4.6 WINNING THE INFORMATION NEEDED TO ENABLE ANALYSIS

A coroner or members of a board of inquiry are enabled in their investigations by virtue of the legal authority vested in them through their appointments. For managers, who do not have the same authority to make people divulge what they know or what they have seen, winning the information they need is much more problematic. Managers must resort to virtually every legitimate means at their disposal to identify what information might be needed, discovering that information and then analysing it. Earlier, the significance of participatory management was emphasised. This is particularly important because it is the stakeholders who generally know most about the problem situation or know where the relevant information can be found. It was also noted that there is an important class of stakeholders we know as gatekeepers. They can either facilitate or hinder access to essential information. There are a variety of organisation barriers that impede the manager in his or her critical task of winning the essential information. These barriers were discussed at Section 1.11.