6.4 KiB
| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Behavioral operations management | 1/2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_operations_management | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T14:37:25.087762+00:00 | kb-cron |
Behavioral operations management (often called behavioral operations) examines and takes into consideration human behaviours and emotions when facing complex decision problems. It relates to the behavioral aspects of the use of operations research and operations management. In particular, it focuses on understanding behavior in, with and beyond models. The general purpose is to make better use and improve the use of operations theories and practice, so that the benefits received from the potential improvements to operations approaches in practice, that arise from recent findings in behavioral sciences, are realized. Behavioral operations approaches have heavily influenced supply chain management research among others.
== Overview == Operations management involves a wide range of problem–solving skills aiming to help individuals or organizations to make more rational decisions as well as improving their efficiency. However, operations management often assumes that agents involved in the process or operating system, such as employees, consumers and suppliers, make fully rational decisions. Their decisions are not affected by their emotions as well as their surroundings and that they are able to react and distinguish between different types of information. In reality, this is not always true; human behavior has an important role in decision making and worker motivation, and therefore should be considered in the study of operations. This has led to the rise of behavioral operations management, which is defined as the study of impacts that human behavior has on operations, design and business interactions in different organizations. Behavioral operations management aims to understand the decision making of managers and tries to make improvements to the supply chain using the insight obtained. Behavioral operations management includes knowledge from a number of fields, such as economics, behavioral science, psychology and other social sciences. Traditional operations management and behavioral operations management have a common intellectual goal, aiming to make differences in operations outcomes, such as flexibility, efficiency and productivity.
== Theoretical influence == Humans have limitations in their ability to collect and react to relevant information. When a decision or conclusion has to be made through complex information, human decision-makers often fail to comply with normative decision theories. Moreover, a person's lifestyle, social interactions and collective behaviors have a clear influence on their decisions.
=== Cognitive psychology === This is a relatively new branch of psychology which focuses on humans' ability to make decisions, solve problems, learning, attention, memory and forgetting. These are only a few of the practical applications of this science, to some extent it is also related to motivation and emotion. Cognitive psychology is interested in what is happening within the mind when new information is received, how people respond to this information, and how this response affects their behavior and emotions. Cognitive psychology is considered to be one of the dominant theoretical force in behavioral science.
=== Social psychology ===
People often react and behave differently when they are put into different social situations. The aim of social psychology is to understand the nature and causes of individual behaviors. It questions or provides an insight of how human behavior relies on the physical environment. Social psychology theories attempt to explain why there are competition between individuals, why it is often the case that individuals or organisations seek to protect and maintain their status, and why it has been observed that individuals and organisations are willing to sacrifice efficiency to achieve their goal of staying at a higher hierarchical position. In addition to status, social psychology also includes people's behavior towards goal setting, feedback and controls, interdependence, and reciprocity.
=== Organizational behavior === The use of psychology in behavioral operations research links to the idea of judging the relationship between people's mental health and wellbeing and their behavior at work. Psychology experts often set up indicators to evaluate how an employee's surroundings, such as working environment and noise, can affect their productivity. Organizational behavior is the study of ways people react or behave when they are organized in groups. The purpose of these studies is to improve business productivity, trying to create a more efficient business organization. Organizational behavior theories are applied towards human resource trying to maximize the output from individual group members. The study of organization behavior can be broken down into different sections, including personality, job satisfaction and reward management, leadership, authority, power and politics.
== Main streams of research == There are four main streams of research that can be considered a part of behavior operations research. These give us an idea of the weakness of the current operations research model and the effectiveness of behavioral operations research in predicting human decisions and reactions when facing different situations.
=== Socio-technical view of technology management === Physical technologies can be defined as a socio-technology system, which consists of humans, human activity, spaces, artifacts, tools, and communications media. This theory suggests that social interaction at the workplace is determined by the technology and techniques used at work. Therefore, a change in technology used at work can lead to unexpected consequences. This may include differences in motivation.
=== Human factor engineering === Human factor engineering can be applied to improve workplaces, working systems and products aiming to reduce human errors during operations as well as improving human efficiency, productivity and operational performance. It often involves improvements of large machineries to reduce accidents during work. It is believed that behavior operations research can be related to human factor engineering as systematic errors, which happens very often technology and different machineries, can affect people's decision making and their interaction with the operating system.