Wicked Problems in Public Administration - Coursework Example

WICKED” PROBLEMS IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Author Course Tutor University City/State Date “WICKED” PROBLEMS IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION The faster growth of modern life has led to the rise of need for public administration. The activities run in different countries and states require daily governance and specific interventions. Therefore, there is no state will you find any factor in a citizen’s life on going without any governmental agencies involved. Simply, public administration refers to the management, which are relevant to the administrative actions of the government. As stated by L.D. White (2007, p.7), public administration is a composition of all the operations aiming to fulfilling the implementation of public policies as stated by a competent authority. The increasing rates of public administration have led to the evolvement of “wicked” problems. To understand this term, Goldstein (2008, p.2) explains that the world is in a complex century full of unparalleled interconnectivities, unexpected new structures and outcomes, and drastic innovation and transformation. The problems are termed “wicked” because there is no exact origin of them (Rittel and Weber, 1973, P.156). It means that each problem has its own uniqueness which in most cases as never been faced before, thereby becoming entangled with other problems. This essay will talk about public administration and its “wicked” problems by giving familiar examples, and the limitation of market approaches in addressing the arising challenges as a result. Wicked problems are usually seen to rise when organizations are constantly faced by changes and exceptional challenges. They mostly happen in social contexts. It can be argued that the greater the misunderstanding among the stakeholders, the more wicked the problems will be (Camillus, 2008, p.100).Some of the characteristics of wicked problems include being intricate to define. Public policies have different descriptions of the element of truth. Simply, no translation is either right or wrong. Usually the nature and the intensity of the problem depend on whom and what is being dealt with. Therefore, clearly defining the causes, intensity, and solutions to these wicked problems is difficult. Let us take an example of climate change as a wicked problem. Over the past years, climate change has led to complexities among different governmental organizations. It is a policy with multiple causal factors, disagreements, and complications on how it should be managed. Different governments have clashed with a variety of non- governmental organizations dealing with climate change over the best solutions to undertake. This clearly makes a standard definition of a wicked problem difficult. Secondly, wicked problems have a variety of interdependence and are usually multi causal. At a broader perspective of any wicked problem, there always exist conflicting goals and objectives. For example in many countries, the use of drugs and substance abuse is not allowed. However, many of these counties are face the problem of entirely eradicating drug use amongst their citizens. The tension between limiting the harm caused to the drug users and following the stipulated policies is challenging. Hence, you find some countries adopting safer ways for drug users other than making the use illegal. These conflicting goals are because of the views different stakeholders take on dealing with different causal factors. Hence, when these internally conflicting goals are successfully addressed, a variety of coordinated responses will arise. Thirdly, the efforts to tackle wicked problems often lead to unintended consequences. Because of the interconnectedness and multi causal nature of wicked problems, the solution involved my lead to unexpected results in other areas. For example, the policies for eradicating the atmospheric pollution followed by the USA and Western Europe may be a contributing factor to global warming because of the reduction of sulphur particles in the air leading to the formation of clouds that hold heat. Moreover, wicked problems are always known to be unstable. With the world evolving at a faster rate, the time for understanding problems such as scientific origins, legislation and many other public policies tend to be limited to the time of addressing solutions. An organization can come up with a solution that will only take a few months to be effective; hence, focus should be based on a moving target for it to be time effective too. This characteristic is related to wicked problems having no clear and definite solutions to their complexities. In most cases, the solutions developed cannot be verifiably said to be good or bad, but rather they are better. The final characteristic of wicked problem involves the change in behaviour in more than one organization. In the contemporary world, it is most likely to find that many organizations work together even though they are governed by different public administrations. Therefore, dealing with wicked problems will require the composition of many organizations that in return will lead to change in behaviour. For example in the United States, when the federal government is introducing public policies, the state governments have to be involved. The introduction of new tax rates will influence the citizens’ behaviour. These new changes will be considered part of the solutions although they may not be sufficient. Climate Change as an illustration of a wicked problem Slightly discussed earlier, climate change is good illustration of a wicked problem. Michael Toman, the research manager of the World Bank states that climate change is a problem that displays massive scientific and economic complexities, serious uncertainties, multifaceted ethical issues, and even a clear disagreement on what the real problem is. For instance, economists will dwell on the trade-offs, whereas ecologists will concentrate more on the future damages to the environment. According to the current statistics, greenhouse gas emissions create major pressure to the economic growth in addition to environmental sustainability (Briggs, 2007, p.35). Hypothesized rising global temperatures and other significant changes will intensify the nature of wicked problem if not dealt with effectively. The rising temperatures will definitely lead to global warming which could pose challenges to the living organisms in the ecosystem. It is notable that many stakeholders have been working hard to mitigate climate change, however, to achieve this it would require international consensus from different public administration policies. This is because implementations may include costly adjustments that some organizations may not be willing to participate. In the United States, the president and the congress once held a meeting to come up with a national legislation to address the global climate change. In any legislation, it should be noted that the law making process must include enacting specific laws that should be in line with the long-term objectives. When it comes to public policies for climate change, the changes in legislation majorly dwell on the duration of the objectives and the costs. This displays the second characteristic of wicked problem discussed earlier. It not sufficient for the congress to come up with a policy that quickly controls the emission of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, neither is it sufficient to build strong economic bonds that will change the overview of businesses and individual behaviour. This means that the public policies put in place should strive towards accomplishing the stipulated objectives and enhance the overall economic growth. The key factors that have contributed to climate change becoming a wicked problem include lack of proper global planning, profligacy, and channelling of energy in the wrong area (Briggs, 2007, p.5). Profligacy refers to the different rates of system inequalities especially between countries leading to varying production and consumption rates. The government needs to undertake the appropriate jurisdiction to achieve sustainable lifestyles to its citizens. Hence, the citizens should be involved in the making and implementation of public policies that aim to conserve earths’ resources. When it comes to the climate change and global planning, many countries across the world tend to have lack of good public administration. If a country decides to reduce its rate of gas emissions to the atmosphere, the effort will be too little to make a difference, not unless any countries come up with safer and economical way of reducing gas emissions to the environment. Eradicating climate change would require the contribution of governments to formally consent over what degree of gas emissions to be cut. In addition, to be included is how and when the plans will be taken. Even though these factors will not guarantee a total eradication of this wicked problem but it cannot be said to be wrong or right. One can argue that technological growth, embracing the changing markets systems are some of the answers to the damaging effects of global change. Coping with wicked problems in public administration The first basic principle of dealing with wicked problems is embracing and understanding their complexities, even when their definitions vary. Because wicked problems mainly originate from social complexities, how to solve them comes from one’s own perception. Therefore, coping with these problems can be approached by using two strategies. These include a professional approach and a postmodern approach. The first approach entails continuous governance and adaptations of new plans with the changing world. This will ensure strategic implementation of the desired objectives as per the changes. This approach is more systematic and follows the classical model of planning. However, it is fundamental to note that this approach cannot solve all the presenting problems, especially when the society explains the problems in completely different ways. On the other hand, the postmodern approach states that it is difficult to deal with wicked problems as an individual or rather as an organization because the problems are inter-organizational. Even though stakeholders may have will have different perceptions on the issues, it will be fundamental for them to converge together and come up with a solid solution. The two approaches combined together should foster rich communication channels, which will cultivate useful skills and knowledge to deal with the problem at hand. Therefore, it is the duty of any public administration to have an accommodative citizen-government relationship and have free engagement in decision-making skills. One can argue that for the two approaches to exercise full functionality, bureaucracy should exist. Moreover, a company or any organization faced with a wicked problem must first define clearly define their corporate identity. This is because along the way, they will be inventing new strategies to curb the wicked problem facing them, but they must also be firm on their sense of purpose. With a strong identity, companies are able to assess their choices by utilizing their values, competencies and aspirations. It enables them to have executive directions that focus their attention on opportunities and future risks. For instance in 2007 the Campbell Soup made a decision to sell Godiva business. These two companies have differing values and competencies in their work ethics. This means that Godiva was more oriented towards profits whereas Campbell was inclines more on nutrition. Therefore, the decision to sell the business would make Campbell Soup forget its own corporate identity leading to the rise of a wicked problem. However, to prevent this occurrence, Campbell decided to sell the company to Yildiz Holdings. Market approaches in addressing wicked problems Focusing on action as a strategy in market approach can be helpful to address the challenges brought by the wicked problems. The Newton law of order states that there is a relationship between cause and effect. This means that many public administrations are in a position to choose what strategies they are ready to undertake. Because wicked problems are complex and interrelated, many organization are always baffled by what strategies to take or not, since their consequences might not be known then. Therefore as a starting point, they should quit pursuing many options but focus on one goal at a time. Handling one wicked problem at a time will be easier than handling a number of them. Consequently, companies should consider a feed forward direction. This involves innovating systems to function based on feedback. Although it is an influential foundation of learning, feedback is known to have limited advantages in a wicked situation. As feedback will allow organizations to revise their strategies and come up with reliable plans, wicked problems will compel the management to invent unique ones. Additionally, one can state that feedback helps organizations to amend their past mistakes whereas wicked problems arise from unexpected features. To realize success in this market approach, organizations must be alert and learn to predict future risks (Camillus, 2008, p.98). The involved administration should have broadened perspectives for them tackle future wicked problems with ease. In the business world, companies must also ensure that they not only depend on the stipulated plans and strategies, but rather they should have the flexibility to adjust to different situations. This means that they should frequently scrutinize the surrounding environment for weak signs rather than setting their targets on profitability. In conclusion, tackling wicked problems are easier when working across different organizational boundaries. It requires the governments, private sectors and stakeholders of different organizations to come up with a primary goal that support collaborative work. In addition, it should be noted that any public policy being implemented must include the citizens fully of the relevant country. This will ensure that the process realizes success, since it is through them that behaviour change will begin. References Camillus, J. C. 2008. Strategy as a wicked problem. Harvard business review, 86(5), 98. Retrieved on 2 October 2015 from https://hbr.org/2008/05/strategy-as-a-wicked-problem Briggs, L. 2007. Tackling wicked problems: A public policy perspective. Canberra: Australian Government, Commonwealth of Australia. P.1-42 Lazarus, R. J. 2008. Super wicked problems and climate change: restraining the present to liberate the future. Cornell L. Rev., 94, 1153. Rittel H., Webber M.1973. Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences, 4, 155-169. Read More