Other organisations such as business, welfare organisations and the media also make decisions which impact on the community.

Business

Consider the impact of these business decisions: a factory shutting down, a company switching to using renewable energy sources. Increasingly there is pressure on businesses to be socially responsible, to ensure the decisions they make will have a positive effect on the community, The body shop¹ is one such business which strives to do this.

Welfare organisations

These include community service clubs like Rotary,² Little Athletics,³ Apex,⁴ and charities such as the Smith Family,⁵ St Vincent De Paul Society⁶. These organisations play a crucial role in communities and the decisions made by them affect many people. Consider the impact of Rotary reducing its scholarship program or St Vincent De Paul not running their winter appeal.

The media

The media has an enormous responsibility to keep the public informed. In doing so they should be accurate and fair. Sometimes this is not always the case. Consider the impact of a media organisation providing more positive media attention to one political party around election time than to other parties.

Activity

• Select one of the above organisations and identify the impact of a decision on at least two different groups in your community.

• Which organisation above has the most influence on the community?

These are 5 basic steps in decision making. These steps can be applied to anything such as deciding what computer to buy, or solving water shortages.

Action

Consider an upcoming decision you will have to make, use the model to help you make a decision.

Governments make decisions using the same steps. However they have a little more help in most areas utilising green papers,⁷ white papers,⁸ and independent reports. When it comes to implementing the decision, governments also have to organise and inform various departments. Think about the Digital Education Revolution in New South Wales and the laptop rollout; consider what was involved in implementing the decision.