The Use of Appreciative Inquiry in Organisational Change
| Author | Ruth Friedman |
| DOI | 10.1177/1035719X1101100106 |
| Published date | 01 March 2011 |
| Date | 01 March 2011 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
20 Evaluation Journal of Australasia, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2011
Evaluation Journal of Australasia, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2011, pp. 20–25
METHODS
The use of Appreciative Inquiry
in organisational change
The introduction of organisational change presents
a number of challenges for managers. These can
include staff perception of the power of managers,
the need to achieve measurable outcomes from
the change process, and the tension between using
outside experts and internal knowledge. Participatory
evaluation methods are suitable for organisational
change as they can be used at various stages of
program development (Owen 2006, p. 234). They
focus on questions such as: ‘What is this program
trying to achieve? How could delivery be changed to
make it more effective? How could this organisation
be changed to make it more effective?’ (Owen 2006,
p. 218). This article presents the key features of one
participatory method, the Appreciative Inquiry (AI)
approach, with particular emphasis on its positive
approach to organisational change.
What is Appreciative Inquiry?
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a participatory approach that was developed
as a form of action research in the late 1980s by Cooperrider and Srivastva
(1987). The key belief underpinning AI is that focusing an inquiry on
organisational strengths and successes can be transformational, that is,
‘organisations move toward what they study’ (Cooperrider, Whitney &
Stavros 2003, p. 29).
AI differs from action research and other organisational development
interventions by focusing only on the positive. By contrast, these other
approaches concentrate on problem-solving and have been noted to move
from one problem to another (Cooperrider & Srivastva 1987). Meanwhile,
AI is based on the premise that all organisations have aspects that are
working well and can be built upon to achieve organisational change
(Hammond & Royal 2001). A key feature of AI is that every question used
must be framed positively (Hammond & Royal 2001).
Cooperrider and Whitney (2005) gave two meanings to the terms
‘appreciate’ and ‘inquire’:
The term ‘appreciation’ can mean recognition of, or feelings of, gratitude
■
for people, the environment, opportunities and experiences. It can be the
act of recognising the best in people and experiences. A second meaning
is for something to increase, that is, appreciate in value, not necessarily in
monetary terms.
The term ‘inquire’ has also been defined in two ways: first, as an
■
exploration with an aim to discover and understand other views, and
Ruth Friedman
Ruth Friedman is completing a project for
the National Vascular Disease Prevention
Alliance, managing the development of
clinical practice guidelines to support
general practitioners in the management of
cardiovascular disease risk. This article was
written towards completion of a Masters
in Program Evaluation at the University of
Melbourne.
Email:
<rfriedman@strokefoundation.com.au>.
EJA_11_1.indb 20 6/11/11 5:37:07 PM
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