Behavioural OR Stream

Talks:

The Importance of Human Behavior in Practice: Insights from the Modelling Cycle

Human behaviour is present in many aspects of modelling. In this talk, we will explore the role of practitioner and client behaviour around the development of the model and eliciting behavioural insights and integrating them into the model.

How the OR practitioner interacts and engages the client from problem formulation through to solution implementation is a key mediating factor in the success of an OR project. We will explore approaches for engaging and eliciting information from the client to facilitate model development and implementation.

Presenters:

Each of our three fantastic speakers will be giving a 20-minute talk during the Behavioural OR stream.

Sean Manzi,
University of Exeter

Developing Problem Structuring Capability: A Practice-Based View

The facilitation of multi-stakeholder processes has been a long-standing concern of OR practitioners. Despite frequent use, the efficacy of problem structuring interventions (PSIs) in bringing about changes in collective behaviour remains contested.

This talk considers the ongoing challenge of understanding how PSIs facilitate purposeful collective action. Contrary to individualistic and cognition-focused approaches, this talk presents social practice theory (SPT) as an integrative theoretical perspective for the study of PSIs.

Applying SPT to a case study illuminates how interaction in situ may initialize changes to practices and suggests that PSIs may initiate collective behaviour changes by creating struggles for the legitimacy of meanings and encouraging the joint modelling of innovative socio-material practice constellations.

Stakeholder Behavior in Operational Research: Connecting the Why, Who, and How of Stakeholder Involvement

The relevance of stakeholder behaviour is widely acknowledged in OR. However, the specific line of reasoning behind involving stakeholder behaviour often remains implicit. This is problematic as there are very different reasons with important implications for the design and implementation for OR studies.

This talk will demonstrate how to transform the often unconscious capability of addressing stakeholder behaviour in OR into a more conscious one. It will explore how to involve stakeholders, and which stakeholders to involve, for four different motives: improving decision quality, building consensus, improving relationships and the intrinsic value of involving stakeholders.