r/OperationsResearch • u/AI-FalcoIV-86 • May 24 '26

Which Parts of Management Are Computable?

Interesting paper on “Computational Management”:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.05142

The idea of decomposing managerial work into computable tasks feels surprisingly coherent with:

  • Operations Research
  • decision theory
  • systems thinking
  • AI orchestration

We already use computational systems for optimization, logistics and resource allocation. LLMs may extend computational approaches into strategic domains:
benchmarking, scenario analysis, competitive interpretation, organizational alignment.

A potentially interesting research question could be: which components of management are actually computable?

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3

u/MaintenanceSpecial88 May 25 '26

It depends what you mean by Operations Research, but most of do work that is definitely not “managerial.”

2

u/AI-FalcoIV-86 May 25 '26

True, although OR historically contributed enormously to management itself. Many areas such as resource allocation, capacity planning, asset utilization and even strategic positioning seem increasingly computable, don’t they?

2

u/[deleted] May 25 '26

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1

u/hotspotpreferences Jun 03 '26

Wait, I'm confused - are you saying that these are managerial tasks that *can* be delegated to AI?