IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/jorsoc/v54y2003i11d10.1057_palgrave.jors.2601627.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The intellectual journey of Russell Ackoff: from OR apostle to OR apostate

Author

Listed:
  • M W Kirby

    (Lancaster University)

Abstract

Russell Ackoff has had a distinguished career in operational research both as an academic and practitioner. His influence on the development of the discipline in the US and Britain in the 1950s and 1960s was considerable. Yet during the 1970s Ackoff registered increasing disillusion with the course and conduct of OR on both sides of the Atlantic. His rejection of the established mathematical paradigm and appeal for a wider social and political remit for the discipline was writ large at the UK Operational Research Society's conference in 1978. This paper, stimulated by the author's research into the history of British OR, analyses the evolution of Ackoff's thought in order to explain the sources of his disillusion and the short and longer term reactions to his recantation.

Suggested Citation

  • M W Kirby, 2003. "The intellectual journey of Russell Ackoff: from OR apostle to OR apostate," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 54(11), pages 1127-1140, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:54:y:2003:i:11:d:10.1057_palgrave.jors.2601627
    DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601627
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601627
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601627?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. C. West Churchman, 1994. "Management Science: Science of Managing and Managing of Science," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 24(4), pages 99-110, August.
    2. Russell L. Ackoff, 1973. "Science in the Systems Age: Beyond IE, OR, and MS," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 21(3), pages 661-671, June.
    3. M Pidd, 2001. "The futures of OR," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 52(11), pages 1181-1190, November.
    4. Heiner Müller-Merbach, 1994. "A System of Systems Approaches," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 24(4), pages 16-25, August.
    5. Russell L. Ackoff, 1977. "National Development Planning Revisited," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 25(2), pages 207-218, April.
    6. Russell L. Ackoff, 1957. "Operations Research and National Planning," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 5(4), pages 457-468, August.
    7. Russell L. Ackoff, 1952. "Some New Statistical Techniques Applicable to Operations Research," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 1(1), pages 10-17, November.
    8. Arthur M. Geoffrion, 1992. "Forces, Trends, and Opportunities in MS/OR," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 40(3), pages 423-445, June.
    9. Russell L. Ackoff, 1987. "Presidents' Symposium: OR, A Post Mortem," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 35(3), pages 471-474, June.
    10. Muller-Merbach, Heiner, 2002. "The cultural roots linking Europe," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(2), pages 212-224, July.
    11. Ronald W. Bevan, 1958. "Letter to the Editor---Trends in Operational Research," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 6(3), pages 441-447, June.
    12. McClelland, Wg, 1975. "Mathematics in management--How it looks to the manager," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 147-155, April.
    13. Maurice W. Kirby, 2000. "Operations Research Trajectories: The Anglo-American Experience from the 1940s to the 1990s," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 48(5), pages 661-670, October.
    14. Rivett, Patrick, 1974. "Perspective for operational research," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 225-233, April.
    15. C. W. Churchman & A. H. Schainblatt, 1965. "The Researcher and The Manager: A Dialectic of Implementation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(4), pages 69-87, February.
    16. Charles J. Corbett & Luk N. Van Wassenhove, 1993. "The Natural Drift: What Happened to Operations Research?," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 41(4), pages 625-640, August.
    17. K. Brian Haley, 2002. "War and Peace: The First 25 Years of or in Great Britain," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 50(1), pages 82-88, February.
    18. Goford, J. & Bellis, C.S. & Bykerk, C.D. & Carne, S.A. & Creedon, S. & Daykin, C.D. & Dumbreck, N.J. & Ferguson, D.G.R. & Goodwin, E.M. & Grace, P.H. & Henderson, N.S. & Thornton, P.N., 2001. "Principles of the Future Education Strategy," British Actuarial Journal, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 221-240, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Ion Georgiou & Joaquim Heck, 2021. "The emergence of problem structuring methods, 1950s–1989: An atlas of the journal literature," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(6), pages 756-796, November.
    2. Mingers, John, 2011. "Soft OR comes of age--but not everywhere!," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 729-741, December.
    3. R J Ormerod, 2005. "Intellectual and practical journeys," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 56(7), pages 874-876, July.
    4. M W Kirby, 2005. "Reply to Richard Ormerod," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 56(7), pages 876-877, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maurice W. Kirby, 2007. "Paradigm Change in Operations Research: Thirty Years of Debate," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 55(1), pages 1-13, February.
    2. Mingers, John, 2011. "Soft OR comes of age--but not everywhere!," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 729-741, December.
    3. Arnold Reisman & Muhittin Oral, 2005. "Soft Systems Methodology: A Context Within a 50-Year Retrospective of OR/MS," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 35(2), pages 164-178, April.
    4. ManMohan S. Sodhi & Christopher S. Tang, 2008. "The OR/MS Ecosystem: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(2), pages 267-277, April.
    5. Meltem Denizel & Behlul Usdiken & Deniz Tuncalp, 2003. "Drift or Shift? Continuity, Change, and International Variation in Knowledge Production in OR/MS," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 51(5), pages 711-720, October.
    6. Vijay Mehrotra & Thomas A. Grossman, 2009. "OR Process Skills Transform an Out-of-Control Call Center into a Strategic Asset," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 39(4), pages 346-352, August.
    7. Ormerod, Richard J. & Ulrich, Werner, 2013. "Operational research and ethics: A literature review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 228(2), pages 291-307.
    8. Joachim Meyer, 2024. "Doing AI: Algorithmic decision support as a human activity," Papers 2402.14674, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2024.
    9. Maurice W. Kirby, 2000. "Operations Research Trajectories: The Anglo-American Experience from the 1940s to the 1990s," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 48(5), pages 661-670, October.
    10. Jack R. Meredith, 2001. "Reconsidering the Philosophical Basis of OR/MS," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 49(3), pages 325-333, June.
    11. Sanjay L. Ahire & Michael F. Gorman & David Dwiggins & Oleh Mudry, 2007. "Operations Research Helps Reshape Operations Strategy at Standard Register Company," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 37(6), pages 553-565, December.
    12. Overmeer, Willem J. A. M. & Corbett, Charles J. & Salomon, Marc, 1997. "Intractable problems in discussing OR practice at a scientific conference: Reflections on a panel discussion at EURO XIV," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 197-206, May.
    13. Mingers, John, 2015. "Helping business schools engage with real problems: The contribution of critical realism and systems thinking," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 242(1), pages 316-331.
    14. Hajime Eto, 2000. "Authorship and Citation Patterns in Operational Research Journals in Relation to Competition and Reform," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 47(1), pages 25-42, January.
    15. Vikram Tiwari & Srinagesh Gavirneni, 2007. "ASP, The Art and Science of Practice: Recoupling Inventory Control Research and Practice: Guidelines for Achieving Synergy," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 37(2), pages 176-186, April.
    16. S Gattoufi & M Oral & A Kumar & A Reisman, 2004. "Content analysis of data envelopment analysis literature and its comparison with that of other OR/MS fields," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 55(9), pages 911-935, September.
    17. M Pidd, 2004. "Contemporary OR/MS in strategy development and policy-making: some reflections," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 55(8), pages 791-800, August.
    18. Ranyard, J.C. & Fildes, R. & Hu, Tun-I, 2015. "Reassessing the scope of OR practice: The Influences of Problem Structuring Methods and the Analytics Movement," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 245(1), pages 1-13.
    19. Cibej, Joze Andrej, 2002. "Operations research education for forgotten populations," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(2), pages 225-231, July.
    20. CHEN, Helen S.Y., 2020. "Designing Sustainable Humanitarian Supply Chains," OSF Preprints m82ar, Center for Open Science.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    history of OR/MS; OR/MS methodology;

    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:pal:jorsoc:v:54:y:2003:i:11:d:10.1057_palgrave.jors.2601627. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    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.