y approach to management in the manufacturing industries.4 All of the com binations of the variables, with each assumed to have but two values, would yield 18 quadrillion possible combinations.5
The contingency aproach to management is, in concept, a rational approach to manufacturing management in a dynamic environment. Recognition that no single rule applies in every situation is important. Similarly, the recognition that no one
4D. C. Hambrick, and D. Lei, "Toward An Empirical Priori tization of Contingency Variables for Business Strategy," Aca demy of Management Journal, 29 (1985): 765 788.
5C. W. Hofer, "Toward A Contingency Theory of Business Strategy," Academy of Management Journal, 18 (1975): 784 810.
solution exists for most problems or situations is equally important. Managers, however, must have available some effic ient and effective means of employing contingency management. The management science discipline provides this means.
Managers use statistics in three general ways.6 These three ways are as follows:
1. To describe events. Descriptive statistics describe the performance or activity of one group or class, without attempting to make generalizations about other groups
2. To infer causes or future events. Inferential sta tistics permit the findings with respect to one set of rela tionships to be extended to other relationships and to general ize findings and conclusions on the basis of statistical inference.
3. To enhance the decision making process. Decision theory provides managers with knowledge about events and rela tionships which reduce the level of uncertainty in the data upon which decisions for an organization are based.
A wide variety of quantitative procedures are employed in scientific management applications. An appreciation of these processes may be obtained through a brief review of two of
__________ 6D. J. White, "Real Applications of Markov Decision Pro ...