• THE EMERGENCE OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• FURTHER READING:

Management science is the application of the scientific method to address problems and decisions that arise in the business community and other organizations, such as government and military institutions. This field of study, which is also commonly known as operations research (OR), operates on the understanding that business managers can make informed decisions only when they have access to scientifically acquired knowledge. To gain such knowledge, practitioners of management science undertake the major steps of scientific inquiry: (1) identify the issue or problem, (2) formulate a hypothesis (theory) about possible solutions to the problem, (3) construct appropriate models to test the hypothesis, (4) collect and analyze the results of the tests, and (5) determine the best way to resolve...