Backgrounds: Operations research (OR) is basically concerned with the relationship between scientific modeling and the application of models in social contexts. This problematic is also central in core domains of the management sciences (MS). Researches have recently outlined a perspective on the relationship between OR models and ethics that squarely ties ethical engagement to daily practice and, more specifically, to the manner in which a practitioner uses a model or other techniques in a particular setting.
Methods: In this review paper several challenges of introducing ethical aspects into OR are discussed, evidencing difficulties and ambiguities in the relationship to be established between the OR practitioner and his/her clients, decision-makers or stakeholders. Also many ethical challenges of OR have been surveyed for understanding the interplay between social science, institutional design, and expertise.
Conclusions: It showed that neither analysis nor modeling work nor the choice of analytical tools was entirely ethically neutral; incomparability, incommensurability and incertitude should be dealt with. The complexity of the relationship between ethical values and the identification of collective goals helped understand why the problems of efficiency and expertise had come to the forefront of ethical analysis. To solve this problem, operations research associations and institutions have been formulated ethics and social values in ehics codes, but the localization is needed for the application of them.