Implementing Organizational Change: Theory and Practice/Strategic Organizational Change: Building Change Capabilities in Your OrganizationImplementing Organizational Change: Theory and Practice/Strategic Organizational Change: Building Change Capabilities in Your Organization ByAusterEllen R., WylieKrista K., and ValenteMichael S.New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. 192 pages, hardcover, $49.95

Organizational change and innovation are central and enduring issues in management theory and practice. The need to understand processes of organization change and innovation has never been greater in order to respond to dramatic changes in population demographics, technology, stakeholder needs, competitive survival, and social, economic, environmental, health, and sustainability concerns. These concerns call for a better understanding of managing organization change and innovation. Why and what organizations change is generally well known; how organizations change is the central focus of this handbook. It focuses on processes of change, or the sequence of events in which organizational characteristics and activities change and develop over time, and the factors that influence these processes, with the organization as the central unit of analysis. Across the diverse and wide-ranging contributions, three central questions evolve: what is the nature of change and process; what are the key concepts and models for understanding organization change and innovation; and how we should study change and innovation. This handbook presents critical evolving scholarship and explores its implications for future research and practice on organizational change and innovation.

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How being appreciative creates change – theory in practice from health and social care in Scotland

Action Research ◽

10.1177/1476750316684002 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 223-243 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Cathy Sharp ◽

Belinda Dewar ◽

Karen Barrie ◽

Julienne Meyer

Keyword(s):

Action Research ◽

Risk Taking ◽

Positive Attitude ◽

Social Care ◽

Social Systems ◽

Change Theory ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Home Life ◽

Health And Social Care ◽

Design And Testing

This paper develops understanding of appreciative action research that generates curiosity and motivation as a better platform for collaborative change. Blending theory and practice it draws on the example of the My Home Life leadership programme in Scotland that explores the concepts and approaches of ‘Caring Conversations’ and ‘playful provocation’ in care homes for older people. The paper shows how they expand notions of appreciation and help people to deepen inquiry, explore values, acknowledge and express emotion without dispute or judgement, articulate tacit knowledge and give voice to things previously thought to be ‘unsayable’. We explore how these generative approaches act as a powerful positive ‘disruption’ that brings existing relationships to life, supports a positive attitude to risk-taking and helps to devise new approaches to the local design and testing of approaches to problems. Ultimately these approaches play an important part in developing understanding of how to do appreciative action research to enhance relationships and more strengths or assets-based and collaborative ways of working and so, to develop new possibilities for changing social systems and a more future-making orientation to action research.

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