Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Looking for methodologies to identify/choose stake holders Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 12:38:50 -0800 From: Avichal Jha Reply-To: American Evaluation Association Discussion List To: EVALTALK@BAMA.UA.EDU

Hi Jonny,

Michael Patton's "snowball" sampling technique comes to mind. You can find a discussion of different techniques in "Utilization Focused Evaluation," published by sage. I believe the 3rd is the most recent edition. Carol Weiss also has a great discussion on involving stakeholders in "Evaluation: Methods for Studying Programs and Policies."

What the discussion boils down to is context: What are you evaluating? The evaluand itself should suggest at least a limited group of stakeholders; i.e., those who asked for the evaluation. In the case where we're evaluating policy, this may not be the case. In that situation, the context becomes that of the policy. As long as you have a single stakeholder in mind, ask that stakeholder for who other stakeholders might be. This process, repeated with each new stakeholder, will "snowball" into a much larger sample.

This is just one of the ways that Patton and others have discussed. I hope it helps (although my gut feeling is that this is more useful for program evaluation than policy analysis). As I suggested, if you haven't already looked at Patton and Weiss, I think you'll find their work very helpful.

Best of luck, Avi

Avichal Jha, M.A. Doctoral Student Evaluation and Applied Methods Claremont Graduate University avichal.jha@cgu.edu

Original Message----- From: American Evaluation Association Discussion List To: EVALTALK@BAMA.UA.EDU Sent: 11/14/2004 10:20 AM Subject: Looking for methodologies to identify/choose stake holders

We all agree that it is important to involve stake holders in various phases of the evaluation life cycle. But how to identify the population of relevant stake holders and choose among them? My sense is that we tend to use the "I will know them when I see them" method. (It's what I do.) But are there more deliberate and systematic ways to go about it? Has anyone tried to develop a methodology? If anyone has relevant references, please send them my way. Thanks.

Jonny Jonathan A. Morell, Ph.D. Senior Policy Analyst

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