Management Science Process—On the Culture of Management Science

In keeping with the international theme of this issue of Interfaces. I thought it would be constructive to take one of the concepts that we use in dealing with people from foreign countries and apply it in our usual work day world. The concept I am interested in is the concept of culture and the problems that are inherent whenever two people from different cultures attempt to communicate with one another. It is well known that perceptual differences abound across different cultures, causing the same word or gesture to have two entirely different meanings for people from different cultures. In addition, some particular aspect of life, such as religion or education, may be very important to people from one culture but may mean nothing to people from another. In short, we tend to look at the world through our “cultural eyeglasses” and we perceive the world in the way that our culture dictates. In order to minimize the amount of miscommunication that arises between people from different cultures, it is important that we understand the direction in which our cultural eyeglasses are polarized as well as the slant of the people with whom we are dealing.

The two cultures of interest here are that of the manager and the Management Scientist. I do not propose that these cultures be thought of as two distinct groups but rather as being on either end of a continuum with people tending to lean towards one direction or the other.