IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jomega/v1y1973i6p695-709.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Operations research from the viewpoint of general systems theory

Author

Listed:
  • Sagasti, Francisco R
  • Mitroff, Ian I

Abstract

This paper examines the operations research process from the viewpoint of General Systems Theory. The components of the OR process and the relations between them are critically examined. The five components are: (1) the "reality" of the problem situation, (2) the conceptual model of the problem situation, (3) the scientific model of the conceptual model, (4) the solution to the scientific model, and (5) the implementation of the solution. The paper argues that we have sub-optimized both our knowledge (study) and our application of the OR process. That is, there have been extremely few studies and applications of OR which have concerned themselves with OR from a whole systems point of view. The paper argues that without a whole systems perspective OR can neither be understood nor effectively applied.

Suggested Citation

  • Sagasti, Francisco R & Mitroff, Ian I, 1973. "Operations research from the viewpoint of general systems theory," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 1(6), pages 695-709, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jomega:v:1:y:1973:i:6:p:695-709
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0305-0483(73)90087-X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dekkers, Rob, 2018. "Group technology: Amalgamation with design of organisational structures," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 262-277.
    2. Settanni, Ettore & Thenent, Nils Elias & Newnes, Linda B. & Parry, Glenn & Goh, Yee Mey, 2017. "Mapping a product-service-system delivering defence avionics availability," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 21-32.
    3. Ian Mitroff & Thomas V. Bonoma, 1978. "Psychological Assumptions, Experimentation, and Real World Problems," Evaluation Review, , vol. 2(2), pages 235-260, May.
    4. David C. Lane & Özge Pala & Yaman Barlas & David C. Lane, 2015. "Validity is a Matter of Confidence—But Not Just in System Dynamics," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(4), pages 450-458, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jomega:v:1:y:1973:i:6:p:695-709. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/375/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.