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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
policy
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a controversial plan/proposal/policy
▪ the controversial plan to build a new airport
a defence policy
▪ Ministers in Brussels have been discussing a possible European defence policy.
a policy outcome (=what happens when a particular policy is used)
▪ A number of factors affect policy outcomes.
a policy review
▪ The policy review proposed radical changes to the system.
a policy shift
▪ The policy shift was triggered by a sharp increase in violent crime.
a policy statement (=one that explains a government policy)
▪ In his first major policy statement to Parliament he promised to end corruption in public life.
a policy vacuum
▪ There is a policy vacuum on climate change.
a sound policy
▪ The problems of industry will only be solved by sound economic policies.
admissions policy/procedures etc
▪ The college has a very selective admissions policy.
▪ the admissions officer
an economic policy (=the way in which a government manages the economy of a country or area)
▪ Controlling inflation is the main aim of the government’s economic policy.
an insurance policy (=an insurance agreement)
▪ This insurance policy represents excellent value for money.
company policy
▪ It is not company policy to give that information.
conservation measures/policies/issues etc
▪ It is important that nature conservation issues are taken into account.
domestic policy (=policy relating to your own country)
▪ The President’s foreign and domestic policies have been criticized.
education policy (=political plans for managing an education system)
▪ The teaching unions are calling for the government to review its education policy.
endowment policy
espouse a cause/policy etc
▪ He espoused a variety of scientific, social and political causes.
fiscal policy/measure
▪ sound good fiscal policy
foreign policy
▪ America’s foreign policy
formulate a policy/plan/strategy etc
▪ He formulated Labour Party education policy in 1922.
implement a policy/plan/decision etc
▪ We have decided to implement the committee’s recommendations in full.
incomes policyBritish English (= government controls on wages)
▪ Government control of the economy must include an effective incomes policy.
insurance policy
interventionist approach/role/policy
▪ The UN adopted a more interventionist approach in the region.
open-door policy
▪ They’re pushing forward economic reform and an open-door policy.
party policy (=a political party’s official plan or position on important subjects)
▪ There has been a change in party policy.
plank of an argument/policy/campaign etc
▪ the main plank of their argument
▪ a central plank of our policy
policy of non-intervention
▪ The British government may have to abandon its policy of non-intervention.
policy wonks (=people interested in details of government)
▪ These are issues that would only interest policy wonks .
pricing policy
▪ a competitive pricing policy
pursue a policy/strategy
▪ The organization is pursuing a policy of cost cutting.
reverse a policy
▪ She is pressing the government to reverse its policy.
scorched earth policy
take out a policy/injunction/loan etc
▪ Before taking a loan out, calculate your monthly outgoings.
taxation policy
▪ the government’s economic and taxation policy
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
domestic
▪ In his domestic policies, President Kabbah took a number of controversial steps.
▪ All have been principally domestic policies.
▪ However, the key factor has been domestic agricultural policies which protect indigenous agriculture for security or political reasons.
▪ Second, these new sources of instability complicate domestic stabilization policy and may make it less effective.
▪ President Clinton had a lousy May, in both domestic and foreign policy.
▪ In both of these instances policy makers would have to take these developments into account in formulating and applying domestic stabilization policies.
▪ Traditionally, domestic policy was sharply differentiated from foreign policy.
▪ A similarly circular process has been under way in several areas of foreign and domestic policy.
economic
▪ Following the coup the ruling junta made few changes to economic policy.
▪ The debacle of the 1971-3 property boom clearly demonstrated the significant extent to which city development was impacted by national economic policy.
▪ The rise of corporate power is a direct result of governments' actively adopting neoliberal economic policies.
▪ High-level ministers have talked openly about increasing aid to agriculture and shifting economic policy from one of stabilization to one of growth.
▪ There is probably no better example of an industry and a sector in which economic policies are causing so much damage.
▪ Huang was employed at Lippo for nine years before he joined the Commerce Department as deputy assistant secretary for international economic policy.
▪ Rather, the critical determinant of economic policy has been the hidden or not so hidden hand of political priorities.
▪ The Solidarity trade union staged a nationwide day of protests against government economic austerity policies on May 22.
fiscal
▪ Real convergence Despite the relatively good progress on fiscal and monetary policy, progress on real convergence has been poor.
▪ Both ministers said exchange-rate stability would depend on national fiscal policies.
▪ Sterling was linked to gold and the gold standard ensured price stability. Fiscal policy was conservative.
▪ Fourth, by pushing up interest rates, fiscal policy can push up the exchange rate of the currency.
▪ In this context, special interest is attached to the role of fiscal and monetary policy in the generation of cycles.
▪ Its monetary and fiscal policies would short-circuit recessions and promote vigorous growth.
▪ The preceding discussion suggests that the operation of Keynesian fiscal policy should pose few problems.
▪ However, for 14 years this government's thinking on fiscal policy has concentrated on short-term remedies.
foreign
▪ It was essentially a scheme which would have entailed the coordination of foreign and defence policies outside the Treaty of Rome.
▪ The address to the foreign policy group included little that the candidate had not articulated in other forums.
▪ Each of these domestic vulnerabilities translates into a fragile, retrospective foreign policy that, in turn, fuels local frailties.
▪ He has emphasized foreign policy in rare stump appearances.
▪ Theories of international relations influence those who decide foreign policy.
▪ Such a cramped view of foreign policy leaves military pressure as the only plausible means of persuasion.
industrial
▪ Since 1979 privatisation in Britain has emerged as a significant plank of industrial policy.
▪ Since he resigned as defence secretary over the Westland helicopter affair in 1986, he has campaigned for an active industrial policy.
▪ The incoming Socialist government announced its intentions to link industrial policy with planning and macro-policy.
▪ Gordon Brown used it when he talked about the need for an industrial policy.
▪ This example shows that intelligent industrial policy and competition policy must work hand in hand.
▪ In such circumstances, an industrial policy that seeks faster and more efficient rationalization of the sunset industry may be advantageous.
▪ On the other hand Tsongas, another centrist sceptical of big government, espoused an industrial policy which distanced him from Clinton.
▪ Particular attention will be paid to how these were linked to civil research and development and industrial policies.
monetary
▪ Short-term monetary control: what should governments attempt to control? Monetary policy may be off target.
▪ At points this chapter steps outside the traditional boundaries of economics, and discusses some psychological problems in making monetary policy.
▪ Anyway, as elections approached it was not always politically desirable to have a tight monetary policy.
▪ Environmental laws may also slow the effect of monetary policy by lengthening construction periods. 5.
▪ Government also jumped on the bandwagon, first with wage restraint policies and later with restrictive monetary policies to reduce inflationary pressures.
▪ The Bundesbank central council meets tomorrow to debate interest-rate and monetary policy.
▪ Consequently, there is little need to prevent cheating by making the government's announced monetary policy constitutionally binding.
national
▪ A Tory Transport Secretary pledging a national transport policy and oodles of public money for services that don't make money.
▪ Furthermore, he may not be fully in command of national policies.
▪ It also has a major say in academic provision, student welfare, accommodation and national education policy.
▪ And their influence on national policy has been pronounced.
▪ In the case of local politics, should this mean more than just the local implementation of national policy?
▪ Almost all phases of national policy came under attack at the hearings.
▪ Community policies, and expenditures upon them are of course not perfectly substitutable for alternative national policies.
▪ Monroe was an irreconcilable opponent of national policy and a recognized leader of the rebel portion of the white population.
new
▪ Immediately after announcing details of the new industrial policy Singh presented his first budget to the Lok Sabha.
▪ He found that 81 percent of the insurers will write new policies only to consumers whose homes meet strict underwriting guidelines.
▪ Hugh, therefore, had been an initiator of the new policy even before its official promulgation.
▪ Shore challenged the regional and new towns policies of the post-war period which had encouraged economic and population dispersal.
▪ With the new set-aside agricultural policies, there is a possibility that cultivated parks can be put back to pasture.
▪ He failed to inform the State Department or his Secretary of State of the new policy.
▪ However, our role may need to broaden and develop in response to new policies and programmes introduced by Ministers.
▪ Fidelity yesterday announced a new policy prohibiting its managers from discussing specific companies with the media.
public
▪ Local government; Public policy and decision making.
▪ The court also ruled that no public policy bars men from fathering children posthumously.
▪ He submitted that the undercover exercise, lasting as it did for some three months, was contrary to public policy.
▪ But the Clintons would have had more success if they had followed the traditional system for setting public policy.
▪ Bioethicists disagree among themselves, both in the clinical setting and on matters of public policy.
▪ The emphasis will be on explaining and analysing how public policies are made, with the Treasury as the focus of attention.
▪ In our democracy, the making of public policy is usually reserved for duly elected legislative bodies.
regional
▪ Third, there is the number of jobs created directly and indirectly as a result of regional policies.
▪ Fox has voiced support for President Bush's call for a regional energy policy.
▪ But the station was praised for its regional opt-outs policy.
▪ There is now considerable overlap between what district councils are doing and what regional policy is attempting to achieve.
▪ An active regional and social policy.
▪ In other ways the activities of the councils tend to conflict with regional policy and weaken its effects.
▪ It is partly because of that false economics that the Conservatives have never had a regional policy.
social
▪ In contrast to all other social welfare policies, public assistance programmes for the poor are the most controversial.
▪ The absence of any concept of family accounting has resulted in some very misguided ideas about social policies.
▪ To this principle of social policy, add a principle of government.
▪ Is it legitimate social policy to discourage childbearing?
▪ But his officials are stirring up their own controversy over social policy.
▪ He needs to find the courage to take such a stand in the name of decent social policy as well.
▪ The stresses of family life and difficulties in parenting lie in structures of disadvantage and social policies which reinforce inequalities.
▪ Beveridge argued that other social policies were necessary to underpin his insurance scheme.
■ NOUN
company
▪ Much depends on company policy and philosophy.
▪ The official reason was that I accepted a gift from a vendor, something which I was told violated company policy.
▪ This would parallel any company policy on not giving out personal telephone numbers but instead routing calls through the switchboard.
▪ Workshops on the law and company policies.
▪ This review covers not only the individual site needs but also items of group interest and company policy reviews.
▪ Advancement may be accelerated by participation in company training programs to gain a broader knowledge of company policy and operations.
▪ It is also Company policy to encourage the spread of information regarding developments affecting both an employee's workplace and Company wide.
▪ These programs familiarize trainees with the production line, company policies and procedures, and the requirements of the job.
decision
▪ It was in this way that he made many of his policy decisions.
▪ To base a major policy decision on shoddy science has never been acceptable.
▪ This led to battles with senior management who questioned the status of the policy decision to implement the new system.
▪ Those are the personal standards of reference that Dole would bring to policy decisions in the Oval Office.
▪ For already domestic class forces were being invented and manipulated at will to validate policy decisions.
▪ This type of arrangement relieves the firm of the need to make additional credit policy decisions.
▪ The policy decision was to maintain the sterling area, above all in its 1940 form as a zone of exchange control.
▪ On a continuum of possible policy outcomes, locate the preferred policy decision of each group. 3.
defence
Defence budgeting and procurement do not move along different tracks from defence policy as a whole.
▪ But, first, a distinction should be drawn between national grand strategy, Defence policy and current military strategy.
▪ In foreign and defence policy its role is of especial importance.
▪ Labour have opposed our defence policies at every turn.
▪ That is why the Opposition's defence policy is incredible.
▪ On each occasion, however, the currents flowing in world affairs swung Defence policy back to a more balanced Maritime/Continental course.
insurance
▪ Old liability insurance policies that were in effect at the time of the relevant incidents can be valuable.
▪ Companies usually have insurance policies covering theft, he said.
▪ A building society savings account may be held with a second competitor and an insurance policy with a third.
▪ The first one contained an insurance policy, the second a will.
▪ Worst still, she was planning to cash in on Ivor's insurance policies.
▪ The risk was considered such that the Host Committee took out a $ 400 million insurance policy for the helicopter stunt.
▪ This is a form of insurance policy for me.
▪ Taking their caps was his insurance policy.
issue
▪ The third policy issue is of a nature more specific to management development.
▪ The foundation organized thousands of town meetings around the country to pulse people on public policy issues and possible solutions.
▪ We support the priority given to these key policy issues and would again recommend the formula we suggested in 2.2.
▪ Corddry was known for his consistent excellence in reporting on defense and foreign policy issues.
▪ The housing needs of the elderly, in particular, must be a prominent policy issue in years to come.
▪ Explicit presidential discourse on policy issues was exceedingly rare.
▪ Answer: many policy issues admit to no immediately-obvious solution.
▪ With the current economics of nuclear power, this should prove to be a relatively straight forward policy issue.
maker
▪ What approach should regulators and policy makers adopt, and on what basis should they decide?
▪ These policy makers are the ones who decide whether or not to continue a program or to decrease or increase its funding.
▪ But not if policy makers insist on fighting the battles of the past.
▪ Fed policy makers conclude a two-day meeting Wednesday at which most economists expect them to lower the short-term interest rates they control.
▪ The old system had certain advantages for members, investors, and policy makers.
▪ As far as the research institute directors and policy makers of tomorrow.
■ VERB
adopt
▪ The rise of corporate power is a direct result of governments' actively adopting neoliberal economic policies.
▪ There is only one good solution to capital flight: shaky governments must restore confidence by adopting sensible policies.
▪ Their purpose is to influence government to adopt policies favourable to them.
▪ Northern whites tolerated this repression and, in fact, adopted these policies when expedient.
▪ On practically every issue the Comintern found itself in the role of an infallible body which had adopted a manifestly fallible policy.
▪ Many of the proposals outlined there appear extreme and have not been adopted as policy.
▪ They do not want to adopt accounting policies that are liable to land them in front of it.
▪ He also agreed to adopt policies on affirmative action and ethics.
change
▪ Similarly, changing dividend policy to yield more cash for investment needs to be handled with care.
▪ Still, the administration's willingness to change its policy carried symbolic weight.
▪ It is not to change the policy or feel some humility about 12 years of failure.
▪ You must have a majority to change the ward policy.
▪ Anyhow Mercurial Rev Paul, are you trying to tell us that we should change our official devil-worshipping policy?
▪ This means that more people will be vulnerable to age discrimination if employers do not change their policies.
▪ He said the United States was changing its historic policy in the region.
develop
▪ Some local political parties are also appointing working groups to develop election policies.
▪ Analysts assist in developing procedural guidelines and policies governing the development, formulation, and maintenance of the budget.
▪ In many parts of the world, we have developed innovative policies on quality and customer service.
▪ Its services help financial institutions develop privacy policies that are consistent with Gramm-Leach-Bliley.
▪ We have done much to develop regional policies over the past decade.
▪ If the Police Commission approves the helicopter program, the department will develop policies regarding their use.
▪ Age Concern believes that the Department of Health should develop a policy and issue national guidelines on the provision of such care.
▪ The United States can learn from other Western democracies that have developed policies that effectively protect their children from poverty.
formulate
▪ Many have been formulating charging policies for services other than residential and nursing care.
▪ However, they sharply disagreed with the administration over the criteria used in formulating the policy.
▪ His duties are to prepare the estimates of expenditure for all committees of the council after the council have formulated its policy.
▪ That would be a major breakthrough and would certainly assist us in formulating our policy as we move towards government.
▪ It must initiate, formulate and direct general policy.
▪ They formulate policies acceptable to their supporters and provide options for voters and those more directly involved in government to choose from.
▪ I played my own small part in formulating Labour Party policy in this area.
implement
▪ At the end of the day most departments have to be left alone to implement policies.
▪ But while there is agreement on the benefits of this approach, there is not much information on implementing such a policy.
▪ In principle, the National Bank has the function of implementing these policies.
▪ The parties produce manifestos and when elected in a majority seek to implement their policies.
▪ It can only do this if it implements its plans and policies flexibly, rather than according to formalized rules.
▪ When it comes to implementing key settlement policies, local authorities have considerable resources at their disposal.
▪ We need electoral reform so that a minority government with a 100seat advantage can not implement the extremist policies of the Eighties again.
▪ The doctrine of political neutrality seeks to implement it through a policy of neutrality.
pursue
▪ The rest of the media reflected this view of an activist President keenly pursuing a policy he deeply believed in.
▪ At other times, it has pursued a policy of letting the pound float.
▪ Some Guardians pursued the new policy more vigorously than others.
▪ They will vigorously pursue their policies to combat drug trafficking and misuse of drugs, nationally and internationally.
▪ Many councils have investigated, and some have actually pursued, such policies of privatisation, or contracting out.
▪ The Government have pursued policies which have added to and certainly not loosened women's shackles.
▪ It is only to be regretted that the Committee has not pursued this policy with sufficient boldness and consistency.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
adopt an approach/policy/attitude etc
▪ Can a school board adopt a policy prohibiting dancing at school?
▪ He also agreed to adopt policies on affirmative action and ethics.
▪ It is essential that these countries, too, adopt policies that will help to protect the Ozone Layer.
▪ It is very hard convincing powers like the World Bank to adopt policies that truly help the poorest.
▪ No-Layoff Policies Perhaps the best way to secure union cooperation is to adopt a policy of no layoffs.
▪ Their purpose is to influence government to adopt policies favourable to them.
▪ This structure can neither impose law upon its members nor force one of them to adopt a policy with which it disagrees.
▪ Ultimately, planners adopted a policy of non-violence.
bring forward legislation/plans/policies etc
▪ Following assessment of the responses to our discussion paper, we will bring forward legislation to achieve this.
▪ Home Secretary Kenneth Clarke wants to bring forward plans to change the law in the new year.
▪ It will bring forward legislation in the coming parliamentary session to introduce student loans, partially replacing grants, from autumn 1990.
comprehensive insurance/cover/policy
▪ At the moment few organizations have comprehensive policies or programs of team rewards in place.
▪ Drive defensively and have comprehensive insurance.
▪ Fully comprehensive insurance, maintenance and servicing costs etc. are also not included.
▪ One manager told me it would be more economic to give everyone comprehensive cover.
decision maker/policy maker/peacemaker etc
decision making/policy making
exam-setter/policy-setter etc
stop-go approach/policies etc
▪ The uncertainty of such stop-go policies arguably reduced business confidence and discouraged investment.
third party insurance/cover/policy
▪ Members of the scheme also benefit from a third party insurance, for a premium of £2 a year.
▪ With some landowners now looking towards insisting on third party cover for climbers, insurance is increasingly looking indispensable.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ A new ruler might adopt a policy of drastically cutting back oil production in order to boost prices.
▪ Few journalists liked Reagan's policies.
▪ I make it my policy not to gossip.
▪ It is not our policy to reveal our clients' names.
▪ Most large companies these days operate an equal opportunities policy.
▪ The Cuban revolution resulted in a reassessment of Washington's policy towards the Third World generally.
▪ the government's policy on Europe
▪ US foreign policy
▪ Your homeowner's policy probably doesn't cover damage to your house from mudslides.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Evaluations of policies are conducted through research and expert analysis supported by the Presidium's administrative staff.
▪ McBride can put his luck down to criticism from scribes down south earlier in the season, rather than bad selection policy.
▪ On the other hand, not every organization needs a formal policy in order to be prepared.
▪ Tax policy would be ruled by stubborn one-third minorities, many among them cruising for policy payoffs to drop their opposition.
▪ The only exception to this new policy would be Visa cards.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Policy

Policy \Pol"i*cy\, n.; pl. Policies. [L. politia, Gr. ?; cf. F. police, Of. police. See Police, n.]

  1. Civil polity. [Obs.]

  2. The settled method by which the government and affairs of a nation are, or may be, administered; a system of public or official administration, as designed to promote the external or internal prosperity of a state.

  3. The method by which any institution is administered; system of management; course.

  4. Management or administration based on temporal or material interest, rather than on principles of equity or honor; hence, worldly wisdom; dexterity of management; cunning; stratagem.

  5. Prudence or wisdom in the management of public and private affairs; wisdom; sagacity; wit.

    The very policy of a hostess, finding his purse so far above his clothes, did detect him.
    --Fuller.

  6. Motive; object; inducement. [Obs.]

    What policy have you to bestow a benefit where it is counted an injury?
    --Sir P. Sidney.

    Syn: See Polity.

Policy

Policy \Pol"i*cy\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Policied; p. pr. & vb. n. Policying.] To regulate by laws; to reduce to order. [Obs.] ``Policying of cities.''
--Bacon.

Policy

Policy \Pol"i*cy\, n. [F. police; cf. Pr. polissia, Sp. p['o]lizia, It. p['o]lizza; of uncertain origin; cf. L. pollex thumb (as being used in pressing the seal), in LL. also, seal; or cf. LL. politicum, poleticum, polecticum, L. polyptychum, account book, register, fr. Gr. ? having many folds or leaves; ? many + ? fold, leaf, from ? to fold; or cf. LL. apodixa a receipt.]

  1. A ticket or warrant for money in the public funds.

  2. The writing or instrument in which a contract of insurance is embodied; an instrument in writing containing the terms and conditions on which one party engages to indemnify another against loss arising from certain hazards, perils, or risks to which his person or property may be exposed. See Insurance.

  3. A method of gambling by betting as to what numbers will be drawn in a lottery; as, to play policy.

    Interest policy, a policy that shows by its form that the assured has a real, substantial interest in the matter insured.

    Open policy, one in which the value of the goods or property insured is not mentioned.

    Policy book, a book to contain a record of insurance policies.

    Policy holder, one to whom an insurance policy has been granted.

    Policy shop, a gambling place where one may bet on the numbers which will be drawn in lotteries.

    Valued policy, one in which the value of the goods, property, or interest insured is specified.

    Wager policy, a policy that shows on the face of it that the contract it embodies is a pretended insurance, founded on an ideal risk, where the insured has no interest in anything insured.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
policy

"way of management," late 14c., policie, "study or practice of government; good government;" from Old French policie (14c.) "political organization, civil administration," from Late Latin politia "the state, civil administration," from Greek politeia "state, administration, government, citizenship," from polites "citizen," from polis "city, state" (see polis). Meaning "plan of action, way of management" first recorded c.1400.

policy

"written insurance agreement," 1560s, from Middle French police "contract, bill of lading" (late 14c.), from Italian polizza "written evidence of a transaction," from Old Italian poliza, from Medieval Latin apodissa "receipt for money," from Greek apodexis "proof, declaration," from apo- "off" + deiknynia "to show," cognate with Latin dicere "to tell" (see diction).

Wiktionary
policy

Etymology 1 n. 1 (context obsolete English) The art of governance; political science. (14th–18th c.) 2 (context obsolete English) A state; a polity. (14th–16th c.) 3 (context obsolete English) A set political system; civil administration. (15th–19th c.) 4 (context obsolete English) A trick; a stratagem. (15th–19th c.) 5 A principle of behaviour, conduct etc. thought to be desirable or necessary, especially as formally expressed by a government or other authoritative body. (from 15th c.) 6 wise or advantageous conduct; prudence, formerly also with connotations of craftiness. (from 15th c.) 7 (context now rare English) Specifically, political shrewdness or (formerly) cunning; statecraft. (from 15th c.) 8 (context Scotland now chiefly in the plural English) The grounds of a large country house. (from 18th c.) 9 (context obsolete English) Motive; object; inducement. vb. (context transitive English) To regulate by laws; to reduce to order. Etymology 2

n. 1 A contract of insurance 2 (context obsolete English) An illegal daily lottery in late nineteenth and early twentieth century USA on numbers drawn from a lottery wheel (''no plural'') 3 A number pool lottery

WordNet
policy
  1. n. a line of argument rationalizing the course of action of a government; "they debated the policy or impolicy of the proposed legislation"

  2. a plan of action adopted by an individual or social group; "it was a policy of retribution"; "a politician keeps changing his policies"

  3. written contract or certificate of insurance; "you should have read the small print on your policy" [syn: insurance policy, insurance]

Wikipedia
Policy (disambiguation)

العاب

Policy is a principle or rule that guides decisions in order to achieve a rational outcome.

It may also refer to:

Policy (Martha Davis album)

Policy is the first solo studio album by Martha Davis, who is better known as the lead singer for the band The Motels. Martha broke up with her band in February 1987, declaring that she was going solo, and by November, she had released her first solo album.

Policy (Will Butler album)

Policy is the debut solo album by Will Butler, best known for his work in Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. The album was released on March 10, 2015 by Merge Records.

Policy

A policy is a deliberate system of principles to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent, and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by the Board of or senior governance body within an organization whereas procedures or protocols would be developed and adopted by senior executive officers. Policies can assist in both subjective and objective decision making. Policies to assist in subjective decision making would usually assist senior management with decisions that must consider the relative merits of a number of factors before making decisions and as a result are often hard to objectively test e.g. work-life balance policy. In contrast policies to assist in objective decision making are usually operational in nature and can be objectively tested e.g. password policy.

The term may apply to government, private sector organizations and groups, as well as individuals. Presidential executive orders, corporate privacy policies, and parliamentary rules of order are all examples of policy. Policy differs from rules or law. While law can compel or prohibit behaviors (e.g. a law requiring the payment of taxes on income), policy merely guides actions toward those that are most likely to achieve a desired outcome.

Policy or policy study may also refer to the process of making important organizational decisions, including the identification of different alternatives such as programs or spending priorities, and choosing among them on the basis of the impact they will have. Policies can be understood as political, managerial, financial, and administrative mechanisms arranged to reach explicit goals. In public corporate finance, a critical accounting policy is a policy for a firm/company or an industry which is considered to have a notably high subjective element, and that has a material impact on the financial statements.

Usage examples of "policy".

IT or human resources, the accounting department, or the maintenance staff, there are certain security policies that every employee of your company must know.

State Department set up the Advisory Committee on Postwar Foreign Policy.

With mammoth government contracts in the offing, Weinberg had no trouble converting the Business Advisory Council of leading businessmen into an agency for helping governmental leaders plan the policies for war and for the post-war period.

It cannot be truly international unless it accords to its affiliated bodies full freedom in matters of policy and forms of struggle on the basis of such program and principles, so that the Socialists of each country may work out their problems in the light of their own peculiar economic, political and social conditions as well as the historic traditions.

The arrangement would of course involve no change in the present collaboration between you and us in the formulation and execution of Allied policy towards these countries.

The two men, instead of being alike, were in fact signal contrasts in all that appertains to the talent for administration, to the quick discernment of the time for action, and to the prompt execution of whatever policy might be announced.

Court held that the federal courts were not bound by the decision of a court of first instance of South Carolina, which was the only decision applicable to the interpretation of the insurance policy in dispute.

In this manner did the crafty Fathom turn to account those ingratiating qualifications he inherited from nature, and maintain, with incredible assiduity and circumspection, an amorous correspondence with two domestic rivals, who watched the conduct of each other with the most indefatigable virulence of envious suspicion, until an accident happened, which had well-nigh overturned the bark of his policy, and induced him to alter the course, that he might not be shipwrecked on the rocks that began to multiply in the prosecution of his present voyage.

The Portuguese, unlike the British or German colonists, had a relaxed attitude toward miscegenation and the result was a large mulatto population and an official policy of assimilado under which any person of color, if he attained certain civilized standards, was considered to be white and enjoyed Portuguese nationality.

Compared with Roman imperialism, with its frankly assimilationist, exploitative, and repressive policies, British imperialism seemed to Cromer to be preferable, if somewhat more wishy-washy.

There is not a great deal of hope for assimilationist policies to be found in the professional Mexican-American leadership that thrives in government, journalism and the universities.

The really perilous course lies in preserving the status quo and institutionalizing our past failed policies: open borders, unlimited immigration, dependence on cheap and illegal labor, obsequious deference to Mexico City, erosion of legal statutes, multiculturalism in our schools, and a general breakdown in the old assimilationist model.

Likewise constitutional is a law requiring that a policy, indemnifying a motor vehicle owner against liability to persons injured through negligent operation, shall provide that bankruptcy of the insured shall not release the insurer from liability to an injured person.

But Henry had no mind to break through his general policy by allowing a feudal baronage to plant themselves by force of arms in Ireland, as they had in earlier days settled themselves in northern England and on the Welsh border.

This course would have had the drawback of not enabling him to measure the operation of so ingenious a policy, and Bernard liked, of all the things in the world, to know when he was successful.