Stakeholder identification and engagement in problem structuring interventions



View results in:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2019.10.044
DOI: 
10.1016/j.ejor.2019.10.044
ISSN: 
0377-2217
Licensing of resource: 
Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)
Type: 
journal article
Journal: 
European journal of operational research
Pages: 
321-340
Volume: 
283
Author(s): 
Gregory A.
Atkins J.
Midgley G.
Hodgson A.
Publisher(s): 
Description: 

This paper addresses the under-researched issue of stakeholder identification and engagement in problem structuring interventions. A concise framework to aid critical reflection in the design and reporting of stakeholder identification and engagement is proposed. This is grounded in a critical-systemic epistemology, and is informed by social identity theory. We illustrate the utility of the framework with an example of a problem structuring workshop, which was part of a green innovation project on the development of a technology for the recovery of rare metals from steel slag. The workshop was initially going to be designed to surface stakeholder views on the technology itself. However, it became apparent that a range of other strategic issues concerning the future of the site were going to impact on decision making about the use of steel slag. It therefore became important to evolve the agenda for the problem structuring, and this is where the critical-systemic approach made a difference. It enabled the workshop to be reframed as a community-based event looking at how the former steelworks site could be developed for new purposes. Evaluation of this problem structuring intervention revealed significant stakeholder learning about the issues needing to be accounted for, and a range of possible options for the development of the steelworks site were explored

Publication year: 
2020
Keywords: 
Problem structuring methods
Community operational research
stakeholder analysis
Critical systems thinking
Green innovation