The concept of "policy" has a particular status in the "rational" model as the relatively durable element against which other premises and actions are supposed to be tested for consistency.
It is in this sense that we may speak of "foreign policy" or "social policy" or "marketing policy" as if the term denoted local variants of a universal theme.
Yet each of these examples represents very different ways of manipulating, via purposive action, the external environment of particular organisations.
Moreover, the term "policy" is used even within ostensibly similar governmental agencies to describe a range of different activities including (i) defining objectives (ii) setting priorities (iii) describing a plan and (iv) specifying decision rules.
These characterisations of "policy" differ not only in their generality and the level at which it is supposed to occur but also in whether "policy" is assumed to be entirely prior to action or (as we believe is often the case) at least partly a post hoc generalisation or rationalisation.
Reference :
Reference :
Hill, M., 1993, The Policy Process, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
