Emerging trends and new frontiers in community operational research

Community Operational Research (Community OR), and its disciplinary relation, Community-Based Operations Research, has an increasingly high profile within multiple domains that benefit from empirical and analytic approaches to problem solving. These domains are primarily concentrated within nonprofit services and local development. However, there are many other disciplines and application areas for which novel applications and extensions of Community OR could generate valuable insights. This paper identifies a number of these, distinguishing between 'emerging trends' (mostly in well-studied areas of operational research, management science and analytics) and 'new frontiers', which can be found in traditions not commonly oriented towards empirical and analytic methods for problem solving, where community-engaged decision modeling represents new ways of generating knowledge, policies and prescriptions. This paper will show how the exploration of emerging trends and new frontiers in Community OR can provide a basis for the development of innovative research agendas that can broaden the scope and impact of the decision sciences

What is Community Operational Research?

Community Operational Research (Community OR) has been an explicit sub-domain of OR for more than 30 years. In this paper, we tackle the controversial issue of how it can be differentiated from other forms of OR. While it has been persuasively argued that Community OR cannot be defined by its clients, practitioners or methods, we argue that the common concern of all Community OR practice is the meaningful engagement of communities, whatever form that may take – and the legitimacy of different forms of engagement may be open to debate. We then move on to discuss four other controversies that have implications for the future development of Community OR and its relationship with its parent discipline: the desire for Community OR to be more explicitly political; claims that it should be grounded in the theory, methodology and practice of systems thinking; the similarities and differences between the UK and US traditions; and the extent to which Community OR offers an enhanced understanding of practice that could be useful to OR more generally. Our positions on these controversies all follow from our identification of ‘meaningful engagement’ as a central feature of Community OR

An Agenda for Diversity and Inclusion-related Research within OR/MS/Analytics

Diversity and inclusion have been widely studied and debated, most often within the social sciences. What contributions can operations research, management science and analytics make to this domain of inquiry? This talk will critically examine assumptions and practices within the decision sciences that may support as well impede diversity- and inclusion-related research, and propose a research agenda that can challenge yet enrich our profession

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Operations Research and Analytics: A Research Agenda for Scholarship, Practice and Service

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are complementary terms and concepts that refer to strategies and processes that enable organizations to become more reflective of and responsive to identities, values and experiences of important stakeholder groups. In doing so, these organizations may better achieve their own missions and improve the well-being of these stakeholder groups and of society at large. In the U.S., DEI has its roots in social policies designed primarily to remedy the effects of historical barriers to opportunity and well-being of African-Americans. Thus, particular emphasis in DEI is placed on addressing needs and concerns of traditionally underrepresented, underserved and marginalized populations, of enhancing social welfare and pursuing broader goals of social justice. DEI represents a collection of methods and tools for use by organizations as well as a subject of scholarly inquiry. The purpose of this tutorial essay is threefold. First, we will explore the presence of DEI in the professional practice of operations research, industrial engineering, management science, analytics, and other related fields (‘OR/analytics’). Second, we will examine the role of DEI in OR/analytics scholarship. Third, we will present an agenda for increased application of DEI principles in practice, scholarship and in service to the profession. This agenda will consist of specific practices in strategy, management and operations that can improve organizations and the experiences of key stakeholder groups. It will also address suggestions for new and enhanced areas of scholarly inquiry to enlarge our conception of how, why and under what conditions an increased focus on DEI can enhance social welfare and support efforts towards social and racial justice. This tutorial thus advances our understanding of ways that professions and disciplines associated with OR/analytics can use DEI to make our society more equitable, more just, and more welcoming of people from diverse backgrounds, identities and communities

What is Community Operational Research?

Community Operational Research (Community OR) has been an explicit sub-domain of OR for more than 30 years. In this paper, we tackle the controversial issue of how it can be differentiated from other forms of OR. While it has been persuasively argued that Community OR cannot be defined by its clients, practitioners or methods, we argue that the common concern of all Community OR practice is the meaningful engagement of communities, whatever form that may take – and the legitimacy of different forms of engagement may be open to debate. We then move on to discuss four other controversies that have implications for the future development of Community OR and its relationship with its parent discipline: the desire for Community OR to be more explicitly political; claims that it should be grounded in the theory, methodology and practice of systems thinking; the similarities and differences between the UK and US traditions; and the extent to which Community OR offers an enhanced understanding of practice that could be useful to OR more generally. Our positions on these controversies all follow from our identification of ‘meaningful engagement’ as a central feature of Community OR

From Data to Decisions at Your Nonprofit

In recent years, discussions about ‘data analytics,\u27 ‘big data’ and ‘performance management’ have tended to focus on organizations’ needs to collect, store, analyze, and make productive use of mostly-quantitative data to ensure that their activities are best-aligned with their missions. Without minimizing the importance of training, software and hardware selection, and organization design, there is also a need for organizations to make the best decisions they can using all data that are available – including qualitative data that may be hard to capture in information systems. The goal of this Super Roundtable is to enable organizations to improve their decision-making ability. The focus will be on decision-making that is inspired by real world problems, readily available data, evidence of program characteristics and impact, and inspired by standard, commonly-taught decision models. Decision problems can address long-term, strategic concerns, as well as shorter-term tactical (occasional) and operational (frequent) concerns

Improving Decision-Making Skills of Nonprofit Professionals

Nonprofits face gaps in organizational capacity, including program design and evaluation, but previous research suggests that capacity-building exercises have a positive effect. We describe a data analytics training workshop with staff from Boston-area nonprofits reflecting a wide range of sectors. Through analysis of participant work on case studies provided by the instructor, we examine how participants made sense of training materials, the various strategies employed by participants to solve three case study problems, and participant feedback about the session. Our findings provide a basis for novel interventions in community based operations research

Community Operational Research: A Survey of the Discipline

Community operational research (COR) is an extension of multiple OR/MS traditions to support participatory research, localized impact and social change. It applies critical thinking, evidence-based policy analysis, community participation and decision modeling to local interventions. It emphasizes the needs, voices and values of disadvantaged and marginalized populations. It rests on a foundation of meaningful engagement with communities. This presentation summarizes a multi-year effort to assemble cutting-edge research in COR in a special issue of European Journal of Operational Research available August 2018. We review principles for community OR, describe the breadth and diversity of the field through the experience of editing and contributing to the EJOR special issue, and explore some areas of COR of particular interest, including pro bono consulting for nonprofits, diversity, equity & inclusion; and community data analytics