Surveying Diverse Stakeholder Groups

Abstract

This article evaluates three commonly used shortcuts for surveying multistakeholder resource management groups. Each shortcut had a significant impact on research results when tested in a survey administered to 48 watershed partnerships in California and Washington. Surveying only the coordinator led to a picture of the partnership that was more successful, trusting, and proenvironment. Surveying only a single stakeholder category (e.g., federal and state agencies) had a similar effect. Surveying only participants (and excluding knowledgeable observers of each group) resulted in higher estimates of the amount of disagreement among the stakeholders. Studies that fail to sample broadly may lead to an inaccurate or incomplete characterization of the success and dynamics of stakeholder partnerships.