THE ISSUE BRIEF

Phuoc D. Nguyen

Ashley and Morrison (1995) suggest the anticipatory management process includes issue brief writing and the 10-step issues management process. Additionally, they described, “The components of a model issue brief are a summary statement of the issue, a description of its background, a listing of the forces driving it, a projection of its future, and a projection of its implications for the organization” (Ashley & Morrison, 1995, p. 113). This is also a sequence of an issue brief paper. However, they had not described how to conduct an Issue Brief for an organization. Penn State (2002) defines parts of the Issue Brief, including identifying stakeholders – preliminary definition of issue or problem, stakeholders’ positions on the issue, stakeholder resources, stakeholder actions; describing the issue’s history – emergence, chronology, trends; defining the issue – problem, extent, public policy; monitor issue’s development – what two trends best show the future; executive summary; and bibliography. Young and Quinn (2017) suggest a sequence to conduct an Issue Brief, “The key structural elements commonly found in the policy brief are title, executive summary, rationale for action on the problem, proposed policy option(s), policy recommendations, sources consulted or recommended, link to original research/analysis, and contact details” (p. 14).

Based on Ashley and Morrison’s (1995), Penn State’s (2002), Young and Quinn’s (2017) suggestions the above-mentioned, it is suggested to integrate the steps needed to conduct an Issue Brief included define the purpose of the Issue Brief statement and the message to communicate the entire statement; describe issue’s history; define the issue includes its background, context, scope, issue’s root cause analysis, and issue focus; identify audiences and stakeholders; identifying the concerns of stakeholders who will be benefit if the issue is resolved; rationale for action on the problem, sources consulted or recommended, link to original research/analysis; identify forces driving; suggest future prospects; giving implications, suggestions, recommendations, and solutions for the issue, implications, suggestions, recommendations, and solutions focus on the removal of the issue’s root cause to avoid issue’s recurrence; consult the implementation of suggestions, recommendations, and solutions; monitor issue’s development and resolve after the Issue Brief was approved.