Operations Management - Appreciative Inquiry

ATENEO DE MANILA

Graduate School of Business

Masters in Business Administration (Standard Program)

Operations Management Homework

CASE: Appreciative Inquiry – A Different Kind of Fishbone

1.

From a worker’s perspective, what do you see as the major benefit of appreciative inquiry compared to standard cause-and-effect analysis?

While the standard cause-and-effect analysis has been the go-to approach and has worked successfully, the appreciative inquiry appeals to us more in the sense that it focuses on the positive and capitalizes on an organization’s unique competitive advantages. Identifying these strengths of the company helps employees know exactly how to create more positive experiences and success stories.

Engaging employees in a dialogue focusing on what was done right instead of finding out what went wrong is enlightening and empowering. By focusing on positive experiences, employees or participants of the workshop walk away energized, hopeful, confident, affirmed and with a sense of fulfilment.

Concentrating on experiences and facts that are sources of vitality creates a positive atmosphere for change and avoids stress, resistance, and loss of hope for a better future that is usually encountered through the traditional cause-and-effect approach.

“Appreciative Inquiry can get you much better results than seeking out and solving problems. . . . If you combine a negative culture with all the challenges we face today, it could be easy to convince ourselves that we have too many problems to overcome—to slip into a paralyzing sense of helplessness. . . . Don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating mindless happy talk. Appreciative Inquiry is a complex science designed to make things better. We can’t ignore problems—we just need to approach them from the other side.”

-- Tom White, former president of GTE Telephone Operations [Cooperrider and Whitney, 2000, p. 7].

2. As an interesting exercise, thing about your favorite instructor....