A conceptual systems approach to study policy product integration:a research note

Abstract

Purpose – Policy integration has gained a lot of attention in the past few decades; however, many existing studies focus on policy process integration, and much fewer on policy product integration (based on the policy content or designs themselves), which is due to a lack of valid and reliable methods. This research provides insights into a conceptual systems perspective to study policy product integration from a policy design-as-content perspective. The argument is that policy content is an abstractable unit of analysis in policy design and integration, making it amenable to the systems-based integrative propositional analysis (IPA) method, which studies policy content and their interactions as conceptual systems. The theoretical point of departure is that there are deep structural similarities between the domains of systems (including physical, conceptual, social, etc.) and that the insights of one system allow for similarities to be exploited and transferred to understanding the other. Design/methodology/approach – The systems-based IPA is used in an illustrative case study of three Nigerian policies that are aligned to nutrition, which enables policy interaction assessments and the building of policy landscapes (integrated conceptually) based on the mapping capabilities enabled by the IPA. Findings – Using the illustrative case study of three Nigerian policies aligned to nutrition, preliminary findings suggest that: (1) the propositions in policy content provide a “universal language” to facilitate policy product integration, (2) there are various modes of interaction between policies in a policy landscape and (3) there are various degrees of integration based on the structure of the policy landscape. Practical implications – When developing policies, the policy interaction based on the mapping of policy statements into a larger system of interaction, the policy landscape, is useful throughout the public policy process, providing some diagnostic and descriptive insights for policy makers. Originality/value – This systems-based analysis of policy product integration using the IPA provides a methodology to study the interactions of policies and develop a policy landscape (integrated policy map) of various policies, which has not been possible with current approaches.