Government Intelligence, Efficacy and Adaptability in Changing Environments

Abstract

Societies change through external pressures from a changing environment, or immanently from the internal cultural dynamic that naturally occurs within social agencies. As a result these political, security, social, economic and other changes are needed that present challenges to public administration. Consequently, public administration must adapt and identify the development of new policies and functions. Of critical importance to the state are the preeminent public institutions that are part of the development process. The outcomes are the result of both public policy and government efficacy. Organizational adaptability involves the anticipation of the future, where adaptation is an internal process that is prompted by environmental change and self-production. The capacity of an agency to adapt is affected by efficacy which conditions it to be effective and efficient. Efficacy is therefore a precondition for successful adaptability and the ability to adapt is a consequence of efficacy. Inefficacy, through its bounding effect on an agency’s intelligences, sets limits to its capability of achieving high levels of performance in organizations. Efficacy can be examined in terms of a cybernetic model of a cognitive social agency, allowing distinctions to be made between public policy objectives and the resulting outputs, this thus enabling proposed measurement of efficacy.