Let’s talk about public projects!
SERIES ARTICLE
By Stanisław Gasik
Warsaw, Poland
Introduction
The whole public administration can be considered a single organization, managed by the government (legislative and executive branches). Subordinate to the government are public agencies or institutions, with a degree of autonomy resulting from relevant regulations (e.g., constitutions, laws, or lower-level regulations). They also should be treated as (lower level) public organizations. These organizations implement projects grouped into portfolios.
In this article, we will discuss the shaping of public organizations’ portfolios. The artifacts that influence public project portfolios are the state strategy, public policies, public programs, and organizational strategy. We will consider the influence of politics and managerial knowledge on shaping organizational portfolios.
State strategies
A state strategy is a set of goals and actions planned for the state to achieve over a specific, long-term period—ten, twenty, or sometimes longer. These are the most important documents shaping the state’s actions in this period. State strategies in democratic countries are built on the basis of public expectations, which are materialized in the programs of political parties. Due to their long-term perspective, in democratic states, state strategies should contain goals acceptable to the majority of society and political forces. In addition to social expectations, the content of a state strategy is influenced by the socio-economic conditions of a given country. State strategies may consist of or be further detailed by domain strategies—for example, a defense strategy, a healthcare strategy, or a human capital development strategy.
The adoption of the state strategy and possibly domain strategies is a political decision and depends on the distribution of political forces in the parliament and/or other authorities in a given country.
Organizational and managerial factors are not decisive when defining strategies. Overemphasizing them at the expense of political factors rooted in the democratic process of electing leaders may be met with accusations of disregard for democracy. The influence of such factors on state strategies may be limited to eliminating goals and actions that are clearly unfeasible.
A set of high-level actions to implement a strategy is sometimes called a plan.
Public policies and programs
State strategies (both general and domain) are implemented through public policies. The concept of public policy is understood in many ways. “Public” means that public institutions are involved in its definition or implementation. Public policy can concern any area of the functioning of the state, society (e.g., organizing associations), or the economy (e.g., taxing or rules for establishing and registering economic entities). Policy is the result of a political decision (e.g., Cochran and Malone, 1995). Policy represents the attitude of the groups responsible for the state (Hill and Varone, 2017). Public policy is an intention and the actions that implement it in a specific area (e.g., Dye, 2013).
Policies may be of a general nature – e.g. shaping the education system, basing the nature conservation system on the creation of reserves or national parks, or deregulating a specific area of activity previously under state control.
Policy is implemented through public programs, consisting of instruments (e.g., Van Nispen, 2011; Canada TBoCS, 2007). Policy instruments may take the form of, among others, legal acts, projects, or ongoing operations (e.g., tax collection). Every action of the government and public administration results from (one or more) public policies (e.g., Dye, 2013). In a well-managed state, public policies should be documented and publicly available (with specificity to areas of activity that, by their nature, remain secret).
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Editor’s note: This article series is related to the management of public programs and projects, those organized, financed and managed by governments and public officials. The author, Dr. Stanisław Gasik, is the author of the book “Projects, Government, and Public Policy”, recently published by CRC Press / Taylor and Francis Group. That book and these articles are based on Dr. Gasik’s research into governmental project management around the world over the last decade. Stanisław is well-known and respected by PMWJ editors; we welcome and support his efforts to share knowledge that can help governments worldwide achieve their most important initiatives.
How to cite this paper: Gasik, S. (2025). Politics, managerial knowledge, and public organization portfolios. Let’s talk about public projects, series article, PM World Journal, Volume XIV, Issue IX, September. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/pmwj156-Sep2025-Gasik-public-organizations-portfolio-management.pdf
About the Author
Stanisław Gasik, PhD, PMP
Warsaw, Poland
Dr. Stanisław Gasik, PMP is a project management expert. He graduated from the University of Warsaw, Poland, with M. Sc. in mathematics and Ph. D. in organization sciences (with a specialty in project management). Stanisław has over 30 years of experience in project management, consulting, teaching, and implementing PM organizational solutions. His professional and research interests include project knowledge management, portfolio management, and project management maturity. He is the author of the only holistic model of project knowledge management spanning from the individual to the global level.
Since 2013, his main professional focus has been on public projects. He was an expert in project management at the Governmental Accountability Office, an institution of the US Congress. He is the author of “Projects, Government, and Public Policy,” a book that systematizes knowledge about government activities in the area of project management.
He was a significant contributor to PMI’s PMBOK® Guide and PMI Standard for Program Management and contributed to other PMI standards. He has lectured at global PMI and IPMA congresses and other international conferences.
His web page is www.gpm3.eu.
To view other works by Dr. Gasik, please visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/stanislaw-gasik-phd-pmp/
