The Management Science of the Management Sciences

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Abstract
This paper questions the present allocation of research effort in management science: the extensive concern with "technical" and computational intricacies and the relative neglect of the subject's overall intellectual structure. We argue that management science is in danger of stagnating in a technical morass and we illustrate this point by using the current editorial practices of the journal Management Science and the college structure of The Institute of Management Science (TIMS). The reluctance to challenge and question the "departments" of knowledge underlying management science ensures that certain issues are precluded from academic discussion. These include the nature of the subject's social role; the kinds of social conflicts in which the management scientist participates; the identity of the subject's patrons and their impact on the subject's direction and contents; the interest groups who are best served by the way the subject is currently conceived, and the (inevitably) partisan role played by theories, theoreticians, and practitioners. The paper illustrates how these issues might be investigated using an approach to general systems theory. This analysis results in a reclassification of Management Science departments and TIMS colleges: one that highlights those areas that are neglected by the current conceptualization of the subject.