Flourishing Organizations
Jakubik, Maria (2017)
The International Institute of Informatics and Systemics
2017
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2018111517194
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2018111517194
Tiivistelmä
In this paper, I seek to answer the following
question: What makes organizations flourish?
My ontological standpoint is that organizations
are living, open systems created and developed
by people who are unceasingly and dynamically
evolving, learning and developing. Appreciative
inquiry (hereafter AI), as a form of action
research, changes the focus from problem
solving to developing organizations based on
their strengths. The life-giving forces of 29
organizations in Finland were ascertained
during a four-year period of research. Groups of
Master’s students collected and analysed
qualitative data from 319 interviews, where
they asked “unconditional positive questions”.
This paper presents a synthesis of the findings
of these students’ inquiries. The findings assert
that discovering what provides joy and
happiness for people in work serves as a strong
basis for them to dream, design and maximize
their own and their organization’s destiny in the
future.
question: What makes organizations flourish?
My ontological standpoint is that organizations
are living, open systems created and developed
by people who are unceasingly and dynamically
evolving, learning and developing. Appreciative
inquiry (hereafter AI), as a form of action
research, changes the focus from problem
solving to developing organizations based on
their strengths. The life-giving forces of 29
organizations in Finland were ascertained
during a four-year period of research. Groups of
Master’s students collected and analysed
qualitative data from 319 interviews, where
they asked “unconditional positive questions”.
This paper presents a synthesis of the findings
of these students’ inquiries. The findings assert
that discovering what provides joy and
happiness for people in work serves as a strong
basis for them to dream, design and maximize
their own and their organization’s destiny in the
future.