CWRU Faculty Authors

In this thoroughly revised and updated edition of one of the most popular change methods in the world, the authors track recent changes in the field and explain how AI contributes to sustainability and the bottom line.

First published in 1999, this newly revised edition of Appreciative Inquiry by the originators of the AI movement is the best short introduction to the subject. Organizations will benefit from a fresh approach based on solid, proven principles for unleashing people's creativity, knowledge and spirit toward a common purpose.

Appreciative Inquiry has touched and affected the life of thousands who apply its principles in a wide range of settings including industry, government, spiritual and not-for-profit organizations. The Advances in Appreciative Inquiry series advocates an organizational science that focuses on advancing a scholarship of positive human organizations, positive relationships and positive modalities of change, which promise to be of world benefit for individuals, organizations and communities. The book series is dedicated to building such a discipline through the advancement of Appreciative Inquiry as an approach to organizational inquiry and human development, and through the interdisciplinary articulation of non-deficit theories of positive change processes in human systems. Guided by the ethos of Appreciative Inquiry, the book series supports a relentless inquiry into the true, the good, the better and the possible. It is dedicated to advancing a "scholarship of the positive" and "positive scholarship." The book series aims to facilitate an emergent dialogue within the social sciences and to support innovative and challenging work. Setting the stage for the series, the first volume, Constructive Discourse and Human Organization, revolves around three main themes: We Live in Worlds Our Questions Create, Appreciative Discourse and Narrative, and The Design of Inquiring Systems.

Transformative Cooperation (TC) presents new ways for individuals and organizations to partner to create a more sustainable future and take people to a higher stage of moral development. This handbook invites readers to consider how businesses can partner with organizations in other sectors of society, including governments and nonprofits, to address global concerns and improve the lives of all. It documents the need for and early examples of cooperative efforts that have transformed the relationships between corporations and the communities in which their employees live and work. The editors begin by issuing a call for TC, explaining the economic and social reasons for working across traditional organization, national, and international boundaries. The book then goes on to explain the dynamics of transformative cooperation, exploring the leadership characteristics that facilitate the transformation and its social benefits. Throughout this handbook, the editors present some of the best designs in transformative cooperation, and conclude by explaining transformative cooperation as a generative possibility. Overall, the editors and contributors argue that TC is about the search for the best in people, their organizations, and the world around them.

This volume revolves around three fundamental aspects of organisational generativity, namely: generative knowledge and organizational life, collective action and the appreciative inquiry summit, and sustainable inter-generative dynamics.

The founders of the Taos Institute pooled their substantial resources to create a vision of a powerful and humanly nourishing form of organization and to share practices for bringing this organization into being. Based on the authors' diverse experiences in organizational life, they are unanimous in their view that the appreciative construction of meaning is essential to the efficacy of an organization and the fulfillment of its participants. In clear and direct language, the volume treats the challenges of decision making, leadership, group functioning, personnel evaluation, and the relationship of the organization to its context. Bold ideas are developed, examples described, and multiple suggestions developed for creating the appreciative organization. Included in the book is a section on helpful resources, a chapter on ¿valuation¿, and much more. You will want to add this new ¿gem¿ to your personal library. This volume will be of special significance to consultants and organizational members who wish to see the key elements of appreciative inquiry realized in the everyday working of the organization.