people are nowconnected with institutions of higher learning.Data and Interpretation

At the outset it was pointed out that the 354 articles, which were stub-jected to scrutiny, were classified according to the six areas which were con-sidered significant in delineating the trends. Thus the following six tablesrepresent each of these areas.Data in Table I show that the preponderence of the problems (40%)were those concerned with allocation of resources. This type of problemshowed a steady rise from 1955 until 1958, then a levelling off to 1963, andthen a rapid increase in 1964. Although the allocation problem might belisted as a catch-all, there is no indication that any one particular typeof the allocation problem was more important than another. Inventoryproblems, which include both material and human resources, were alsoprominent, representing 21%COf all problems discussed. The other seventypes of management science problem were more or less on the same level ofimportance among the total papers.

TABLE IFrequiency of Problem Areas Dealt with, 1955-1964.

Year Ackoff's classification

1955 10 7 2 2 0 1 2 0 4 281956 10 11 2 3 2 3 1 1 4 371957 4 17 0 1 0 1 1 2 0 271958 5 18 1 3 1 0 2 2 0 321959 8 15 3 3 3 1 1 1 5 401960 7 12 1 2 0 2 1 1 0 261961 9 15 1 3 0 0 3 3 0 321962 7 11 3 2 0 4 0 1 12 401963 7 10 4 3 4 6 1 0 13 481964* 5 26 1 2 1 0 3 6 0 44Totals 72 142 18 22 11 18 15 17 38 354*Throuigh the September issue only.C-12 BULLETIN Section Management Science

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Table II provides data on the business functional areas. In this area thepreponderance of papers are concerned with production problems. It appearsthat research in this area followed a saw tooth pattern; periodically risingand falling. The area of purchasing was second with a steady emphasis until1963, followed by a definite decline. Marketing (15%) held a fairly steadyposition until 1963 when it increased in importance considerably. Personnelheld the last position that was considered significant from the point of viewof frequency (11%) .

TABLE 11Frequency of Business Functional Areas, 1955-1964.

o Y- 0~~~~~~

1955 4 5 7 2 6 3 4 0 0 0 311956 4 10 11 3 3 2 3 0 0 0 361957 1 13 0 1 4 1 5 0 2 0 271958 13 2 0 5 0 8 1 3 0 0 321959 7 5 8 1 8 2 4 1 0 0 361960 5 102 4 2 0 1 2 0 0 0 261961 3 7 2 2 5 2 3 1 6 I 321962 9 11 3 4 4 6 0 6 0 0 431963 19 25 9 5 10 6 8 1 0 0 831964 4 14 7 1 2 2 9 0 4 1 44Total 69 104 51 26 42 33 39 12 12 2 390**This is greater than 354 because 36 papers had dual classification.

In the managerial functional areas, the preponderance of the articlesare concerned with planning. (37%). Activity during the ten year spanwas fairly constant with no peaks or valleys. Coordination also received agreat deal of emphasis (25%). So did the area of controlling. As can be seenfrom Table III, organizing and staffing were relatively insignificant in termsof coverage, during that period.In the area of management science or operational research type tech-niques, linear programming appeared to be the most widely used technique.However, from the data in Table IV, it could be noted that linear program-ming had remained fairly constant until 1962 after which there was a declinein this and an increase in "simulation". Dynamic programming also experi-enced a dramatic rise during 1962 and 1963. Of course, the descriptiveapproach, which made use of no problem-solving technique, could still befound in management science literature, but by no means at a significantlevel (11 %) .October 1966 C-13

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TABLE IIIFrequency of Managerial Functions, 1955-1964.

.~~~~~~~~ba

1959 10 0 7 .7 3196 13 H1955 9 0 3 0 8 5 251956 10 2 5 1 8 9 351957 12 1 1 2 1 10 271958 18 2 1 1 4 6 321959 10 0 7 0 17 5 391960 13 3 0 2 1 7 261961 16 2 0 3 1 10 321962 14 0 3 1 18 8 441963 16 0 7 0 24 9 561964 15 2 2 0 9 16 44Totals 133 12 29 10 91 85 360**This is greater than 354 because six papers had dual classification.

Since a large number of problems dealt with in these papers were trans-lated into mathematical form as models, 51% of the authors came up with andrecommended mathematical solutions. However, from the point of view ofmanagerial functional approaches, as can be seen from Table V, variousrecommendations, such as new procedures, new marketing methods, andreorganizing, were made.With respect to the "nationality" and affiliation of the authors, as TableVI shows, the majority of writers (881%)were from the United States, althoughwriters from other countries have been contributing increasingly since 1958.Of the total number of writers, about 60% were serving in an academiccapacity at the time of writing the article. After 1960 there is an indicationthat more and more of the academic people have been writing on manage-ment science problems.

Concluding RemarksProfessor C. West Churchman, speaking before the first national meetingof The Institute of Management Sciences (October 21-22, 1954), stressedtwo paramount factors about "management science." These were: (a) thatwe must keep alive all present philosophies of management science that have

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TABLE IVFrequency of Management Science Techniques, 1955-1964.

beCZ

._ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ctCu b4 iC~~~~c C; - 9S~~ ~ ~~ ~ ~~~u-

1955 12 6 3 3 6 0 I2 0 321956 15 8 2 3 3 1 2 0 341957 10 2 6 5 0 2 2 0 271958 12 1 12 4 2 1 3 1 361959 16 9 8 2 3 0 3 1 421960 7 3 15 5 1 0 0 0 311961 8 1 19 6 2 0 0 1 371962 15 14 6 1 4 1 3 3 471963 12 18 14 6 4 1 2 3 601964 5 7 26 8 1 1 0 1 49Totals 112 69 111 43 26 7 17 10 395*

This is greater than 354 because 41 papers had employed more than one of the abovetechniques.

promise for a better future science, and (2) Management Science is committedto the conviction that all these philosophies should be given expression in itspages, no matter what the origin of the writer may be, mathematician, physi-cist, social scientist, biologist, engineer, manager, non-manager, or philosopher.Data presented in the Tables I to VI do strongly indicate that Manage-ment Science has given expression to all of the philosophies of management.However, it may be worthwhile to ponder the following issues.Although no one can deny the importance of the business functional areaproduction, other areas are all of equal significance for a business or otherenterprise. Some areas such as personnel are difficult areas to deal with andquantify variables, however, a difficult area poses challenges. From a mana-gerial point of view, organizing, staffing, and directing are concerned withpeople and similar challenges need to be met here. Also, very little effort ismanifested in these studies so far as significant problems of developing coun-tries are concerned.

AcknowledgmentsAcknowledgment is given for the computational work of two M.B.A. students, Ralph Beards-ley and Willard Behm under the guidance of the author.October 1966 C-15

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TABLE VFrequency of Recommendations toSolve a Management Science Typeof Problem, 1955-1964.

0

0 b1

0 oH H~~~01955 2 12 9 0 9 1 331956 3 11 5 1 10 1 311957 2 8 0 1 12 4 271958 3 9 1 2 13 4 321959 0 11 8 4 17 0 401960 1 9 0 0 17 1 281961 4 5 0 1 21 2 331962 8 5 4 3 20 1 411963 9 0 3 1 32 1 461964 2 6 0 0 32 6 46Totals 34 76 30 13 183 21 357*

*Three papers contained more than one recommendation.TABLE VI

Nationality and Affiliation of theAuthors, 1955-1964.

0

1955 37 1 38 12 261956 28 2 30 15 151957 25 2 27 16 111958 31 1 32 12 201959 35 5 40 18 221960 19 7 26 14 121961 28 4 32 7 251962 26 7 33 9 241963 44 8 52 16 361964 39 5 44 13 31Totals 312 42 354 132 222

C-16 BULLETIN Section Management Science