Management Science

Management science, any application of science to the study of management. Originally a synonym for operations research, the term management science (often used in the plural) now designates a distinct field. Whereas operations research affords analytical data, statistics, and methods to increase the efficiency of management systems, management science applies these tools in such fields as data mining, engineering, economic forecasting, and logistics.

Management science initially included any application of science to management problems or to the process of management itself; it thus encompassed operations research, systems analysis, and the study of management-information systems. This broad understanding of the scope of the field was reflected in the constitution of the Institute of Management Sciences (TIMS), founded in 1953 as an outgrowth of the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA). It stated that “the objects of the Institute shall be to identify, extend, and unify scientific knowledge that contributes to the understanding and practice of management.” In 1995 ORSA and TIMS merged to form the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS).

Although management science could include the study of all activities of groups that entail a managerial function, it generally entails the following: (1) discovering, developing, defining, and evaluating the goals of the organization and the alternative policies that will lead toward the goals, (2) getting the organization to adopt the policies, (3) scrutinizing the effectiveness of the policies that are adopted, and (4) initiating steps to change policies that are ineffective or inadequately effective. Management science often has drawn its concepts and methods from the older disciplines of economics, business administration, psychology, sociology, and mathematics.