Ethics in the practice of operations research is the set of moral standards to which a practitioner of OR/MS should adhere in doing his or her work, so that the analyst can do relevant work responsibly and objectively, and be perceived as doing so.
The OR/MS worker must apply the basic principles of scientific methodology in such a way as to be “transparent” in the way the work is reported. A technically qualified but disinterested party should be able to verify that the work has been carried out in a valid manner, based on data that have been gathered and analyzed correctly.
Operations research, as distinguished from the physical sciences in general, deals with interactions between people and the systems they operate. With this in mind, we will discuss the OR/MS analyst's ethical requirements operationally, in terms of beginning, conducting and reporting a study (as covered in Caywood et al., 1971, pp. 1129–1130).
IN BEGINNING A STUDY
The OR/MS analyst should discuss thoroughly with...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Caywood, T.E., Berger, H.M., Engel, J.H., Magee, J.F., Miser, H.J., and Thrall, R.M. (1971). “Guidelines for the Practice of Operations Research,” Operations Research 19, 1123–1158.
Wallace, W.A., ed. (1994). Ethics in Operations Research, Elsevier, New York.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers
About this entry
Cite this entry
Engel, J.H. (2001). Ethics in the practice of operations research . In: Gass, S.I., Harris, C.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-0611-X_304
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-0611-X_304
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-7827-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-0611-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive