Soft and hard approaches to problem solving: A point of view

The Operational Research has been much criticised for its inapplicability to assist problem solving in complex environments. Accordingly, efforts have been put into the development of alternatives and the emergence of ‘soft’ paradigms and approaches to problem solving represents one of the results from these efforts. This approach is claimed to be more appropriate than the ‘hard’ approach of Operational Research. In this paper the authors argue that Operational Research and soft approach have their potentials and weaknesses. Their experiences in using both of these approaches, and how they can usefully be combined to assist problem solving in complex environments, will also be presented.