Office for Environmental Programs - Theses
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ItemDetermining the benefits of community engagement at South East Water and ways to evaluate them( 2012)Community engagement is increasingly being adopted by government organisations in western democracies, such as Australia. While there are numerous examples of literature highlighting lessons learned and golden rules for practising community engagement, there is less evidence illustrating the value of engaging community. South East Water, a Victorian water authority, identify 'customer and community' as one of their four key values and employ a dedicated community engagement team. A independent review of the South East Water community engagement program in 2011 revealed there was an expectation from senior management that the value of community engagement be evaluated. This led the author, who is a South East Water employee, to undertake this research project with the view of providing insight into the development of an evaluation framework that meets South East Water's needs. The first step in developing a framework is to define success as this differs for each organisation depending on their values and drivers. Hence, the purpose of this study was to determine the benefits of community engagement for South East Water and identify ways these could be evaluated. A qualitative design was employed, using semi-structured interviews to obtain viewpoints from seven South East Water decision-makers and two community leaders involved in South East Water engagement projects. Participants were asked to provide an example of a positive community engagement experience, with benefits of community engagement and ideas on how to evaluate these benefits being drawn out as part of the interview process. The data obtained from the interviews was categorised into themes with five main benefits emerging: innovation and creativity, trust, efficiency, fairness and legitimacy and water literacy. Less clarity was obtained about how to evaluate these benefits. While a handful of participants promoted the value of qualitative evidence including stories and case-studies, other participants suggested a need for more quantitative evidence, including attitudinal satisfaction questionnaires and an economic model that puts a monetary value on the value of community engagement. This study highlighted the complexities of evaluating community engagement including the difficulty in justifying outcomes that are often intangible, indirect and/or interrelated. It also illustrated the importance of selecting the right tool and applying a balance of positivist and constructionist approaches depending on the purpose of the evaluation. Being explicit about the underlying assumption of the proposed approach was also identified as key to ensure complexities of evaluating community engagement are not forgotten. This study has been useful as a starting point for South East Water to develop an evaluation framework. The challenge for South East Water now is continue with this momentum; that is, develop the framework and implement it in practice. This next step is critical as there is limited literature on the outcomes of evaluations, particularly for a program of works over an extended period of time.