Summary
Appreciative inquiry refers to the creation of positive revolution in organizational development and management of change. Appreciative inquiry is described, in practice, as the cooperative focus on the best that is in people, their organizations and the surrounding world. This concept entails a systematic discovery of the things, which bring about life to an organization at the times of its effective functioning. Appreciative inquiry is a concept that advocates for the view of organizations as solutions meant to meet the need of the society or cure a challenge. Therefore, reasoning from the appreciative perspective helps a person to avoid taking an organization as a problem. This theory views organizations as centers of important and significant connections as well as life-giving potentials. It is vital to note that appreciative inquiry normally gives a positive and strength-based take on the development of organizations and management of change.
Appreciative management focuses on the management of change. It has important views on the new model of leading change in an organization. It proposes that collective strengths in an organization have the ability of bringing about transformation. Positive questions, which lay focus on the goal of ensuring an organization, realizes its potential are used in this approach.
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Conceptual critique of the theorist
The basic principles of this theory were developed by Diana Whitney and David Cooperrider. They published an article outlining these principles. These two theorists are renowned scholars who have participated in various works of research and gained experience. Most of the theoretical works of these two theorists are premised on the observation of daily life practices hence their postulations always have a practical application. The use of previous related theoretical concepts of other renowned scholars and researchers always characterizes the works of these two scholars. This feature makes the theories they postulate to be credible and based on logical literature review.
Personal critique
The appreciative inquiry is a conceptual framework suggested with an aim of engaging organizational stakeholders in change that is self-determined. The postulations given by Diana Whitney and David Cooperrider in this theory are applicable in real practice and this factor makes it credible and believable. I strongly agree with the ideas of this theory including the point that viewing a given challenge as a problem may make it more difficult to solve it is in actual measure. However, when a problem is understood as simply a challenge that has a solution in it, solutions emerge easily. This positive view of organizational change problems is what companies require today. It is true that the use of problem-solving approach hindered social improvement.
When people or the management in the organizations appreciates its strengths while approaching a given problem there is the morale and motivation that boosts its efforts. Focusing on the problem may demoralize efforts of solving it. The discovery phase of any change process must focus on the positive experiences and strengths of the organization. This approach forms the most effective basis for establishing transformation within the company. Therefore, I strongly agree with the postulations stated in this theory.
Historical context
Cooperrider and Whitney, together with other colleagues, started becoming centrally focused on using the appreciative inquiry model to implement the creation of the United Religions Initiative in the year 1996. At its start, Cooperrider and Srivastva used a social constructionist approach in arguing that institutions are built, maintained and transformed by conversations. They asserted that the approaches to organizing were then only limited by the imaginations of people and the agreements among them. Cooperrider and Whitney wrote and published an article in the year 2001 enumerating the five principles of appreciative inquiry. These events marked the development of the appreciative inquiry theory.
