Summary:
I found the paper a good headstart for system analysis when it comes to applying it to water resources. Conventional optimization techniques when applied to public sector problems can lead to inefficient results. It is important to understand the nature of a public sector problem. It is very different from the private sector and a conventional documented approach of optimization is not the desirable path to follow. The Author calls the public sector problem to be wicked in nature and it is important to have a deep understanding of the problem and modify the optimization approach to obtain better results.
A private sector problem differs from a public sector problem in many ways. The engineering approach to solve a public sector problem can have undesirable outcome. The social and public systems are not open to experimentation. A action intending to cause a desired outcome may cause a series of secondary outcomes also called side effects which are undesired in a social context. Difficulty arises when public sector problem arise without defined goals. The goals are set by decision makers who are a small percentage of the public and they don't reflect the diversity. So to obtain a single well defined goal is difficult. Sometimes the most obvious outcome is rejected because it is in social conflict. Most of the times the clientèle of a public sector is huge. It can be any person who is affected by a possible outcome. So when it comes to decision making in public sector there is always a section of people who are at the losing end of the bargain. So a best solution doesn't always apply to everyone equally.
So when it comes to optimizing a public sector the conventional approach should be scrapped as it is not going to yield expected results. Optimization in the public sector should be used to formulate the alternatives and not select one. The relation of an analyst and decision maker has to refined when it comes to public sector problems. Multiple modeling techniques can be applied to search for a set of alternative solutions. Complex modeling can be broken to simple models and used to achieve the goal. Thus it is important to identify the conflicting nature of a public sector problem before applying optimization techniques to it.
Discussion:
The paper is informative as it is an eyeopener for analysts and decision makers dealing with public sector problems. Much of water resources problem will fall under the public domain so optimization and goal setting of such problems should be approached in a non conventional way keeping in mind its irratic nature.
The author has been successful in differentiating the nature of public and private sector problems. However his simple minded solutions are mostly vague and are not supported with any suitable examples. I think he was right when he said the paper raises more questions than it answers.
If I were to follow up this work I would try to work on developing standard optimization techniques to a public sector problems that will keep in mind its very irregular nature.
I found the paper a good headstart for system analysis when it comes to applying it to water resources. Conventional optimization techniques when applied to public sector problems can lead to inefficient results. It is important to understand the nature of a public sector problem. It is very different from the private sector and a conventional documented approach of optimization is not the desirable path to follow. The Author calls the public sector problem to be wicked in nature and it is important to have a deep understanding of the problem and modify the optimization approach to obtain better results.
A private sector problem differs from a public sector problem in many ways. The engineering approach to solve a public sector problem can have undesirable outcome. The social and public systems are not open to experimentation. A action intending to cause a desired outcome may cause a series of secondary outcomes also called side effects which are undesired in a social context. Difficulty arises when public sector problem arise without defined goals. The goals are set by decision makers who are a small percentage of the public and they don't reflect the diversity. So to obtain a single well defined goal is difficult. Sometimes the most obvious outcome is rejected because it is in social conflict. Most of the times the clientèle of a public sector is huge. It can be any person who is affected by a possible outcome. So when it comes to decision making in public sector there is always a section of people who are at the losing end of the bargain. So a best solution doesn't always apply to everyone equally.
So when it comes to optimizing a public sector the conventional approach should be scrapped as it is not going to yield expected results. Optimization in the public sector should be used to formulate the alternatives and not select one. The relation of an analyst and decision maker has to refined when it comes to public sector problems. Multiple modeling techniques can be applied to search for a set of alternative solutions. Complex modeling can be broken to simple models and used to achieve the goal. Thus it is important to identify the conflicting nature of a public sector problem before applying optimization techniques to it.
Discussion:
The paper is informative as it is an eyeopener for analysts and decision makers dealing with public sector problems. Much of water resources problem will fall under the public domain so optimization and goal setting of such problems should be approached in a non conventional way keeping in mind its irratic nature.
The author has been successful in differentiating the nature of public and private sector problems. However his simple minded solutions are mostly vague and are not supported with any suitable examples. I think he was right when he said the paper raises more questions than it answers.
If I were to follow up this work I would try to work on developing standard optimization techniques to a public sector problems that will keep in mind its very irregular nature.
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