The Problem

unhelpful. As Melissa Powell notes, more often than not, the problem is not whether to
include stakeholders, but who gets included and who doesn’t (1997). In the case of the
ATIS, the success of the entire project rested upon how the advisory board was set-up
and on the outcome of the strategic planning session. Hence, substantial resources were
invested simply to begin to understand the dynamics of the existing network, and
planning out how and who should be involved. In retrospect, we believe that a
stakeholder analysis methodology, such as the one devised above, has greatly enhanced
our ability to maneuver more effectively within this network.
One cannot underestimate the importance of optimizing one’s resources in situations
where time, people and other resources are limited. Ideally, one would like to have
processes where every interested party should be allowed effective participation. To be
sure, every successful program must involve at some point all relevant voices. The utility
of an approach such as the one offered here is that in many cases, different interests can
only participate effectively at particular points in the process. Each step of a program
will have different goals and different dynamics to consider.
VIII. Conclusion
The Complexity of Joint Action
In their landmark study of implementation, Pressman and Wildavsky (1973) presented a
case study of how a project with seemingly unanimous support, was considered a good
and valuable project by all, failed miserably. We believe that the approach and
methodology presented here provides managers a way of avoiding the pitfalls besieged
by the actors in Pressman and Wildavsky’s book. As noted above, the most time
consuming phase of a project will increasingly become the initial assessment stages. As
public administrators increasingly become facilitators, as opposed to director’s, the need
to “feel out” a problems various participants will be critical to effective implementation
strategies. That is, through a better understanding of the network involved in any given
policy area using some derivation of the stakeholder management approach offered
23