Recent Developments in Critical Management Science
Journal of the Operational Research SocietyPublished 1 January 1992
John Mingers
Citations121
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score0.92
SNIP1.26
Generate an AI Snapshot to get a quick, structured summary of this paper.
Study Snapshot
ObjectiveStudy objective
MethodsResearch methodology
PopulationPopulation studied
Sample sizeSample sizes
OutcomesStudy outcomes here
ResultsStudy results comes here
LimitationsResearch study limitations comes here
A concise AI-generated summary of the paper will appear here once you click Generate AI Snapshot.
TL;DR
This paper reviews developments in critical management science, in particular critiques of traditional and ‘soft’ management science; Jackson and Keys' system of systems methodology;critical management science methodologies and the problem of power in bringing about change; and the postmodernist critique.
Abstract
For much of its history management science had a quantitative and technical emphasis. More recently, there has been a move towards more subjective approaches such as 'soft OR' and 'soft systems'. Currently, there is interest in 'critical management science' drawing on critical theory, particularly the work of Habermas. This paper reviews developments in critical management science, in particular critiques of traditional and 'soft' management science; Jackson and Keys' system of systems methodology; critical management science methodologies and the problem of power in bringing about change; and the postmodernist critique.
Keywords
Social SciencesDecision SciencesBusiness, Management and Accounting
Contemporary Sociology A Journal of ReviewsDiscipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison.
15,448 Citations1996Sharon Zukin, Michel Foucault +1 more
The Sociological ReviewSome Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St Brieuc Bay
5,134 Citations1984Michel Callon
Knowledge and Human Interests
4,058 Citations1968Jürgen Habermas
Journal of the Operational Research SocietySoft Systems Methodology in Action
3,400 Citations1991Thomas Gough, Peter Checkland +1 more
The Emergence of Soft Systems Thinking and Soft Systems Methodology--the Whole Revisited.
The Subject and Power
3,256 Citations1998Michel Foucault
Frameworks of Power
2,306 Citations1989Stewart Clegg
Organization StudiesModernism, Postmodernism and Organizational Analysis: An Introduction
773 Citations1988Robert Cooper, Gibson Burrell
Journal of the Operational Research SocietyTowards a System of Systems Methodologies
693 Citations1984Michael C. Jackson, P. Keys
The analysis points to the need for a co-ordinated research programme designed to deepen understanding of different problem contexts and the type of problem-solving methodology appropriate to each.
Journal of the Operational Research SocietyCritical Heuristics of Social Planning: A New Approach to Practical Philosophy
597 Citations1996John Mingers
This book discusses Kantian A Priori Science and the Systems Idea and the Critically-Heuristic Turn, and the case of the 1976 Areawide Health Systems Plan for Central Puget Sound, which pointed towards a "Purposeful Systems" Paradigm of Planning.
Contemporary systems thinkingSystems Methodology for the Management Sciences
594 Citations1991Michael C. Jackson
Critical Heuristics of Social Systems Design
244 Citations1989Werner Ulrich
It is proposed to understand — and indeed define — applied science as the study of contexts of application, where applied science can only mean to justify its effects upon the context of application under study.
Journal of the Operational Research SocietyO.R. and the Systems Movement: Mappings and Conflicts
226 Citations1983Peter Checkland
The tradition of systems thinking which emerged from organismic biology leads to a way out of the O.R. ‘crisis’, by providing a formaluring of a paradigm of learning rather than optimization.
Journal of the Operational Research SocietyBeyond a System of Systems Methodologies
159 Citations1990Michael C. Jackson
A research programme was used to analyse the relationship between OR and other systems-based, problem-solving approaches, and to relate different systems methodologies to appropriate problem-contexts, promising for those who wish to broaden the theoretical basis of OR in order to extend its domain of effective application.
International Journal of General SystemsSOCIAL SYSTEMS THEORY AND PRACTICE: THE NEED FOR A CRITICAL APPROACH
158 Citations1985Michael C. Jackson
There is a need for a more radical and critical approach to producing and verifying social systems science methods which are more appropriate for use in relation to one large class of social systems.
Journal of the Operational Research SocietyA Kuhnian Crisis in Management Science?
137 Citations1981Malcolm Dando, Peter Bennett
Systemic Practice and Action ResearchMethodological foundations of systems methodologies
135 Citations1988John C. Oliga
Human RelationsLiberating Systems Theory: Toward Critical Systems Thinking
112 Citations1990Robert L. Flood
Journal of the Operational Research SocietyThe Social Responsibility of Operational Research
75 Citations1974Russell L. Ackoff
Journal of the Operational Research SocietyA Materialist Analysis of Operational Research
73 Citations1982Jonathan Rosenhead, Colin Thunhurst
Systemic Practice and Action ResearchSix scenarios for the future of systems ?problem solving?
70 Citations1989Robert L. Flood
Six scenarios for the future of systems “problem solving” are investigated in order to ascertain whether an approach can be identified that offers prospects for the long-term survival and success of systems problem solving in practice and that does this without incorporating theoretical contradictions.
Journal of the Operational Research SocietyOperational Research at the Crossroads: Cecil Gordon and the Development of Post-War OR
39 Citations1989Jonathan Rosenhead
Journal of Management StudiesTOWARDS A CRITICAL MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
38 Citations1978Stephen Wood, John Kelly
Journal of the Operational Research SocietyThe Content of MSc Operational Research Courses: Results of a Questionnaire to OR Groups
38 Citations1991John Mingers
The structure of the responses using factor analysis and attempts to classify the OR groups using cluster analysis are explored and Comparisons are drawn with previous surveys and with the SERC OR panel recommendations.
Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooksPower and Management Control
33 Citations1989Keith Robson, David J. Cooper
Or as a Problem Situation: From Soft Systems Methodology to Critical Science
32 Citations1989Hugh Willmott
As faith in the assumptions of ’hard’ OR has been shaken, alternative, ’softer1 methodologies have emerged to challenge its supremacy and these efforts to break out of the traditional mould of OR have stimulated a critical evaluation of the adequacy of their challenge.
Journal of the Operational Research SocietySome Further Comments on the Social Responsibility of Operational Research
28 Citations1976Jonathan Rosenhead
If OR is to accept a "human" ideology or principle, it seems the authors' methods must always be set firmly in a mental background of wanting to help people in a human way leading to human and not mechanical relationships.
Which Systems Methodology When?: Initial Results From A Research Programme
22 Citations1989Michael C. Jackson
An overall assessment of a research programme aimed theoretically at explaining the relationship between different operational research and systems-based methodologies, and practically at discovering the efficacy of particular approaches in various problem contexts is presented.
Journal of the Operational Research SocietyA Reply to the Comments of Keith Chesterton, Robert Goodsman, Jonathan Rosenhead and Colin Thunhurst
17 Citations1975Russell L. Ackoff
Future Prospects in Systems Thinking
7 Citations1989Michael C. Jackson
Systems thinking in its traditional form embraces such related approaches as operational research, systems analysis, systems engineering and management cybernetics, but must be taken to include more recent trends such as “soft systems thinking”.