The Problem

attempt to respond to them within a mutually supportive framework, because that is a
moral requirement for the legitimacy of the management function” (p. 87). In addition, it
simply makes good “management” sense. That is, public administrators can no longer
expect to be effective and seem equitable without incorporating multiple perspectives in
the policy process (Tennert and Soden, 1998).
However, little if anything has been done to help public sector managers devise tools to
identify and manage relevant stakeholders, nor has the literature developed tools to deal
with the various ways and situations different types of stakeholders can and should be
included in a public-sector driven stakeholder process. That is, such tools are not well
defined methodologically within the field of public administration. The problem is that
most research in public administration takes stakeholders as a given. Many authors begin
with the assumption that stakeholders are already known, or that stakeholders have
already self-selected themselves to be involved in the process. The literature has done
little, however, to contribute methods for identifying relevant stakeholders when they are
not known, or identifying additional stakeholders when those that have self-selected do
not adequately represent all interests at hand. While one may be tempted to conclude that
those issues that generate little interest in potential stakeholder populations do not need
stakeholder input, the experienced public administrator will most likely agree that the
most difficult stakeholder situations arise after a decision has been made without a
group’s consultation, regardless of the fact that they did not self-select into the process at
the beginning.
The reality of the public administrator’s daily life, in working to “get things done in the
public interest,” is that most of the time, obvious, relevant stakeholders are not readily
evident or self-selecting. Most of the literature which addresses stakeholder involvement
addresses it within the context of highly visible, highly salient, and very often, highly
controversial issues (e.g. environmental and land-use planning issues). In these incidents,
many people, whether or not they were interested stakeholders initially, are familiar to
some extent with the problem, and can accordingly self-select in or out of the process.
The vast majority of issues to be addressed and/or programs to be implemented by the
4