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The History of Management |
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APPLYING MATH TO MANAGEMENT: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE Mathematics historically has been the tool of science. Mathematical statistics emerges before the turn of the 20th century in Europe with the pioneering work of Karl Pearson, Francis Galton, and Edgeworth. In the United States statistics were sufficiently a tool of research to be central to the Hawthorne Experiments in which T. North Whitehead performed the detailed statistical analysis. Also, at Western Electric was W.A. Shewhart, educated as a physicist, serving as an engineer at Western Electric and later as researcher at Bell Laboratories. Shewhart’s Applications of Statistics in Maintaining Quality of a Manufacturing Product in 1926 is the pioneering work in statistical quality control. Shewhart directly influenced the work of quality management guru’s Deming and Juran.
Still, statistical techniques and mathematics were seen primarily as tools of the trade until World War II when exigencies of the war brought together scientists, mathematicians, and business to win the war. Using mathematics to solve problems from logistics to precision bombing, “operations research” was born. The British get credit for establishing the first Operations Research group in the mid-1930's to study and implement the use of radar, but the Americans, lead by scientists like Philip M. Morse, soon saw the utility in this kind of teaming of expertise. Each branch of the services formed an operations research group. After the war, business had learned the practicality of OR and by 1953 operations research was an established area taught in American universities and publishing its own journal. The journal Management Science was dedicated “to identify, extend, and unify scientific knowledge that contributes to the understanding of the practice of management.” If Taylor’s “scientific management” was about finding the “one best way”, management science is about find the “optimal” way. Like Taylorism, management science is about the application of science to management. The names associated with the early days are not always found in introductory business texts: Russel Ackoff, C. West Churchman, Edward Bowman, Robert Fetter, Elwood Buffa, and Jay Forrester. The language of this approach is statistics and math to solve problems such as: how much inventory to carry? How many lines are needed to expedite customer checkout? What is the best transportation route? Game theory, mathematic modeling of decision-making, has expanded the field into management strategy to create complex models that simulate business conditions, as in war games. By the 1970’s with American competitiveness seemingly challenged by Japanese industry, the work of Deming and Juran on statistical quality control refocused management to a discipline Americans pioneered in the 1930’s. By the 1970's the use of computers for mathematic computation and modeling presented new opportunities for growth in Operations Research. The field of operations research today is integrated into many disciplines, including the military, government policy, medicine, transportation, computer sciences, and business. It's defining characteristics are the applications of mathematics, physics, and systems thinking to problem-solving.
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