LE 101: Public Administration and Law Enforcement

R.S. Damian +255713428318

TOPIC 6: INTRODUCTION TO PLANNING AND DECISION MAKING FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT [2 LECTURES] Respicius Shumbusho Damian Planning and Decision-Making: Conceptual Relationship What is planning? A Plan Is a guide of action to be taken in the future. It is a statement of the future path that draws from the current realities. A plan can also be an unverified propositions about the future, but must be based on the past successes and failures. It contains SWOT elements. Planning: in formal organizations may be defined as a managerial/administrative function that is concerned with establishing goals and state the ways and means by which these goals are to be attained. Therefore planning is taken as the foundation for future activities of modern organizations be they public or private. Alternatively, in simple language; planning is deciding in advance, what is to be done or thinking before doing. Who does Planning? An individual, family, organization, government etc Importance of planning Planning is a managerial tool; it is used to forecast the future problems and selecting solutions that are most relevant. It is used as a tool for allocating scarce resources. It is used as a determinant factor for effectiveness of management. Planning is used as a tool for distribution of income and ensuring economic growth. It is also a tool for maximizing efficiency in organizations. What is Decision Making Decision Making: is a conscious process that involves choosing between the existing alternatives. Decision-making is the process of identifying a set of feasible alternatives and choosing a course of action from them. It means taking the best, but less costly alternative. Commonly, in making decisions, an effective decision maker takes a decision that is cost effective. It is commonly said that failure to plan is planning for failure. Relationship between Planning and Decision Making The two are closely related since the planner must take decisions at every stage of planning. Both planning and decision-making involve choice (however limited it may be- e.g. in situations where you decide not to decide). At a given level of planning or decisionmaking there must be a decision. Therefore, scholars argue that non-decision differs from indecision because it is itself a decision. Indecision means that there is no decision to decide, but non-decision means that the decision has been not to decide. Can you see difference between the two? Find out examples .
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LE 101: Public Administration and Law Enforcement

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The process of planning includes a series of interconnected decisions. Both planning and decision is making involve SWOT calculation that helps the participants to take the best path. Both of the processes involve collection and analysis of information related to the past, present, and future (forecasting) as well as the options available. The stages involved in either of the processes are the same and in most cases apply similar theories and models. Decision making differs from planning in the sense that decision making has a narrow scope while planning has a wider scope. While decision-making means taking a course of action from alternatives, planning is a process of taking future course of action. Planning goes an extra mail in making decisions; as the selected course of action must be clarified by identifying the strategies and minor policies that would make the plan successful. All planning processes involve decision-making, but not all decision-making processes involve planning. 6.2. Public Decision Making and Planning as Processes, Strategic Orientation The Process of Planning The process of planning is political in the sense that it involves power and influence. Sometimes, the acceptability of a path priority to achieve certain objective may not be technical. It may only depend on the capacity of planners to obtain information, analyze it, and convince the others that a certain alternative would be the best (rationally, cost, etc). Planning is a continuous or cyclic process. The end of one plan is the beginning of another plan. The process of planning has stages at which the planner has to ask himself/herself several questions that lead him/her into making a choice (decision). Both decision-making and planning as processes have stages in which the stages interdependently support each other. Defects at one stage may affect the other stage.
Decision Making Stages: (1) Defining the problem (2) Developing alternatives (3) Evaluate the alternatives (4) Make a decision (5) Implement a decision (6) Evaluate a decision-Then start from the first stage.

Stage 1: Identification of the Problem: collect information, analyze it, define the problem, and clarify it. Set the goals and identify related objectives (specific). The objectives that the plan wants to achieve must be identified. They must be as SMART as possible Stage 2: Selecting the Alternative Options: Enlist the options that would be taken to solve the problem Stage 3: Choosing the best option: the best option must be the most effective, feasible, (and seemingly legitimate-though not all options taken might be legitimate)
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LE 101: Public Administration and Law Enforcement

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Stage 4: Set the Plan: means pulling together all the components into a logical order in the way that each component support the other. For example, the objective supports the output-outcome; identify the cost versus the result, enlisting the barriers, select implementation strategies and set timeframes. Stage 5: Implementation of the Plan: convert the plan into activities that are aimed at achieving the identified outputs and outcomes. Implementation needs availability of resources and managerial support as the implementers is not always part of the planning process). Stage 6: Monitoring and Evaluation: monitoring means making day to-day follow up aimed at making sure that implementation match with the processes and standards that were identified during planning. The aim of monitoring is to provide necessary support to implementers. Evaluation on the other hand, is related to making informed assessment of the plan implementation in relation to its outputs and outcomes. Strategic Planning Strategic planning is defined as long-range planning that focuses on the entire organization. Strategic planning seeks to achieve strategic alignment between different (main and minor) plans and decisions in organizations. Unlike other types of planning such as short term (tactical planning) and contingent planning, involves executive directors and presidents, leaders of the organizations at higher level who must define the direction of the organization and the rest of the plans need to establish mutual support to the corporate executive plans. It is a long term planning 3 to 5 years. The nature of strategic planning is to develop strategies for achieving your objectives, which must all support the goal, vision, and mission of the organization. Vision= Answers the questions why does the organization/institution exists? What it does? For whom one? Where it wants to go? It is just like an impressive picture of where the organization wants to go in the future-it is inspirational in nature. Mission= Answers the questions How to get to that point? Why we believe we must get there? What means will make us reach the dreamt success. The vision energizes, while the mission brings energy and shown the way thereon. Requirements of Strategic Planning: all the plans should reflect the goal and vision of the organization. The strategic objectives must be linked with the corporate goals and the vision. Objectives should be SMART and each objective should have clear indicators for measuring both the outputs and outcomes. Planning must be done participatory and line managers should be empowered as part of planners. The results should be reviewed continuously and improvement strategies be supported. Summary: plans can therefore be categorized in an overlapping way into contingent plans, short term (tactical plans), long-term plans, and strategic plans.
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LE 101: Public Administration and Law Enforcement

R.S. Damian +255713428318

6.3. The basic models of Public planning/decision making (rational comprehensive, incremental, mixed scanning) Answers that the models attempt to provide: how capable are decision makers? Is information about options available? What are the best plans/decisions? . (a) The Rational Comprehensive Model Assumptions: Development is clearly predictable, information is cheap, and the policy maker is equipped with capacity and knowledge to collect information and analyze all the alternatives. Thus, there is a clear cut between the best and the rest of the options as alternatives can be ranked from the best to the least. There is also a clear cut between rational calculation of decision makers and values and beliefs. It is therefore possible (and best) to have new plans which are rational. (b) Incremental Model Assumptions: It tries to address weakness of the rational comprehensive model and focuses on how planners and decision makers behave in actual planning contexts. Goals and objectives selection is intertwined with scientific analysis of the problem (not separate). Information is highly costly and decision makers capacity to obtain all the available information and analyze all the available alternatives is limited (some alternatives are not known). Therefore, decision makers deal with alternatives at hand or what they know. The problems that confront a decision maker are constantly redefined and thus meansends-means are continuously revisited to improve plans. Therefore, planners make marginal adjustments on existing plans rather than making completely new plans. (c) Mixed Scanning Model Amitai Etzioni (1967), a sociologist found fault s in both rational comprehensive and incremental models. He criticized rationalists as Utopian because actors cannot command the resources and capabilities required by rationalist decision makers. He also criticized instrumentalists for overlooking innovations and empirical fundamental decisions on which incrementing build. He developed a model called mixed scanning that assumes that plans undergo both fundamental and incremental decisions. Therefore, both broad based analysis and in-depth analysis may be useful in planning and decision-making. He argued that planners are just like chess players; they dont take long to examine all the opportunities, they think one or two steps a head, running from trouble or toward a seeming opportunity and thus divide their time deciding between choosing fundamental approach (attack) or develop force (king ) since the time for completing the game is limited. This mixed scanning in the policy and planning arena may take place at different stages including choosing the strategy, sub strategy, and choosing an alternative.
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LE 101: Public Administration and Law Enforcement

R.S. Damian +255713428318

Given the nature of planning environments, the MSM needs planners to use focused trial error planning, to be slowly and go tentative, to procrastinate if there is likelihood of uncertainty, to stagger their decisions, fractionize decisions if there are uncertainty, to hedge their bet, and also be ready to reverse their decisions. Given the context of LEAs, which of the models is the most useful in decision making and planning among LEAs? Those who believe that LEAs can be transformed abruptly, they would rather go for rational comprehensive model while those who believe that it needs gradual transformation would go for incremental model. Today LEAs need to be dynamic , flexible, innovative, and seemingly undergo fundamental transformations. However, there are established traditional norms related to LEAs roles that require LEAs to live preparedly. In this sense, LEAs would always continue planning and making decisions by building on previous decisions. Decision-making and planning environments in LEAs are characterized by complexity, uncertainty, and shortage of information that would provide basis for reaching the most rational decisions. Sometimes, owing to the planning contexts of LEAs, planning would seek to be rational, but continue to be practically tactical, and contingent. 6.4: Barriers to Planning and Decision Making in the Context of Law Enforcement The environment of LEAs and the nature of their functions generally affect it. In most of the LEAs, organizational purposes are clear, but the problem comes on the side of the developing measurable objectives and indicators to assess the extent to which LEAs and individuals should be regarded as having attained their performance goals in implementing plans. Public organizations, particularly LEAs aspire to move on with changes happening in the existing knowledge and practices of management, but are not as dynamic as market firms are. So, by using the factors that determine success of planning, students may be able to identify what constrains planning in organizations of their choice. Successful planning depend on several factors: these include Knowledge: especially concerned with linking the strategies selected with future results (think of stopping road accidents through prohibiting night driving). Information availability (research) that reduces uncertainty Power: the possibility of changing the behavior of the other (sometimes the capacity to impose hard decisions)-National IDs for instance, economic recovery through compulsory farm work in rural areas. Availability of resources (human, physical, financial): Especially when it comes to implementation stage.
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LE 101: Public Administration and Law Enforcement

R.S. Damian +255713428318

Time: is especially needed so as to collect information, analyze it, going through options, and making informed choice

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