Leadership in regulatory negotiations at the Environmental Protection Agency: An analysis of roles.

Abstract

Regulatory negotiation is a process by which the affected interests, along with the regulatory agency, attempt to negotiate a consensus agreement on the content of a regulation. While much research has been conducted on the process of conducting regulatory negotiations, none has focused exclusively on the role of the agency or other participants. Three regulatory negotiation cases are examined to determine the roles of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials and other participants. The study indicates that EPA participants play a range of roles in a regulatory negotiation, not all of which are recognized or acted upon by the agency. The roles are defined as Expert, Analyst, Leader, Stakeholder, and Facilitator. EPA participants identified several roles for themselves in the negotiation processes, most of which reflected the technical aspects of the negotiation. Surprisingly, EPA participants did not recognize or identify a significant leadership role for themselves, while virtually every other participant did. The perceptions of non-EPA participants regarding how the agency participants behave in a regulatory negotiation lead to a different characterization and ultimately a different combination of roles for agency officials in situations where collaboration and consensus are the goal. In a consensus process such as regulatory negotiation, the appropriate agency role is one that combines the various roles the agency plays under the larger, overarching concept of leadership. In order for EPA to be an effective leader, several tasks must be fulfilled. A major task for the agency is assuming a strong leadership role in the negotiations. Agency representatives must ensure that the process is adequately managed, that technical credibility is maintained, and that the group is enabled to make credible and convincing decisions that are acceptable to all. In addition, the agency must act as a stakeholder and participate in the substantive elements of the negotiations, not just act as a process facilitator. Finally, by behaving as a partner in the process, viewing other participants as sources of expertise and influencing their incentives to participate, EPA will be able to more effectively sponsor and participate in regulatory negotiations.