Organisational Policy

Pages 82 – 93

Glossary

Policy – A written statement of the processes and procedures, rules and regulations.

Procedures – A series of interrelated steps to implement policy.

Organisational Policy

The purpose of policy is to communicate the appropriate rules and procedures of an organisation to all relevant stakeholders.

Policies establish expected standards of and guidelines for behaviour.

LSO’s need to establish appropriate policies for operation to enable effective achievement of their objectives.

Organisational Policy

Policies, along with procedures are usually written down in a policy manual. Policy documents are also made available to relevant stakeholders. Many LSO’s publish some of their policies on their website.

Policies, Mission and Goal

Policies must reflect an organisation’s mission and goals. If they do, they will: Create consistency across all functions of

operation

Include procedures

Assist with compliance of desired behaviours within the organisation

Offer guiding principles for actions

Recognise the rights and obligations of people

Effective Policy

• Effective policies are:

• Clearly expressed

• Clearly communicated

• Often introduced during training, where the rationale and procedures of the policy are also presented

Policy Areas

Some policy areas include:

Employee recruitment

Employee training

Privacy

Sexual harassment

Customer complaints

Occupational health and safety

Glossary!!

Reactive – The policy of waiting to see what develops before making a decision or plan.

Proactive – The habit of using initiative to see opportunities rather than waiting for them emerge and following them.

Policy Development

Policies are generally determined by top-level management. However, lower levels of management, employees and other stakeholders are often asked for input.

Top-level management is held responsible for the quality of all policies within an organisation.

Policy Development

Policy development may either be proactive or reactive.

Proactive policy

Generally reflects the organisations leadership culture and places the organisation as an industry-leader.

sees a organisation take a strategic approach and implement policy to affect positive change.

Reactive policy – the organisation must plan, formulate and introduce a policy in response to a pressure. These pressures may come from the internal or external environment and could include:

Legal requirements

Social influences

Union demands

Employee demands

Policy Development

Macro Policy Pressures

Sources of pressure Examples

Legislative compliance

Ethics and social responsibility

Changing markets and international pressures

Changes in technology

Operating Policy Pressures

Sources of pressure Examples

Competitiveness

Regulatory body

Unions

Lobby groups

Internal Policy Pressures

Sources of pressure Examples

Shareholders

Management / Employees

Steps in Policy Development

1. Issue identification.

2. Research is conducted.

3. Stakeholders are consulted and provide input.

4. A draft policy is written.

Steps in Policy Development

5. The draft policy is posted and circulated for comment.

6. The policy is approved and finalised.

7. The policy is reviewed after a period of time and revised if necessary.

Questions

Briefly outline the 7 steps of policy development.

Complete: Activity 4.7 (Pages 84 – 86)

Activity 4.9 (Page 89)