The Management Sciences and Managerial Skills

The management sciences are similar to other vocationally oriented research fields, such as the engineering and bio-medical sciences, in their combination of collegiately controlled research and claims to improve practical skills. Their dependence upon labour market valuations of these skills and openness to non-scientific audiences reduce the degree of theoretical integration of research results and the power of particular intellectual elites to control research goals and priorities. Their influence on the definition and certification of managerial skills has, however, been less than in engineering and medicine for three main reasons. First, managers' tasks and jobs are largely determined by employers and practitioners do not control the selection and definition of problems. Second, the phenomena and systems they study are variable and include current managerial practices. Third, managerial skills are highly interdependent and vary according to organizational structures and policies. Their standardization around discrete areas of knowledge which help to resolve discrete sets of problems is therefore improbable. These points are briefly illustrated by a comparison of operations research with accounting research.