ABSTRACT
There was a time when even large businesses were staffed by many clerical workers whose main role was to process data and turn it into information. The data included sales invoices, payments, orders, production schedules, and the like. It had to be processed so that the managers of the organization, whether public or private, could make sound decisions. Decision making is a fundamental part of any manager’s job; sometimes the decisions are trivial and have little impact, but others are so significant that they could open up new opportunities or ruin the business. Nowadays, the serried ranks of clerical workers have gone in advanced economies and information processing is automated in computer systems, some of which offer decision support. The importance of decision making and the use of information on which to base those decisions led to the development of management science: sometimes known as operations research in the USA or as operational research in the UK.
