During World War II, mathematicians, physicists, and other scientists joined together to solve military problems. The quantitative school of management is a result of the research conducted during World War II. The quantitative approach to management involves the use of quantitative techniques, such as statistics, information models, and computer simulations, to improve decision making. This school consists of several branches, described in the following sections.
Management science
The management science school emerged to treat the problems associated with global warfare. Today, this view encourages managers to use mathematics, statistics, and other quantitative techniques to make management decisions.
Managers can use computer models to figure out the best way to do something — saving both money and time. Managers use several science applications.
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Mathematical forecasting helps make projections that are useful in the planning process.
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Inventory modeling helps control inventories by mathematically establishing how and when to order a product.
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Queuing theory helps allocate service personnel or workstations to minimize customer waiting and service cost.
Operations management
Operations management is a narrow branch of the quantitative approach to management. It focuses on managing the process of transforming materials, labor, and capital into useful goods and/or services. The product outputs can be either goods or services; effective operations management is a concern for both manufacturing and service organizations. The resource inputs, or factors of production, include the wide variety of raw materials, technologies, capital information, and people needed to create finished products. The transformation process, in turn, is the actual set of operations or activities through which various resources are utilized to produce finished goods or services of value to customers or clients.
Operations management today pays close attention to the demands of quality, customer service, and competition. The process begins with attention to the needs of customers: What do they want? Where do they want it? When do they want it? Based on the answers to these questions, managers line up resources and take any action necessary to meet customer expectations.
Management information systems
Management information systems (MIS) is the most recent subfield of the quantitative school. A management information system organizes past, present, and projected data from both internal and external sources and processes it into usable information, which it then makes available to managers at all organizational levels. The information systems are also able to organize data into usable and accessible formats. As a result, managers can identify alternatives quickly, evaluate alternatives by using a spreadsheet program, pose a series of “what-if” questions, and finally, select the best alternatives based on the answers to these questions.
Systems management theory
The systems management theory has had a significant effect on management science. A system is an interrelated set of elements functioning as a whole. An organization as a system is composed of four elements:
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Inputs — material or human resources
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Transformation processes — technological and managerial processes
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Outputs — products or services
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Feedback — reactions from the environment
In relationship to an organization, inputs include resources such as raw materials, money, technologies, and people. These inputs go through a transformation process where they're planned, organized, motivated, and controlled to ultimately meet the organization's goals. The outputs are the products or services designed to enhance the quality of life or productivity for customers/clients. Feedback includes comments from customers or clients using the products. This overall systems framework applies to any department or program in the overall organization.
Systems theory may seem quite basic. Yet decades of management training and practices in the workplace have not followed this theory. Only recently, with tremendous changes facing organizations and how they operate, have educators and managers come to face this new way of looking at things. This interpretation has brought about a significant change in the way management studies and approaches organizations.
The systems theory encourages managers to look at the organization from a broader perspective. Managers are beginning to recognize the various parts of the organization, and, in particular, the interrelations of the parts.
Contemporary system theorists find it helpful to analyze the effectiveness of organizations according to the degree that they are open or closed. The following terminology is important to your understanding of the systems approach:
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An organization that interacts little with its external environment (outside environment) and therefore receives little feedback from it is called a closed system.
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An open system, in contrast, interacts continually with its environment. Therefore, it is well informed about changes within its surroundings and its position relative to these changes.
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A subsystem is any system that is part of a larger one.
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Entropy is the tendency of systems to deteriorate or break down over time.
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Synergy is the ability of the whole system to equal more than the sum of its parts.
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