other, some method for reconciling the different perspectives must be incorpo- 

 rated into the analysis. Second, some people are naturally inclined to lean 

 in one direction or the other, in terms of degree, when responding to questions 

 of the type presented in Query. For example, a series of questions or 

 descriptive statements is presented, and the respondent is asked to indicate 

 the degree to which each statement can be applied to the organization he is 

 analyzing. The following question is typical of those presented in Query: 



This organization typically focuses on the need to 

 preserve the natural environment in conflicts such as 

 this: 



(A) Almost always 



(B) 



(C) 



(D) 



(E) Almost never 



The respondent selects the response that he thinks most accurately describes 

 that organization. The middle responses are degrees of agreement that are 

 left to the respondent's imagination, since confusion may result if no response 

 choice absolutely "fits" the description of behavior the respondent has in 

 mind. Some individuals tend, however, to systematically select responses that 

 exaggerate the degree to which an organization exhibits the described behavior 

 or has the indicated attribute, while others tend to consistently under- 

 estimate. LIAM allows the analyst to combine the three sets of responses for 

 each of the questions for an organization. The individuals responses are 

 'assigned numerical scores within LIAM and the computer produces an average 

 score for each question. The three response sets for each organization are 

 combined by the analyst (using Mapum) after all of the relevant organizations 

 have been identified and examined using Query. 



Individuals should be chosen to analyze the organization(s) with which 

 they are most familiar. Care should be taken, however, that the individual 

 does not have such a close working relationship with the organization he is 

 analyzing that some element of objectivity is not possible, and that he is not 

 antagonistic towards the group in question. 



Individual respondents can also be assigned organizations to examine on a 

 self-selecting basis, where each chooses the organization he feels best able 

 to analyze. One respondent, moreover, can analyze several of the organizations 

 identified as relevant to the conflict, provided he has dealt with those 

 organizations in the past, and is familiar with the different aspects of 

 organizational authority, roles, and power that are the subject of Query. 



If a subunit of an organization typically handles one type of instream 

 flow conflict — such as dams or reclamation projects — that group of individuals 

 should be involved in the analysis whenever that type of conflict arises. 

 This is because these people are likely to be most familiar with the issues 

 and organizations involved. (They are also in a better position to be able to 

 identify those organizations which, though not yet directly involved in the 



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