Stakeholder Collaboration and Organizational Innovation in the Planning of the Deschutes Estuary Feasibility Study

• Published in: Coastal management Vol. 37; no. 6; pp. 514 - 528
• Main Authors: Safford, Thomas G., Carlson, Margen L., Hart, Zachary H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Taylor & Francis Group 01.01.2009; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Coastal environments; Coastal management; Coastal zone management; Collaboration; Cooperation; cooperative research; Estuaries; Estuarine dynamics; estuary restoration; Feasibility studies; Innovation; Innovations; Interest groups; Management; organizational behavior; Organizations; Planning; Political participation; Public officials; Restoration; Socioeconomic factors; Sociology; stakeholder involvement; Stakeholders; Traditional roles; Washington State; United States > US; Olympia Washington
• DOI: 10.1080/08920750903044774
• ISSN: 0892-0753

Coastal managers have sought to enhance the collaborative inputs of stakeholder groups into management activities. Nonetheless, established organizational approaches have led to primarily consultative forms of engagement and constrained citizen involvement in formative activities. In Olympia, Washington, managers overseeing the Deschutes Estuary Feasibility Study (DEFS) implemented an innovative cooperative research planning initiative that diverged from conventional consultative processes. Stakeholders, rather than government officials, identified the research priorities for the socioeconomic component of this restoration feasibility study. This design method altered the traditional roles and responsibilities of different organizational actors, and the involvement of citizen groups in these formative activities changed the relationship between governmental and nongovernmental actors. Using conceptual frameworks from organizational sociology, this study develops insights into the behavior of the organizations involved with the DEFS cooperative planning effort, demonstrating how engaging stakeholders in formative research planning activities may foster new types of collaboration among coastal management organizations.