Appreciative Inquiry in Practice Assignment

Appreciative Inquiry in Practice Assignment

Introduction

Increasingly complex environments in which nurse educators must function create distinct challenges for leaders in nursing education. Complexity is established in the existence of knowledge-driven economies, advancements in technology, and the blurring of campus boundaries created by online learning versus traditional classroom education. This assignment advocates for the affirmative administrative process of appreciative inquiry for academic nursing leadership, in nudging the dual bureaucracy toward transformational change. The intent and characteristics of appreciative inquiry are discussed, appreciative leadership strategies & actions are explained and methods for leading cultural paradigm shift are outlined. This Assignment will focus on human capital of the unit of practice, more precisely on the Emergency Department.

Discussion

Academic leaders in nursing education find themselves at a crossroads related to the increasingly complex environments in which they must function. For academic nursing leaders, many questions may come to mind at this critical juncture: What challenges do we currently face as leaders in nursing education? What style of leadership will it take to truly lead in a thoughtfully innovative, but also a purposeful, values-based way? Are we creating a meaningful context for the work within the immediate work team, the department, and the school? Bolman and Deal stated, it is in the actual processes of work that people find meaning, purpose, and passion in their professional lives. This article posits that these questions require nurse educators to reflect on the basic values they embody as leaders of nurse professionals. Dialogue and reflection on these values support nurses' knowledge work in health care (Pangman & Pangman, 2010).

Intent of Appreciative Inquiry

In reality, organizations contain a "kaleidoscopic array" of cultures, each with its own values, aspirations, and experiences of reality. These human living value systems demand consideration and appreciation for being, in and of themselves. The desire to engage and sustain individual and collective affirmation and aspiration among differing groups and interests are the core intentions of appreciative inquiry (Pangman & Pangman, 2010).

In appreciative inquiry, the processes of knowing, sense-making, and interacting in appreciative, affirming ways are meant to enhance solidarity. An appreciative inquiry approach overcomes current prejudices and cultural barriers and fosters a cooperative evolution of shared values, responsibilities, and meanings to help shape the collective good within complex human system organizations. Executives who desire to approach leadership in the context of appreciative inquiry will develop their capacity to engage the language, interchange, and action processes of appreciation and affirmation to sustain others in purposeful, meaningful, interconnected work. Three processes of appreciative inquiry are described within a nursing leadership context (Kavanagh, 2010).

Appreciative Inquiry Processes

The language of appreciation is a language of understanding. It is the capacity to express positive sentiments and to listen and give deeply of oneself in order to achieve unity of understanding and being with others. Engaging the language of appreciative inquiry helps individuals and groups overcome the potential for disconnectedness that stems from the unpredictability, change, and risk that complexity can bring to the work. In the language of appreciation, nurse leaders manifest the appreciative ideals of love, caring, empathy, altruism, and compassion for self and others to support the human interconnectedness in which a complex system can thrive (Richer, 2007).

The specs of Interviewee:

The interviewee has been interviewed and following specs has been recorded in him.

High point experience: Achievement of Pathway to Excellence. Had participated in projects ...