This paper provides an exploration of how different understandings of "man-
machine systems" have accompanied developments in Operational Research. In
particular, the paper will challenge the notion that we are in a position o
f mastery with respect to technology. Both Hard OR and Soft OR are criticiz
ed for a failure to examine adequately the relationship between people and
technology. Toward the end of the paper a new way of understanding this rel
ationship will he proposed in terms of technologies of the self or what Mic
hel Foucault called "ethics."