Management Science Roundup

In the first part several comments by Peter Drucker are presented. Peter Drucker said in 1958 that management science was in danger of becoming a management gadget bag of techniques for the efficiency expert. This danger existed because of the practitioners' emphasis on technique rather than on problem definition. According to Drucker, the focus of much of the work in management science has been not on such questions as what is the business enterprise, what is managing, what do the two do and what do the two need, but rather the focus has been on “Where can I apply my beautiful gimmick.” “The emphasis has been on the hammer, rather than on driving in the nail, let alone on building the house.”The regular part of the column, In this issue, presents:---“What do you think?---JB”;---“Editorial notes”;---“Inventory control for the District of Columbia---Siedman”;---“Management science at the National Bureau of Standards---Suzuki”;---“NSF seeks proposals for research conferences---Renirie”;---“Funds allocation in a corporate trust department---Chang”;---“Profit planning model for a commercial bank---Wisz”;---“Syborn's planning model---Mitchell”;---“Support for research in the mathematical sciences---JB”;---“Center for Future Research established at USC---JB”;---“Research fellowships in OR/MS at the International Center for Management Sciences, University of Louvain---JB”;---“Seen Elsewhere: (1) Technological Progress Function. A New Technique for Forecasting , (2) Forecasting Inventory Requirements in a Large Scale Department Store Setting , (3) Technical Forecasting at National Level in Japan (4) Applications of a Model Used in Calculating the Mental Load of Workers in Industry , (5) Mathematical Models for Manpower and Personnel Planning , (6) A Production Management Operating System Simulation , and (7) A Management Coach Concept for Management Development ”;---“Bulletin Board: (1) TIMS meetings, (2) Other meetings/symposia, (3) Personal notes, (4) Notices and (5) Errata”;---“Deadline for future issues of INTERFACES ”.