The changing face of Operational Research OR practice in the U.K.: Present indicators and possible futures

This paper starts by considering some indicators of how Operational Research OR in the UK has changed in the short term, over the past five years. During this time, Strathclyde University’s postgraduate course in Operational Research OR has included a brief placement for students half-way through the course, in which they spend time with practising Operational Research OR groups. Students report back on how the group is organised, who its clients are, what sort of work it is doing, methods in common use, and so on. Data have now been gathered from a wide variety of groups throughout Britain. Having discussed the changes reflected in these ‘reports from the front’, the paper goes on to consider whether they can be seen as harbingers of longer-term shifts in the nature of Operational Research OR practice, with particular reference to the possible impacts of new Information Technologies on organisations.