MANAGERS AND SCIENTISTS/TECHNICIANS

MANAGERS AND SCIENTISTS/TECHNICIANS
l'olitely, the problem is one of communications. More bluntly, it's one of jargon. I can understand why medicine has its jargon. It ' goes back to Aristotle and Hippocrates. And I can understand why law has its jargon. It goes back to Solon. And both fields have in-congruities and anachronisms about them which, 1 suppose, will always baffle the layman. But why sciences born in the middle of this century should need words like "algorithm," "heuristic," and "stochastic" in communications with management perplexes me. They can be translated, because they almost always are—even in technical papers. So why use foreign languages when. the message alone may be complex enough in English. You may not agree with my view, but I assure you that language is a roadblock to progress and you gentlemen (scientists/technicians) are continually putting these communication boulders in the path of even sympathetic management."
The problem of implementing scientific findings has been uppermost in the minds of many researchers. It is a perennial topic for discussion at professional meetings, and better communi-
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cation usually is cited as an important step in attaining mutuality of interests. The Institute of Management Sciences (TIMS) has maintained a running debate since its inception on its objectives in this area.33 Although the integration of science and manage¬ment has been emphasized, divergent opinions eventually resulted in a split which is reflected in the publication of a two-part journal (Series A—Sciences, and Series B—Managerial).34 This move illustrates Boulding's lament, referred to in Chapter 1.
Hence physicists only talk to physicists, economists to economists —worse still, nuclear physicists talk only to nuclear physicists and econometricians to econometricians. One wonders sometimes if science will not grind to a stop in an assemblage of walled-in her¬mits, each Mumbling to himself words in a private language that only he can understand."
Whiie many causal factors could be identified, a basic contro¬versy revolves around the question of problem versus technique orienta►ion. In the extreme, managers are interested in problem
"Louis T. Rader, "Roadblocks to Progress in the Management Sciences and Opera¬tiom; Research," Management Science, February 1965, p. C-2.
."The journal cover states: "An international society to identify, extend and unify scientific kn3wledge pertaining to management."
"Since 1967 the division has been Theory and Application.
"Kenneth Boulding, "General Systems Theory: The Skeleton of Science," Mattage¬ment Sct•nc•. April 1956, p. 198