Management of Business & Public Organizations

This writer can only relate to this question from the point of view of 35 years in the private sector, almost all of them in one company. As director of sales, North America, for this company, there is a constant personal concern to make sure that our product is properly positioned in the consumer's mind. We accomplish this by communicating and explaining to the public, the benefits of using our product line. For greatest efficiency, we choose to use an extremely concrete and specific language that leaves little room for doubt. Our position has always been that it is in the "best interest" of our company to maintain such an approach. However, it has often been said that techniques that are effective in the private sector do not easily translate into the public sector (Etzioni, 1993).

There is no doubt that the literature of public administration acknowledges that there might be different decision making processes concerning issues that are in the "public's interest" than there are for issues concerning the "public's best interest." The implication of these two phrases is that there is, in public policy decision-making, often a judgment made concerning what information the public "needs to know." Some guidance for this question can be found in Steers' (1991) discussion of decision making, in which he broke the process down into six phases: A) Recognizing the need for a decision; B) Identifying the objectives; C) Identifyi

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ently. Managers and organizations which address only symptoms and not root causes are unlikely to have long-term success. In fact, the two phrases under discussion in this answer are examples of the inability of some managers to address problem solving in a very pragmatic framework. It is often easier for a public official to use a phrase such as "Food for America is Vital" rather than deal with the more prosaic statement "22 percent of Americans under the age of 12 do not get enough to eat." The first phrase is an example of a jingoistic approach that an administrator might feel would inspire the public, while the second phrase, more tangible in its language, might depress the public. Are these two phrases, then, examples of the "public's interest" and the "public's best interest"? The decision-making literature often refers to the use of techniques such as "brainstorming" and "cause-and-effect diagrams" to help isolate problems. Through these methods, individuals involved in the problem solving process can determine what the underlying cause of the problem is rather than just approach the problem from the symptom standpoint. These techniques, particularly brainstorming, can also be used to generate alternative solutions l
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Some common words found in the essay are:
North America, John Gaus, America Vital, Van Dine, Public Organizations, Quality Progress, public administration, February Managing, References Behn, Fredrickson HG, Human Processes, private sector, decision process, donndelinger van dine, 'analogous to', six phases, policy decision-making, situations alternative, behn 1998, speaking listening, public policy decision-making, van dine 1996, public policy,
Approximate Word count = 1726
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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