APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY PRACTICE IN ORGANIZATIONS

Appreciative Inquiry Practice in Organizations

Appreciative Inquiry Practice in Organizations

Introduction

For many researchers who study business management, the central feature is that organizations are systems designed to solve problems, whose success is measured by how they solve and effectively we respond to them when they arise. The rationale for management is to define and solve problems. Instead, the emphasis of appreciative theory, unlike other theories of action research is not so much in solving problems and in social innovation. Appreciative theory research is a perspective that is fundamentally design to discover, understand, and promote innovation in processes and social and organizational systems. It aims to contribute to the generation of social theoretical knowledge and use that knowledge to promote an egalitarian dialogue leading to the effectiveness and integrity of a social system (Cooperrider, 2010).

"Individuals and organizations flourish when people see what is best in them, share their dreams and concerns in a positive and when direction their voices together in the same direction, to create not only new worlds, but better worlds.”

Discussion and analysis

Definition of Appreciative Inquiry (AI)

“Appreciative Inquiry is the cooperative search for the best in people, their organizations, and the world around them. It involves systematic discover of what gives a system, life ?when it is most effective and capable in economic, ecological, and human terms. AI involves the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system's capacity to heighten positive potential. It mobilizes inquiry through constructing an “unconditional positive question? often involving hundreds or sometimes thousands of people.”

The key principles of Appreciative inquiry (AI) are:

Accentuate the positive: when focusing on what works, it is very inspiring to people. And accentuating the positive points enhances the result of positive effects

Using methods that are focusing on possibilities and challenges instead of problems

It works for all businesses: profit and not for profit, public and private

The aim of appreciative inquiry:

The aim is to give your organization a boost by leveraging the good ways of working by using AI. In the field of workplace health promotion, it will reveal the strengths in your organization for the attention for the health of employees and employee involvement in the business process. In addition, it will give insight in which topics further improvements can be made (Eaton, 2009).

The rationale of appreciative inquiry

David Cooperrider is seen as the founding father of the AI approach. Cooperrider is an American Professor of Organizational and Professor of Social Entrepreneurship. It also known of his research in the field of stress, workload and coping. In his research in the mid 80?s, he started an experiment, doing one part of a research in the traditional way and the other part with an action research approach. The traditional part focuses on the problems of the clinic and the causes of these problems. The action research part on factors contributes to the effectiveness and success of a clinic. To their surprise, the action research approach focusing on the success factor led to better results than the traditional ...