Public Managers and Wicked Problems of Advancing Social Equity

Over 50 years ago, Rittel and Webber published their seminal article on “wicked” problems that generate second‐order effects that often limit or defeat ambitious initiatives. The Rittel‐Webber model, in all of the 10 distinguishing characteristics they specified, closely fits dilemmas of public managers seeking to advance social equity. Analyzing the experiences of U.S. public sector social equity initiatives through the Rittel‐Webber lens provides lessons about the wickedness of problems of advancing social equity, and also about approaches to increase the chances of success. Taking multiple systematic smaller steps can be more effective and sustainable than a single large initiative. A systematic all‐of‐government approach also might achieve significant progress in advancing social equity. To advance social equity, public managers must consider multiple stakeholder perspectives, and in today's environment of polarization and heightened partisanship, they ignore lessons from the Rittel‐Webber framework at their peril.