DSS and ES in the ‘information organization’-Back to the roots of OR

The advance of computers and informatics turns organizations ever more into ‘information organizations’. Operational Research OR is a branch of science that could have been very helpful in supporting the decision makers in such organizations, both directly and indirectly by playing a leading role in the development of decision-support systems (DSS) and expert systems (ES). However, there is a consensus in the literature that Operational Research OR has failed to do this. Scientists working on DSS and ES even tend to deny that Operational Research OR has anything to do with such developments. This article analyses this situation, in particular by looking at the rationality of the decision-making process. This leads to some important conclusions: (1) OR’s failure is mainly due to its ruling paradigm, which is aimed at algorithm based decision support. (2) In fact, the decision-making process is governed more by social and system rationality than by this algorithmic rationality. (3) Originally, Operational Research OR did pay attention to these non-mathematical aspects. If it wants to rise from its present modest place at the table of science, it should at least return to its ‘roots’.