Policy Analysis and Organizational Decisions

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Abstract
Field observation of practicing policy analysts, and review of a growing revisionist literature that examines policy analysis as currently practiced and utilized, produces three themes that diverge from traditional conceptualizations of rational decision-making. These themes suggest that the utilization of policy analysis can best be understood and facilitated by (a) analyzing the organizational structures and procedures facilitating or impeding its use; (b) analyzing the attitudes and motivations of the producers and users of policy analysis; or (c) analyzing the interrelationship of policy analysis with diverse competing inputs to decision-making. By rethinking the meaning of "decisions, " and adopting innovative concepts from March and Olsen's (1979) "garbage can model" of decision processes, a framework for integrating these revisionist themes is proposed.

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