Senior Decision Makers Research Articles

The Myth and Reality of Policy History: A Response to Robert Kelley

BOB KELLEY'S ARTICLE exhibits that combination of common sense and commitment that marks all of Kelley's professional endeavors and that remains essential as public history grows and prospers. Kelley argues for historical analysis of the policymaking process using the insights and knowledge of other related disciplines. He suggests that historians not only interpret the content of policymaking, but the structure. What are the steps from initiation through implementation? Clearly, he believes such an approach can be instructive to policymakers and historians alike, and he writes that it is both a duty and an obligation for historians to apply their skills to this universalized mode of policy analysis. For Kelley, policy history is not only process-oriented, but also problem-oriented. However, historians and policy analysts may disagree on what the real problem is. In any case, as Richard E. Neustadt and Ernest R. May remind us in Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision Makers, the basic question for both historians and policymakers is What's the story?, not What's the problem?i If the story is told correctly, the real problem will become apparent, and it may not be what people thought it was. Unfortunately, I am a bit pessimistic that senior decisionmakers will accept this sage advice. More commonly, they will agree with Garry Brewer and Peter deLeon, who maintain in The Foundations of Policy Analysis, a book Kelley approvingly mentions, that policymaking begins only when decisionmakers recognize a problem.2

Computer decision support for senior managers: encouraging exploration

This paper discusses issues involved in designing a computer-based decision support system for senior decision makers in business organizations. It is based on the authors' experiences of developing and using such a system over several years in a number of large U.K. companies. The paper focusses upon the nature of decision-making for senior managers and emphasizes the highly political and turbulent environment in which they work, and the implications this has for designing a system which can compete for the attention of a busy manager. Rather than describe “another system” we are anxious to discuss the problems involved in creating decision support systems that will be practical, and assist with decisions that “really matter”.

Lotus 1-2-3 for mainframes (bringing a product to market)

The number of widely-used, business oriented APL applications is few. It's difficult to pinpoint why other than to reflect on the complexities of conceiving a marketable product and executing the d...

How to give away £100 million: information for senior decision makers

Every year the National Coal Board divides about £100 million capital for purchasing mining machinery between 12 mining regions. This paper discusses how the allocation should be made, and in particular what information should be provided to the senior management staff who take the final decision.