PubPob pt. 7 - Policy Adoption and Decision-making

The third phase of the policy process in which policies are adopted by government bodies for future implementation. It is legitimized as a result of the public statements or actions of government officials; both elected and appointed—the president, Congress, state legislators, agency officials, and the courts.

POLICY ADOPTION

Guess the Scholar:

Policy adoption begins after an issue or a problem is placed on the agenda and makes it way through the legislative process until it comes close to the decision agenda. In congress's case, the process usually begins by winnowing down a set of alternatives that are, for the most part, debated and formulated in the committees.

Thomas Birkland

It is the next step after policy formulation which includes the efforts to obtain enough support to enable a proposal to become the stated policy of a government. At this point, most policy proposals go through a process of bargaining and compromise and emerge significantly changed.

Alan Gitelson, Robert Dudley and Melvin Dubnick

It is a part of the standard set of procedures in the policymaking process which is expected to lead in all circumstances to the choice of the most efficient means of achieving policy goals.

Michael Howlett and Sarah Geist

It refers to the choice among policy alternatives that have been generated and their likely effects on the problem estimated. It is the most overtly political stage in so far as the many potential solutions to a given problem must somehow be winnowed down and but one or a select few picked and realized for use.

Gary Brewer & Peter De Leon

It is the third stage in the policy making process which involves the practice of deciding which among the proposed policy alternatives, including taking no action, will be used to handle a particular problem in the society.

James Anderson

Process of Policy Adoption: T or F?

• Formulated policies have to be adopted by relevant institutions of government in order to be put into effect. Adoption can be affected by the same factors that influence what issues move into the earlier phase of agenda building. • For instance, policies that address the changed circumstances crises often bring can often be immediately adopted. Meanwhile, powerful interest groups can use their political influence to determine what policies are adopted.

ALL TRUE

This refers to making choices among alternative courses of action—which may also include inaction. While it can be argued that management is decision making, half of the decisions made by managers within organizations ultimately fail.

T or F: Therefore, increasing effectiveness in decision making is an important part of maximizing someone's effectiveness at work.

Decision-making

TRUE

Type of decision, in which, unique and important decisions require conscious thinking, information gathering, and careful consideration of alternatives.

NON-PROGRAMMED DECISIONS

A decision-type that occur frequently enough that we develop an automated response to them. Despite the far-reaching nature of the decisions in the previous example, not all decisions have major consequences or even require a lot of thought. For example, before you come to class, you make simple and habitual decisions such as what to wear, what to eat, and which route to take as you go to and from home and school. You probably do not spend much time on these mundane decisions.

PROGRAMMED DECISIONS

CLASSIFICATIONS OF DECISIONS

Strategic, Tactical, and Operational

It refer to decisions that employees make each day to make the organization run.

It sets the course of an organization.

These are decisions about how things will get done.

Operational decisions

Strategic decisions

Tactical decisions

T or F: Strategic decision processes are influenced by various sets of context variables. In this paper the influence of characteristics of the national culture in which an organization is embedded is analyzed, using data from the Philippines as an illustration. The findings suggest that national culture does indeed influence decision processes in the expected directions, and that the conceptualizations based on Hofstede and the Bradford studies provide a fruitful framework for further studies.

TRUE

Policy Adoption is often used interchangeably with the word - Decision Making…

J. Anderson

T. Birkland

Howlette and Ramesh

political decision making

policy decision

Public Policy Decision Making

Top-down vs Bottom Up

TOP-DOWN

• Policy-making and implementation are distinct

• Focus on execution of policymakers' intentions

• Starts with a statement of intent

• Implementation with clear lines of authority and enforcement of norms

BOTTOM UP

• No clear separation between policymaking, implementation

• Subordinate actors (e.g. service providers) also seen as decisionmakers

• Starts with a statement of behavior in the 'field'

• Implementation seen as relationships between actors

An approach to the study of implementation that stresses the involvement of lower-level bureaucrats and others who carry out public decisions. Also follows a development plan on formulation.

Bottom-up Model - Local Self Governance Act 2055

Also known as autocratic leadership, is the process of upper management or the chief executive officer reaching independent conclusions that change or improve the workplace or business systems. Policies can affect all employees or only one department.

Top down Approach

All possible options or approaches to solving the problem under study are identified and the costs and benefits of each option are assessed and compared with each other. The option that promises to yield the greatest net benefit is selected

Rational Comprehensive Theory

This model emerged as a critique to the Rational Model saying that organizations do not function as computers in solving optimization problems. This Theory advocates that organizations function like garbage cans into which a mix of problems and possible solutions are poured, with the precise mix determining the decision outcome.

The Garbage-Can Model

Under this model, policy is a continuation of previous policy with minimum changes

• Existing programs, policies and expenditures are considered as a base

• Policy makers accept the legitimacy of previous policies because of uncertainty about the consequences of new policies

According to Anderson (2011) this model shares its own shortcomings or Limitations despite being pitched by some scholars as the more suitable approach. However it is too conservative and narrowly focused in the promotion of status-quo.

Incremental Theory

This is a combination of the Rational and Incremental Theories. (trial and error). It capitalizes on the shortcomings of the rational and incremental models and combines their elements in order to provide the most practical and effective solutions to the problems of the government.

Mixed Scanning

Weddle shared that: others are often not aware of the level of decision making the leader chose to use or that the leader is not aware of what level of decision making they are gravitating towards when needing to make a decision. T or F?

TRUE

This level takes little time and no involvement. This is used especially in emergency situations where immediate action is critical. Input is not helpful, quick action and immediate compliance is what counts. Unfortunately, some leaders use this level when there isn't an emergency and more time could be taken to involve others and to use another Decision Making Level

Leader makes the decision alone and announces

The leader seeks input, usually to cover blind spots and enhance their depth of understanding around the issue to be decided.

Leader gathers input from individuals and decides

Leader holds a team meeting and solicits input from the team listens to the team's ideas and then takes that information and decides.

Leader gathers input from team an decides

At this level the leader is part of the team and he/she is just one vote/voice among many. The group processes all the decisions involved, compromises positions until everyone is in agreement. Consensus is reached when everyone feels at least 7% comfortable with the decision, feels like their thoughts and opinions have been heard and everyone agrees to stand behind the decision 1%

Consensus building

Leader fully delegates the decision to the team and is not a part of the decision-making discussions. This level requires the leader to be very clear with the team as to what are the criteria/constraints that must be met for their decision to be able to move forward! Failure to meet that criteria could result in the team being sent back to the drawing board or the leader choosing a fall back option" and utilize another level for moving the decision forward.

Consensus and delegates with criteria and constraints

Within the levels of decision making the "______" is used by the leader when the team can't reach consensus and they need to get involved for certain reasons.

Fallback Option

This model refers to arriving at decisions without conscious reasoning. Managers make decisions under challenging circumstances, including time pressures, constraints, a great deal of uncertainty, changing conditions, and highly visible and high-stakes outcomes. Thus, it makes sense that they would not have the time to use the rational decision-making model

Deciding via Intuition or Intuitive decision-making

In intuitive decision-making, researchers have found that intuition plays a critical role in _______. Therefore, an understanding of how experts develop and use intuition effectively within organizations has the potential to greatly influence organizational practices and effectiveness

expert decision making

The intuitive decision-making model argues that in a given situation, experts making decisions scan the environment for?

cues to recognize patterns

It is the generation of new, imaginative ideas. With the flattening of organizations and intense competition among companies, individuals and organizations are driven to be creative in decisions ranging from cutting costs to generating new ways of doing business.

Creativity

T or F? While creativity is the first step in the innovation process, creativity and innovation are not the same thing. Innovation begins with creative ideas, but it also involves realistic planning and followthrough.

TRUE

CREATIVE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS:

_______ is the step in which the decision maker consciously thinks about the problem and gathers information. A key to success in creative decision making is having or acquiring expertise in the area being studied. Then, _______ occurs, and during this, the individual sets the problem aside and does not think about it for a while. At this time, the brain is actually working on the problem unconsciously. Then comes _______, or the insight moment when the solution to the problem becomes apparent to the person, sometimes when it is least expected

Problem Recognition —- Immersion; Incubation; Illumination —- Verification and Application

— refers to the number of ideas a person is able to generate.

— refers to how different the ideas are from one another. If you are able to generate several distinct solutions to a problem, your decision-making process is high on it.

— refers to how unique a person’s ideas are.

Fluency

Flexibility

Originality