Variety is the spice of life: Combining soft and hard operational research and management science methods

Some observers have expressed concern over the state of the OR/MS profession, especially as to its failure to tackle complex, messy problems. One response has been to develop various ‘soft’ methods (also called ‘problem structuring methods’) that focus on the human and political aspects of OR/MS interventions. Recent work, both theoretical and practitioner-based, involves the combination of several methods in a particular project (multimethod). Often the combination includes both hard (quantitative) and soft (qualitative) approaches. This paper illustrates the utility of soft methods, and in particular their combination, with recently published case studies. It then proposes an approach to the process of combining methods, including several frameworks and techniques to assist in selecting and linking different methods. Finally, it discusses future research in this field.