Governance, Essay Example

Governance is an important topic for all organizations and all organizations have some type of governance strategy that is used for maintaining organizational operations. Governance is defined by Dictionary.com as “a method or system of government or management” (Governance). Additionally, governance strategies of organizations, such as a Mayor’s Office, are responsible for making decisions on policies that affect the people. To do this effectively, it is important that the organization engages its constituents in making decisions that will affect their lives and the lives of others.

One popular issue for which the Mayor’s Office makes decisions on policy is raising the minimum wage. This is an issue that definitely affects people in various ways. It directly affects workers in the area of their finances and it directly affects employers in the area of profits. Additionally, raising the minimum wage can indirectly affect others who work and interact with the workers on personal and professional levels. This is why a proper strategy to making decisions on minimum wage policy is crucial. The mayor of a city often develops and proposes policies with an authority to carry out the directives of the city council (which has vested policy-making powers) and the city’s constituents (MRSC). This means the mayor is responsible for engaging the constituents when making policy decisions such as with raising the minimum wage.

An example of a case where a Mayor’s Office was charged with making a decision to raise the minimum wage is in Seattle, Washington, from widespread interest from constituents of the city. According to an article on CNN.com, the mayor of Seattle made a decision to raise the minimum wage for city workers to $15 per hour. Mayor Ed Murray is newly elected and made this decision immediately after taking office. The article states that Mayor Murray’s decision-making strategy included involving a constituent panel to investigate how the raise would impact the city (Wallace).

This is but one strategy that a government organization can use to elicit input from its constituents concerning making policy decisions such as raising the minimum wage. However, constituents can be included in decision-making policy concerning the minimum wage by being allowed to have an active voice and vote about the issue. Someone needs to represent the people’s voice so that the mayor can consider this when making executive decisions about issues such as raising the minimum wage. Additionally, with the popularity and way-of-life of social media, city mayors can also allow people to voice their opinions, tell their stories, and make their suggestions via a dedicated social media platform. This does not mean that people will get everything they ever want, but it would allow them to be heard and be given the opportunity to be more informed about issues and policy decisions that affect them directly or indirectly.

It is good governance for a government organization to gain a higher level of trust from the people by being more transparent and showing more interest in the people’s needs and opinions on issues that affect them. This is an effective way that the mayor of any city can elicit the input of its constituents and engage them in making particular policy decisions that will affect their lives, such as with raising the minimum wage, as seen with the city of Seattle.

References

Governance. Dictionary.com. n.d. Web. 23 February 2014. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/governance>.

MRSC. Roles and Responsibiliites. 2013. Web. 23 February 2014. <http://www.mrsc.org/subjects/governance/roles.aspx>.

Wallace, G. Seattle mayor: $15 minimum wage for city workers. 5 January 2014. Web. 24 February 2014. <http://money.cnn.com/2014/01/05/news/seattle-minimum-wage/>.