Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T10:18:03.448Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

COMMENTARY: The Use of Focus Groups for Design and Implementation of Collaborative Environmental Administrative Programs: A Comparison of Two State-Level Processes in Ohio

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2007

Wendy A. Kellogg ,
Kevin O'Brien ,
Claudette Robey  and
Kirstin Toth
Wendy A. Kellogg
Affiliation:
Center for Planning Research and Practice, Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio
Kevin O'Brien
Affiliation:
Great Lakes Environmental Finance Center, Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio
Claudette Robey
Affiliation:
Great Lakes Environmental Finance Center, Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio
Kirstin Toth
Affiliation:
Great Lakes Environmental Finance Center, Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio
Get access

Abstract

Development and implementation of administrative programs are important steps in the process of change through public law and policy. These programs set the specific mechanisms that will be used to carry out the intent of the law or policy as best an agency can determine. Administrative personnel may involve the general public and stakeholders in program development and implementation in order to improve program design, increasingly used as part of collaborative environmental management strategies. This article examines the use of focus groups as a stakeholder participation method in collaborative program development and implementation processes in two different environmentally-oriented agency programs at the state level in Ohio—the Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund of the Ohio Department of Development, and the Ohio Coastal Resources Management Training Program of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, NOAA, and the Ohio Sea Grant Program. The comparison confirms three categories of benefits in using focus groups: better program development and implementation through more in-depth and nuanced information from stakeholders, an enhanced administrative and civic capacity through development of a shared knowledge base, and an enhanced sense of legitimacy for the program among future program beneficiaries. The comparison also identified some constraints and challenges for using focus groups, including the importance of skilled facilitators with substantive knowledge of the environmental context of the program development process and the skills to resolve contentious stakeholder interactions when the processes are distributive in nature.

Environmental Practice 9:166–178 (2007)

Type
FEATURES & REVIEWS
Information
Environmental Practice , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , September 2007 , pp. 166 - 178
Copyright
© 2007 National Association of Environmental Professionals

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albrecht, T., G. Johnson, and J. Walther. 1993. Understanding Communication Processes in Focus Groups. In Successful Focus Groups: Advancing the State of the Art, D. Morgan, ed. Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA, 51–64.
Ashforth, B. 1992. The Perceived Inequity of Systems. Administration and Society 24(3):375–408.Google Scholar
Barber, D. 1981. Citizen Participation in American Communities: Strategies for Success. Kendall/Hunt, Dubuque, IA.
Bellinger, D., K. Bernhardt, and J. Goldstucker. 1976. Qualitative Marketing Research. American Marketing Association, Chicago.
Booher, D. 2004. Collaborative Governance Practices and Democracy. National Civic Review (Winter):32–46.Google Scholar
Chase, L., and J. Alvarez. 2000. Internet Research: The Role of the Focus Group. Library and Information Science Research 22(4):357–369.Google Scholar
Comfort, L. K. 1981. Goals and Means: The Problem of Specification in the Development of Effective Public Policy. Administration and Society 13(1):77–108.Google Scholar
Connick, S., and J. Innes. 2003. Outcomes of Collaborative Water Policy Making: Applying Complexity Thinking to Evaluation. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 46(2):177–197.Google Scholar
Cooper, T., and P. Kathi. 2005. Neighborhood Councils and City Agencies: A Model of Collaborative Coproduction. National Civic Review (Spring):43–53.Google Scholar
Desario, J. and S. Langton, eds. 1987. Citizen Participation in Public Decision Making. Greenwood, Westport, CT.
Desvousges, W., and V. Smith. 1988. Focus Groups and Risk Communication: The “Science” of Listening To Data. Risk Analysis 8:479–484.Google Scholar
Dreachslin, J. 1999. Focus Groups as a Quality Improvement Technique: A Case Example from Health Administration Education. Quality Assurance in Education 7(4):224–233.Google Scholar
Duggleby, W. 2004. Methodological Issues in Focus Group Data Analysis. Nursing and Health Sciences 6(2):161.Google Scholar
Durant, R., Y. Chun, B. Kim, and S. Lee. 2004. Toward a New Governance Paradigm for Environmental and Natural Resources Management in the 21st Century? Administration and Society 35(6):643–682.Google Scholar
Edelbos, J., and E. Klijn. 2005. Managing Stakeholder Involvement in Decision Making: A Comparative Analysis of Six Interactive Processes in the Netherlands. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 16:417–446.Google Scholar
Fischer, F. 1993. Citizen Participation and the Democratization of Policy Expertise: From Theoretical Inquiry to Practical Cases. Policy Science 26:165–187.Google Scholar
Great Lakes Environmental Finance Center. 2003. Coastal Resources Management Training Needs Assessment: A Report on Seven Focus Groups in Northern Ohio. Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH.
Great Lakes Environmental Finance Center. 2004. Analysis of the NERRs Coastal Training Program Documents. Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH.
Grin, J., and H. Van de Graaf. 1997. Implementation as Communicative Action. Policy Sciences 29(4):291–319.Google Scholar
Grunig, L. 1992. Matching Public Relations Research to the Problem: Conducting a Special Focus Group. Journal of Public Relations Research 4(1):21–43.Google Scholar
Hall, T., and L. O'Toole. 2004. Shaping Formal Networks through the Regulatory Process. Administration & Society 36(2):186–207.Google Scholar
Harter, P. 1982. Negotiating Regulations: A Cure for the Malaise. Georgetown Law Journal 71(1):1–118.Google Scholar
Heikkila, T., and A. Gerlak. 2005. The Formation of Large-Scale Collaborative Resource Management Institutions: Clarifying the Roles of Stakeholders, Science and Institutions. The Policy Studies Journal 33(4):583–612.Google Scholar
Higgenbotham, J., and K. Cox. 1979. Focus-Group Interviews: A Reader. American Marketing Association, Chicago.
Iannone, D. 1997. Creative Financing Strategies for Redeveloping Brownfields. In Brownfields: A Comprehensive Guide to Redeveloping Contaminated Property, T. Davis and K. Margolis, eds. American Bar Association Publishing, Chicago, 87–99.
Kahan, J. 2001. Focus Groups as a Tool for Policy Analysis. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy 1(1):129–146.Google Scholar
Kaplowitz, M., and J. Hoehn. 2001. Do Focus Groups and Individual Interviews Reveal the Same Information for Natural Resource Valuation? Ecological Economics 36:237–247.Google Scholar
Kellogg, W. 1998. Adopting an Ecosystem Approach: Local Variability in Remedial Action Planning. Society and Natural Resources 11(5):465–483.Google Scholar
Kellogg, W., K. O'Brien, and K. Toth. 2006. The Use of Constituent Focus Groups for More Effective Program Planning and Management: A Case Study of the Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund. Public Performance & Management Review 30(1):96–121.Google Scholar
Kellogg, W., M. Tevesz, C. Robey, K. O'Brien, M. McGoun, K. Toth, and D. Baracskay. 2005. Training Needs of Coastal Resources Decision Makers in Ohio's Lake Erie Basin. Coastal Management 33(3):335–351.Google Scholar
Knodel, J. 1993. The Design and Analysis of Focus Group Studies: A Practical Approach. In Successful Focus Groups: Advancing the State of the Art, D. Morgan, ed. Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA, 35–50.
Koontz, T., and E. Johnson. 2004. One Size Does Not Fit All: Matching Breadth of Stakeholder Participation to Watershed Group Accomplishments. Policy Science 37:185–204.Google Scholar
Kreuger, R. 1994. Focus Groups, 2nd Edition. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Kreuger, R., and M. Casey. 2000. Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research, 3rd Edition. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Kweit, M., and R. Kweit. 1981. Implementing Citizen Participation in a Bureaucratic Society: A Contingency Approach. Praeger, New York.
Leach, W., N. Pelkey, and P. Sabatier. 2002. Stakeholder Partnerships as Collaborative Policymaking: Evaluation Criteria Applied to Watershed Management in California and Washington. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 21(4):645–670.Google Scholar
Meidinger, E. 1987. Regulatory Culture: A Theoretical Outline. Law and Policy 9(4):355–386.Google Scholar
Murphy, M. 1997. Brownfields Sites: Removing Lender Concerns as a Barrier to Redevelopment. In Brownfields: A Comprehensive Guide To Redeveloping Contaminated Property, T. Davis and K. Margolis, eds. American Bar Association Publishing, Chicago, 100–120.
National Estuarine Research Reserve/Ohio Coastal Management Program. 2007. http://www8.nos.noaa.gov/publicnerrs/training.aspx.
Newman, J., M. Barnes, H. Sullivan, and A. Knops. 2004. Public Participation and Collaborative Governance. Journal of Social Policy 33(2):203–223.Google Scholar
Nichols, L. 2002. Participatory Program Planning: Including Program Participants and Evaluators. Evaluation and Program Planning 25:1–14.Google Scholar
Ohio Department of Development. 2000. Profiles of General Demographic Characteristics: 2000 for Ohio's Counties, http://www.odod.state.oh.us/osr/2000demch.htm. Accessed August 15, 2002.
Polanyi, M. 1966. The Tacit Dimension. Anchor Books, New York.
Randolph, J. 2004. Collaborative Environmental Management and Public Participation. In Environmental Land Use Planning and Management, Island Press, Washington, DC, 53–74.
Reich, R. 1985. Public Administration and Public Deliberation: An Interpretive Essay. Yale Law Journal 94:1617–1641.Google Scholar
Rich, R. 1986. Neighborhood-Based Participation in the Planning Process: Promise and Reality. In Urban Neighborhoods: Research and Policy, R. B. Taylor, ed. Praeger, Westport, CT.
Sarbaugh-Thompson, M. 1998. Change from Below: Integrating Bottom-Up Entrepreneurship into a Program Development Framework. American Review of Public Administration 28(1):3–25.Google Scholar
Seidel, J., and V. Clark. 1984. The Ethnograph: A Computer Program for the Analysis of Qualitative Data. Qualitative Sociology 7(1/2):110–125.Google Scholar
Spicer, M., and L. Terry. 1996. Administrative Interpretation of Statues: A Constitutional View on the “New World Order” of Public Administration. Public Administration Review 56(1):38–47.Google Scholar
Stivers, C. 1990. The Public Agency as Polis: Active Citizenship in the Administrative State. Administration and Society 22(1):86–105.Google Scholar
Thomas, J. 1993. Public Involvement and Governmental Effectiveness: A Decision-Making Model for Public Managers. Administration and Society 24(4):444–469.Google Scholar
United States Congress. 1972, 1996. Coastal Zone Management Act (1972) and PL 104-150. Washington, DC.
Urban Revitalization Task Force. 2000. Ohio Urban Revitalization: Policy Agenda and Task Force Report. Ohio Department of Development, http://www.odod.state.oh.us/urtf/pdf. Accessed August 5, 2006.
Vroom, V., and P. Yetton. 1973. Leadership and Decision Making. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh.
Wiig, K. 2002. Knowledge Management in Public Administration. Journal of Knowledge Management 6(3):224–239.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, S. 1998. Focus Groups in Feminist Research: Power, Interaction and the Construction of Meaning. Women's Studies International Forum 21(1):111–125.Google Scholar
Williams, W., and R. Elmore, eds. 1976. Social Program Implementation. Academic Press, New York.
Wondolleck, J., and S. Yaffee. 2000. Making Collaborations Work: Lessons from Innovation in Natural Resource Management. Island Press, Washington, DC.
Yanow, D. 1993. The Communication of Policy Meanings: Implementation as Interpretation and Text. Policy Sciences 26:41–61.Google Scholar