How Public Servants Confront Common Dilemmas in Public Engagement: Evidence from a Survey of Canadian Public Officials

Governments engage the public and stakeholders at various scales and scopes prior to the launch of new policy initiatives or reforms to existing programs. This article presents the results of a survey of Canadian public servants (N = 663) in which respondents were presented with common dilemmas faced when conducting public engagement, such as those related to time pressure, inclusion, representation, and public resistance, all of which represent key trade-offs inherent in this work, and were asked to recommend a path forward from binary choices. In response to common dilemmas of public engagement, public servants working in this area in Canada show clear patterns in terms of their reactions to time pressure and inclusion/exclusion considerations, but appear divided on how to resolve dilemmas as they relate to representation and public resistance - the two dilemmas with more political dimensions. These findings suggest that public servants working in this realm exhibit an adaptability and political sensitivity to the particular public engagement issue area and scenario presented to them, rather than relying upon idealized models of public engagement.