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A policy is a deliberate plan of action to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome(s). The term may apply to government, private sector organizations and groups, and 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, management, financial, and administrative mechanisms arranged to reach explicit goals.

Policy is frequently performed from the perspective of policies created by national governments, or public policy. Several definitions and key characteristics of policy have been identified within the framework of government policy. While many of these are broadly applicable to other organizations such as private companies or non-profit organizations, the government-focused origin of this work should be kept in mind.

According to William Jenkins in Policy Analysis: A Political and Organizational Perspective (1978), a policy is ‘a set of interrelated decisions taken by a political actor or group of actors concerning the selection of goals and the means of achieving them within a specified situation where those decisions should, in principle, be within the power of those actors to achieve’. Thus, Jenkins understands policy making to be a process, and not simply a choice.