Abstract

This article examines the history of issues management and assesses its current status at several large U. S. companies. Issues management is currently experiencing an identity crisis based on the conflicting interests of issues management as a process for filling a void in corporate decision making versus issues management as a professional activity for enhancing public policy involvement, corporate social performance, and strategic management. The future of issues management rests with the resolution of this identity problem. Issues managers need to reassess their purposes and objectives, definitions of success, and assumptions and techniques.