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Why Public Managers Should Not Be Afraid to Enter the "Gray Zone"

Strategic Management and Public Law

Ohio State University

Janet Foley Orosz

University of Akron

Public managers must understand that there are legal "gray zones "-areas where the law is ambiguous or silent on the actions they can take. Unfortunately, many public managers view the ambiguity and silence as a constraint, and thereby immediately foreclose many of the strategic options available to them. Instead, we argue that public managers should embrace the gray zone and explore its strategic possibilities by using some of the legal tools at their disposal. We offer a model of how managers can view and use the gray zone in crafting their strategies. Case study examples support and illustrate our prescriptions. This article begins our work of identifying some of the strategies involving legal tools and their relative advantages. These strategies move managers from the traditional static view of the legal environment toward a more powerful and effective action-dynamic view.

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