The penetration of quantitative methods into management decision making in the United Kingdom

A number of studies in the past have attempted to identify the extent to which managers do, or do not, use the array of quantitative techniques at their disposal. Generally, it has been found that the usage rate is low, and a number of different reasons have been cited. The tremendous recent growth in the number of MBA graduates entering the job market has the potential to change this low usage, given that almost all MBA courses offer some degree of exposure to quantitative methods. In this study, based on a sample of over 600 respondents, the authors report on the extent to which MBA graduates from universities within the United Kingdom use statistical techniques in their work. A third of the sample used no statistical techniques at all. Given that all the respondents would have been exposed to the techniques during their MBA course, the awareness and usage levels even among those using statistics was low. The authors explore the reasons given for this low usage, and also report on the respondents’ perceptions of what the statistical content of the ideal MBA course should be.