Morgan Stanley’s chief executive, Philip Purcell, may have to defend the management shakeup that sparked calls for his ouster in sessions with some of the biggest American pension funds.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is calling on the Council of Institutional Investors, which represents more than 130 pension funds, to meet with Mr. Purcell and the retired leaders who want him ousted. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, which owns 5.9 million Morgan Stanley shares, wants meetings of its own with Mr. Purcell, the retired group, and the board.

“Our staff will be seeking some basic information so we can begin to understand what’s going on at the company,” a Calpers spokeswoman, Patricia Macht, said. “We want to get a comfort level that they’re managing effectively there.”

Mr. Purcell already had to discuss his actions with shareholders such as Fidelity Investments after the March 28 shakeup prompted three members of his management committee to quit in less than a week. Mr. Purcell, 61, also is focusing on boosting morale at New York-based Morgan Stanley – the world’s second-largest securities firm – and spending time with clients.

Richard Ferlauto, director of pension policy at the American Federation, said he’ll propose meetings with Mr. Purcell and the former executives when the Council of Institutional Investors discusses the matter today.

The council includes at least eight of Morgan Stanley’s top 40 shareholders, including TIAA-CREF, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, and the New York State Common Retirement Fund.

“We are always willing to listen and be responsive to the concerns of our shareholders,” a Morgan Stanley spokesman, Mark Lake, said.

New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who oversees the Common Retirement fund, said he’s not paying much attention to the battle for Morgan Stanley’s leadership.

The fund held 4.9 million Morgan Stanley shares as of December.

“We have other things in our sights,” he said in an interview at the Council of Institutional Investors meeting in New York.

The eight former Morgan Stanley executives seeking to oust Mr. Purcell wrote for a third time to the company’s board yesterday, seeking answers to 14 questions about the management shakeup and offering to meet privately with the board.

They first wrote the board privately on March 3, blaming Mr. Purcell’s “failure of leadership” for the firm’s lagging stock price and seeking his replacement. Since then, the group has proposed one of its own, former President Robert Scott, 59, as Mr. Purcell’s successor.

The former executives accused the board of responding to their concerns “by announcing a radical restructuring that has cost the firm some of its most talented professionals and further entrenched and insulated Mr. Purcell.”

They described last week’s decision to consider a spinoff of the Discover credit-card unit as “an abrupt and poorly explained about-face.”

Goldman Sachs Group and Bear Stearns are the most likely firms to benefit from turmoil at Morgan Stanley, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Company analyst Brad Hintz. In a note to clients today, Mr. Hintz didn’t refer to Morgan Stanley by name, calling it “a prestigious Wall Street investment banking firm” that’s now “beset by internal warfare.”

Mr. Hintz is temporarily barred from publishing research on Morgan Stanley, his former employer, because he’s selling shares.

Goldman, the third-biggest American securities firm by capital, and Bear Stearns, the no. 6 firm, get most of their revenue “from businesses that are open to swift market share shifts during periods of competitor weakness,” including most debt underwriting, New York based Hintz wrote in a note to clients.

Morgan Stanley’s shares fell $1.33 to $54.34 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have fallen 2.1% since Mr. Purcell’s reshuffle on March 28, compared with a 0.6% decline in the 12-member Amex Broker/Dealer Index.