THE USE OF OPERATIONAL-RESEARCH TOOLS - A SURVEY OF OPERATIONAL-RESEARCH PRACTITIONERS IN THE UK

Given the importance of understanding decision making processes within organizations, studies of the attitudes of Operational Research pract itioners towards specific aspects of their work is a neglected area of research. This paper furnishes an account of a questionnaire-based su rvey of industrially based OR practitioners selected from the membersh ip of the Operational Research Society. The objective of the study is to assess the views of OR practitioners regarding the modelling and pr oblem solving tools that are available to them. In particular, the iss ues of technique selection, the treatment of uncertainty, and the perc eived contribution of Operational Research to decision issues are inve stigated. Results from the survey contribute towards both a greater un derstanding of OR practitioners' perspectives on the decision support process and the development of a profile of the membership of the OR S ociety.