Ackoff's Fables revisited: stories to inform operational research practice
Ackoff's Fables revisited: stories to inform operational research practice
This paper considers Ackoff's Fables, a set of short stories published by Ackoff in 1978 as guides to creative problem solving. The paper argues that storytelling of this kind contributes usefully to management and MS/OR education, before addressing how such Fables might be interpreted. It is demonstrated, using one of Ackoff's Fables, The Smart Jackass, for illustrative purposes, that interpretation of even apparently straightforward stories such as these is not unambiguous. The Fables can be interpreted in a multitude of different and sometimes contradictory ways, and the truths they might contain are not self-evident. Yet, as the basis for discussion, they still have much to offer as educational tools. The paper concludes with a discussion of literal truth in stories, and presents a classification of story types according to their relationship to literal truth.
OR education, history of OR
Klein, Jonathan H.
639e04f0-059a-4566-9361-a4edda0dba7d
2009
Klein, Jonathan H.
639e04f0-059a-4566-9361-a4edda0dba7d
Klein, Jonathan H.
(2009)
Ackoff's Fables revisited: stories to inform operational research practice.
OMEGA - The International Journal of Management Science, 37 (2).
(doi:10.1016/j.omega.2008.02.006).
Abstract
This paper considers Ackoff's Fables, a set of short stories published by Ackoff in 1978 as guides to creative problem solving. The paper argues that storytelling of this kind contributes usefully to management and MS/OR education, before addressing how such Fables might be interpreted. It is demonstrated, using one of Ackoff's Fables, The Smart Jackass, for illustrative purposes, that interpretation of even apparently straightforward stories such as these is not unambiguous. The Fables can be interpreted in a multitude of different and sometimes contradictory ways, and the truths they might contain are not self-evident. Yet, as the basis for discussion, they still have much to offer as educational tools. The paper concludes with a discussion of literal truth in stories, and presents a classification of story types according to their relationship to literal truth.
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Published date: 2009
Keywords:
OR education, history of OR
Organisations:
Management
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Local EPrints ID: 51700
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/51700
ISSN: 0305-0483
PURE UUID: ccd73603-45e2-434a-9e45-a79a5b4bbdf1
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Date deposited: 05 Aug 2008
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 02:34
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