A SKETCH FOR HUMANE OPERATIONAL-RESEARCH IN A TECHNOLOGICAL-SOCIETY

This article is based on my presidential address to the Swedish Operat ional Research Society 1996 Conference. It starts with a statement aff irming the critical need to incorporate virtues and norms in the manag ement and operation of our institutions. With the help of multimodal s ystems thinking and Stafford Beer's Viable Systems Model, it builds a framework that allows the transfer of such things as faith, love, and wisdom into the operation of our social systems and their management. The article concludes with the placing of operational research and man agement theory within this framework and with a challenge to all opera tional researchers to work for new modeling techniques that will contr ibute to a more virtuous and humane society.