Answer to Question #31794 in Economics of Enterprise for Anuradha

Question

What areas of business activity can benefit most from the contributions of the quantitative school of management thought? Are there any areas that cannot benefit? Justify your answer.

Answer 1

The schools of management thought are theoretical frameworks for the study of management. Each of the schools of management thought are based on somewhat
different assumptions about human beings and the organizations for which they work.
Since the formal study of management began late in the 19th century, the study
of management has progressed through several stages as scholars and
practitioners working in different eras focused on what they believed to be
important aspects of good management practice. Over time, management thinkers
have sought ways to organize and classify the voluminous information about
management that has been collected and disseminated. These attempts at
classification have resulted in the identification of management schools.

Disagreement exists as to the exact number of management schools. Different writers have identified as few as three and as many as twelve. Those discussed
below include (1) the classical school, (2) the behavioral school, (3) the
quantitative or management science school, (4) the systems school, (5) and the
contingency school. The formal study of management is largely a
twentieth-century phenomenon, and to some degree the relatively large number of
management schools of thought reflect a lack of consensus among management
scholars about basic questions of theory and practice.