Resources in Parks and Police Management Applying Decision Utility to Solve Problems with Limited Resources

Abstract

This is the first research article that attempts to relate public service to managing an organization and explains systems with realistic yet simplistic examples. This article is the first of its kind to relate public service to managing organizations that relate public service such as parks and police. It measures and implements maximin value functions. A maximin value function applies when the criteria are totally non-substitutable: a decrease in a critical criterion cannot be compensated for by an increase in another criterion. This article illustrates situations where a maximin value function is an appropriate model, develops a method to measure a decision maker's maximin value function, and demonstrates how a maximin value function can be used in applications such as park and police systems. The measurement technique is easy to understand and most decision makers can complete the process in a short period of time. For quantitative scheduling techniques found in journals, their wider use in applications has been declining due to a variety of obstacles. This article will first list a number of these obstacles and then suggest ways to overcome them. Parks and Police departments are government agencies that both have limited and competing resources. In these circumstances, it is an ideal situation to share the resources as much as possible. In this article, examples are shown of where the limited resources may occur in both agencies, and how the manager may overcome these problems by sharing the resources. Examples of affective and just sharing of resources are given for both parks and police departments. In Parks Management, affective trade-offs are shown among trim mowing, tractor mowing, garbage collection and ball-field dragging. In Police departments affective trade-offs are shown among foot patrol, car patrol, detective analysis and office work.