PERCEIVED PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF OR/MS LEADERS AND THE GROWTH OF OR /MS ACTIVITY : AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

The personal characteristics of Japanese OR/MS leaders which are considered to affect the successful survival and promotion of OR/MS activities in the organization through their evolutionary phases were empirically examined. Forty two OR/MS leaders at twenty four Japanese industrial firms were interviewed and asked to rank personal characteristics which they considered to be important for managing OR/MS group activities at each of the three evolutionary phases viz, missionary, transitional and maturity phases, Under the life-time employement and seniority-dependent promotion system, distinctive OR/MS leader patterns are difficult to determine, hence the opinion of OR/MS leaders was studied. It was found, among others, that. OR/MS leaders should change as the OR/MS group progresses through their organizational evolution in such a way that the characteristics of technical orientation become less important while characteristics of organizational orientation become highly important as the group advances to the maturity phase.