In this column, I wish to agree with PIC's recommendation to use OR in communications to the general public, but argue that we need a broader name for talking among ourselves and to other professional constituencies. I'll propose an obvious candidate for that name in the short run, but call for further search.
PIC, in the June 1995 OR/MS Today (p. 47), argues that we should use the name "operations research" in press releases and other communications to the world at large. The goal of doing this is to provide consistency and clarity so that the public can begin to understand who we are and what we do. The committee wants to start the policy now, even while we work to see whether we can find a better name. An Outreach Committee has been charged to try to do that. In implementing the policy, however, PIC wants us to be flexible and, if a member wishes to be identified in some other way, we should certainly do so. This policy makes sense for public relations activities and has been put in place.
My concern, however, is that INFORMS is an umbrella organization containing not only people who call themselves operations researchers, but also others who consider themselves management scientists, transportation researchers, marketing scientists, information systems researchers, math programmers, operations management specialists, applied probabilists, and many other things. The obvious default name for this collection of subfields is ORMS. Again, we should make efforts to improve this, but we need an umbrella name now for communicating among ourselves and to other professionals. This one fits and many people are already using it. PIC uses quantitative arguments to make its case for OR.
The committee analyzed titles appearing in the INFORMS membership directory by counting the keywords: decision, industrial engineering, information or computer, management science, operations analyst, operations management and operations research. They found that OR is far ahead among practitioners. Academics are distributed more widely, with MS exceeding OR and "information or computer" exceeding MS. On the other hand, there are more academic programs in OR than MS.
Many of us have the wish, however, that INFORMS be much broader and encompassing than OR is perceived today. We are living in an increasingly complex and technologically based world where the broadest skills of our members are needed. They must build the systems and advance the theories that will make our organizations work. Although it is worthy to build OR as a name because it is one of our core disciplines, we have many names within INFORMS and will have more as new specialties arise. This point of view is supported by our publications experience: our fastest growing journals have been in our newest areas: Marketing Science, Information Systems Research, and Organization Science.
We need an umbrella name for communicating not just to members, but, even more important, to prospective members. ORMS makes an effective umbrella at this time. One concern that has been raised about ORMS is that, because it is an acronym, it is not trasparently self-descriptive and easy to understand. But is that a bug or a feature? The term will gradually be defined by what INFORMS members do. ORMS has good roots in "operations research and the management sciences." The latter is especially evocative of a broad vision. Although the full phrase is too much of a mouthful to explain in a press release, such is not the case for the people we want to recruit as members. They can handle more bytes of information in one sitting than can the general public.
A further advantage of ORMS is that we have been building the name for 20 years through OR/MS Today. Our members already know the term. It has gained visibility around the world.While I have word processor in hand, let me take a cut at describing the field: ORMS deals with the science and technology of improving decisions in organizations. Accordingly, ORMS practitioners use models and theories drawn from a variety of disciplines to solve operational and strategic problems faced by businesses, governments and other institutions. ORMS theorists seek fundamental new knowledge to support such problem solving. ORMS frequently makes extensive use of data, mathematics and computers, and also draws on (and sometimes contributes to) knowledge in organizational behavior, economics, engineering and other fields.
Our members are a great source of ideas. J. Scott Yeomans in the August 1995 OR/MS Today (p. 6) suggested the name: "Decision-making using Operations Research and Computer Science" or DORCS. My friends tell me this will make a great T-shirt but isn't going to work for everybody. Nevertheless, keep those cards and letters coming!