Future Directions of Management Science and Operations Management in Business School Curricula

The fields of Management Science (MS) and Operations Management (OM) have co-existed in business school curricula for over a half century. This paper examines five trends that point toward a bright future for Operations Management in the business curriculum. These trends include an increasing emphasis on global competition, the growth of the supply chain as a competitive weapon, more participation from the Operations function in formulating business strategies, the continued dominance of the service sector over the manufacturing sector in developed economies, and increasing demand for general management skills over technical skills for business school graduates. The de-emphasis on technical skills and the fact that MS techniques have been subsumed into other functional areas indicates that the future of Management Science in the business curriculum may not be as bright.