Strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results: An emerging approach to organization development

Abstract

Organization development (OD) interventions have typically relied on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) framework for strategic planning. The strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results (SOAR) framework is a relatively new innovation in OD that may serve as a viable alternative to SWOT for those who wish to apply an appreciative inquiry approach. This paper presents the results of a scoping study in which the limited but varied literature support for SOAR is reviewed. An extensive search uncovered 27 publications pertaining to SOAR, which were then analyzed chronologically and thematically. Although findings include an overwhelmingly positive appraisal of SOAR, many gaps were uncovered in the literature and research regarding empirical support for the framework.

Will SOAR really help organization development soar?

“…Zarestky and Cole () reference process (or continuous) improvement PI or CI) as an important goal of OD, and it is. The problem, however, is that results orientation (the R of SOAR) runs counter to PI or CI.…”

“…When Egan and Lancaster () interviewed AI consultants, they found that over half had encountered difficulty in selling their services to clients who believed that the approach either was biased or would be perceived as being biased. Thus, if the purpose of SOAR is to look only at the positive, as Zarestky and Cole () offer, then how do they propose avoiding the same problems faced by AI; that is, how do they still take a systems perspective of the organization?…”

“…Based on these experiences, I applaud Zarestky and Cole's () expansive explanation of SWOT. Unfortunately, however, I do not think that replacing one routine approach with another is the right answer for experiencing creative and innovative organization development (OD).…”

TARSIL as an educational value in Indonesian sports system

“…Contractualization in sports policies that have been made and/or compiled by the Central Government and Regional Governments have juridical consequences in the form of rights and obligations (Baudry & Chassagnon, 2018;Seli, 2021). Opportunity and aspiration in the context of sports policy are used to accommodate the national sports development goals (Baroudi et al, 2018;Zarestky & Cole, 2017). It is legally stated in the considerations on the establishment of the Law of Indonesian Sports System that the national development instrument in the field of sports is an effort to improve the quality of life of Indonesian people physically, spiritually and socially in realizing an advanced, just, prosperous, prosperous and democratic society based on Pancasila (Indonesian Ideology) and The Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia 1945(Republik Indonesia, 1945.…”

Outlook Internasionalisasi UMKM 2021: Meraih Kesempatan dalam Perlindungan Pasca Pandemi

“…Outlook ini tidak akan membahas lebih jauh tentang kelemahan dan ancaman seperti pada analisis SWOT pada umumnya. Sebagian akademisi memandang bahwa dengan menunjukkan W (weakness) dan T (threat) membuat kita cenderung defensif dan pasif (Zarestky & Cole, 2017). Masalahnya, kita secara psikologis lebih cenderung untuk fokus pada risiko atau hal-hal negatif daripada hal-hal positif, bahkan seandainya keduanya dijabarkan secara seimbang (Pachur, Schulte-Mecklenbeck, Murphy, & Hertwig, 2018) .…”