Enhancing river patrol team management through stakeholder discussion facilitated by World Cafe methodology - A case study in Taiwan

This study explored the outcomes of using the World Cafe method for promoting discussion among stakeholders on strategies for managing river patrol teams. The discussion topics included (1) strategies for integrating the resources of river patrol teams, (2) designing activities for stimulating river patrol team synergy, and (3) promoting strategies for pollution reporting. Twenty-three participants were categorized into three stakeholder groups, namely officials from environmental protection authorities, contractors' personnel responsible for managing the river patrol teams, and river patrol team members. The meeting offered participants the opportunity to express their opinions and concerns about the management strategy of river patrol teams in Taiwan. Through statistical analysis of the frequency and duration of opinion sharing of the participants, the average number of the statements proposed by participating officials, contractors' personnel, and river patrol team member were 4.1, 2.0, and 2.8, respectively, and the ratios of opinion sharing duration to the total discussion time for the discussed topics (mean +/- standard deviation) were 27.2 +/- 17.1%, 13.1 +/- 10.8%, and 18.5 +/- 10.1%, respectively. The statement number and opinion-sharing time ratio were analyzed using Kruskal Wallis ANOVA, and the results showed that the opinion-sharing by the river patrol team members were not significantly different from those of the other two stakeholder groups. In addition, the opinion-sharing by officials was more favorable than that of the contractors' personnel, reflecting the general characteristics of the traditional top-down river patrol team management strategy. The results from the discussion on these three topics were summarized as follows: (1) the river patrol teams should be encouraged and assisted to integrate diverse public and private sector resources and to seek support from non-profit organizations and environmentally friendly enterprises; (2) the activities for river patrol team management should be designed according to the composition and characteristics of the team members of interest, and education and training curricula should be diversified and lively with practical exercises and constructive discussion; and (3) most people are used to reporting environmental problems to local officials or organization leaders, indicating that local environmental protection bureaus should collaborate with river patrol team leaders and community heads to gain an in-depth understanding of the characteristics of local environmental pollution. The results from this study showed that the World Cafe meeting facilitated diverse communication, which enabled the participants to interact with one another effectively, and to engage their own creativity and perspectives on forming solutions and strategies for the discussed topics. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.