How do personal mind-sets change during an organization development intervention and how are these transitions associated with the intervention characteristics? In a qualitative theory-driven case study based in South Africa, the transitions of six individuals during an appreciative inquiry were scrutinized longitudinally for firstorder and second-order changes. Five individuals showed first-order changes and two showed second-order changes. The engaging and emergent characteristic of the intervention explained the majority of these cognitive transitions. A third type of change in mind-set emerged in four of the cases: the development of an appreciative stance, which we classify as a form of cognitive effort rather than a cognitive transition. We conclude that interventions focusing on positivity may lead to participants developing an appreciative stance, but successful organization development might not occur without sufficient engagement in an emergent process. We provide some guidelines for practitioners for conducting an engaging emergent change process.
As an academic-practitioner, I reflect on my 18 years’ experience as a CEO building a successful, ambidextrous company. The path to success was not linear, and I came to see diagnostic and dialogic forms of OD as complementary leadership-mindsets. Although Diagnostic OD encompasses a rational, planned approach to leadership and Dialogic OD is rooted in the belief that how stakeholders talk is an instrument of change and that change emerges without the need for a set plan, I learnt that both were necessary for achieving organizational ambidexterity. My Diagnostic OD approach to improving exploitation was successful but it failed as an approach to revitalize exploration. Subsequent success was enabled by my also embracing Dialogic OD. While a Diagnostic OD mindset can aid exploitation and a predictive approach toward exploration, a Dialogic OD mindset can better facilitate nonpredictive forms of exploration and, by increasing employee participation, can overcome commonly acknowledged barriers to change.
As the practice of organisational development (OD) bifurcates into the traditional form of diagnostic OD and the emerging form of dialogic OD (Bushe & Marshak, 2009) it is especially important to obtain a better theoretical understanding of dialogic OD. This need is particularly true of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as the most prominent form of dialogic OD. The purpose of the research was to build on current theory underlying AI. framework is presented which offers a "way of seeing" transition under an AI intervention. By studying employee transition under AI in a well-specified research design, using clearly defined and well operationalised constructs, the research contributes theory which is substantially more comprehensive than previously available and from which testable propositions can be developed. It thereby overcomes concerns of authors such as Golembiewski (2000) and Bushe (2007) regarding the incompatibility of AIwith its basis in social constructionism-and "rigorous" research.
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