What is A Public Sector Decision

Any decision-making process involves value conflicts, social constructs, and stakeholders. In divided societies, where social homogeneity is limited and power is unequally distributed, people have conflicting interests and ends, and thus will tend to start from disparate particular judgments. Decision-making is shaped by recognition of competing values, ideas and judgments as well as by our bounded rational tools. We try to systematize and explain particular judgments about what is just by appealing to widely shared principles, "going back and forth," changing the judgments or the principles to satisfy similarly revisable methodological constraints, such as consistency, simplicity, and explanatory power. The task is to find a stable basis for cooperation that does not abstract from actual interests.
Management Review states, "public sector decisions are the result of compromise, bargaining and politics. The process of making a decision is often more important than the decision itself. The result may not be the most cost-effective, but it is the result of a consensus developed to satisfy most of the constituents' interests." Conversely, "private sector decision-making is based on identifying the problem, constructing alternatives, and choosing the most cost effective outcome. Private sector decision makers are judged by the outcome of the decision."'
Consequently, the Council and the Manager must be aware that balancing many different conflicting opinions and building a consensus is an essential part of the decision-making process in the public sector and that this fundamentally differs from private sector decision-making.