Appreciative Inquiry Approach

APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY

For this assignment, think about a team you currently work with or have worked with in the past and how well this team has functioned.

Think about both the positives and the negatives, and how the material from the background readings applies to what you’ve experienced.

Then write a 2- to 3-page paper answering the following three questions below. Make sure to cite at least one of the required readings for each of your answers, and to cite at least two of the required readings in your paper:



What are some of the key positive aspects of this team? Discuss some specific positives and include some stories of times when the team functioned especially well.

Do you think these stories could work in an Appreciative Inquiry approach to come up with a plan to improve the performance of the team?

How is the effectiveness or performance of this team usually measured?

Could a traditional organizational development approach help identify problems in this team as well as find ways in which team performance could be improved?

Overall, do you think an Appreciative Inquiry or a traditional organizational development would be better for this team?

If your team was to hire a consultant, what type of approach would you want the consultant to take?



Assignment Expectations

Answer the assignment questions directly.

Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don’t go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background materials.

Make sure to use reliable and credible sources as your references. Articles published in established newspapers or business journals/magazines are preferred. If you use articles from the Internet, make sure they are from credible sources.

Reference your sources of information with both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 13 and 14 on in-text citations. Another resource is the “Writing Style Guide,” which is found under My Resources in the TLC portal.



Reference Materials Required Reading:



To start off, take a look at this very short introduction to the basic concept of Appreciative Inquiry:



Stavros, J. (2017). Appreciative inquiry brings out the best. [Books24x7 version]. Available in the Trident Online Library.



Now take a look at this video detailing the 5D model.



Stavros, J. (2017). The 5d cycle of appreciative inquiry. [Books24x7 version]. Available in the Trident Online Library.



Now take a close look at these two short but important articles which provide direct comparisons between Appreciative Inquiry and traditional Organizational Development techniques as well as some of the main advantages and disadvantages of Appreciative Inquiry:



Venter, J. (2010). Appreciative inquiry. Accountancy SA, , 42-44. [ProQuest]



Zemke, R. (1999). Don't fix that company! Training, 36(6), 26-33. [ProQuest]



Finally, read up in more detail with these more comprehensive chapters on Appreciative Inquiry. For the first of these readings, pay special attention to Table 1 and the comparison between Appreciative Inquiry and traditional Action Research (Deficit-Based) problem solving methods. For the second reading, pay special attention to the discussion of what is involved in each of the “4 D” steps:

Whitney, D. K., & Trosten-Bloom, A. (2010). Chapter 1: What is Appreciative Inquiry? The Power of Appreciative Inquiry: A Practical Guide to Positive Change. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. [EBSCO eBook Collection]





Lewis, S., Passmore, J., & Cantore, S. (2016). Chapter 4: Appreciative inquiry: How do you do it? In Appreciative inquiry for change management: Using AI to facilitate organizational development. London: Kogan Page. [EBSCO eBook Collection]



Some of the other chapters in the books are optional to read but are worth looking at if you want to read up on Appreciative Inquiry in more detail. In addition, the optional readings below include an article about a real life practical use of this method and another book that includes some introductory chapters that may help you gain a better understanding of the concepts.