Management Sciences and Policy Sciences

Abstract

Policy Sciences are making challenging “revolutionary” claims, and these are critically reviewed. Note is taken of the limited domain of the field, to public policy making, and the advisability for such a basis for differentiating this professional subgroup is questioned. There is an attempt to distinguish between the various schools and antecedents of Policy Sciences. In this paper a technological perspective is taken. What are the differentiating skills and technologies Policy Sciences promises to bring to its clients? Is intersector awareness, interdisciplinarity, and the application of the behavioral sciences a Policy Sciences monopoly or the natural development of systems technologies in a changing environment? The negative mode of comparison of Policy Sciences with Systems Analysis and Systems Engineering as a basis for building this new profession is criticized as inadequate and misleading. An analogy is made, between the checkered history of Operations Research, and Policy Sciences, with the implication that many of the same mistakes are being made. Policy Science perspectives that exclusively emphasize public top level policy making are criticized as too limited. The lack of and need for Policy Science analysis of the strategies for attempting to introduce and integrate Policy Sciences into institutions is pointed out. The potential contributions and role of Policy Sciences are analyzed and related to existing and developing Management Science perspectives. A plea is made for unity in place of competition.