MANAGEMENT SCIENCE AND RESEARCH IN GREAT BRITAIN.

This paper is divided into three parts. In the first part, the present stage of development of management science in the United Kingdom is briefly discussed; in the second part are given a few "case histories," stressing the methodology; the third part discusses a few recent features of management science in the United Kingdom which seem to be interesting. Management science in the United Kingdom grew out of the military uses of operational research on the one hand, and psychological techniques applied to problems in personnel selection and related fields on the other. This historical background has influenced the way in which management science has progressed. One of the major problems in the United Kingdom at present is, I think, to find optimum conditions for creative work in applied sciences. In the United Kingdom there has been less experience of the research team than in the U.S.A. Often, top administration attempts to fit management research into the traditional hierarchy, with a resultant authoritarian structure. Also, it is rare in the United Kingdom to find a sociologist in a management research unit. This may be due to the nature of the development of management sciences or it may be due to some features of the British schools of sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]