Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grants

Operations Management: A Compelling Enabler of Human Values

Department

Management

College

Seidman College of Business

Date Range

2010-2011

Abstract

KEY NOTE ADDRESS: One of the sparsely addressed stories of the century is the role played by Operations Management as an enabler of the realization of human, spiritual, and ethical values that not only do most of us cherish, but are essential for the survival of the planet, and indeed, the humanity. The stereotypical images of operations often include drawing boards, mechanical gadgets, machine and sheet-metal shops, welding equipment, gages, calipers, and an assortment of tool boxes! Similarly, stereotypical images of operations people encompass rugged, dry, boring individuals bent over machines and equipments in dirty, oil-drenched overalls, pushing products through a pre-configured sequence of workstations designed to deliver mechanical products. In short, , if one has to go by the stereotypical images of operations and their management, they would not appear even remotely related to the fine human, ethical, and spiritual values, let alone serving as potent enablers of these very values. Our goal in this article is to demonstrate that operations management presents and provides an outstanding plethora of skills, expertise, technologies, services, and products that are in the front and center of creating, fostering, and sustaining human, ethical, and spiritual values and that since the inception of Ford assembly lines in 1915, when the word operations became popular, there is no other discipline that comes even close to contributing to this task. We create a hierarchical structure of salient human values and explore the contribution of operations management in supporting, growing, and sustaining such values.

Conference Name

AIMS International Conference on Value-Based Management

Conference Location

Haridwar, India

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