The origins and diffusion of operational research in the UK

Abstract

This paper analyses the origins and diffusion of operational research in the UK from the end of the Second World War to 1970. After acknowledging ORs military origins, the paper discusses the process of diffusion into the civilian sector. In this context, the critical role fulfilled by OR groups in the coal and iron and steel industries is highlighted, as well as the individual advocacy of key individuals such as Sir Charles Goodeve. The paper also comments on the development of OR in the UK corporate sector by presenting a number of representative case studies. It concludes with an examination of the factors which encouraged the diffusion of OR into civil government after 1965, contrasting this development with the muted response of Whitehall departments in the late 1940s.