UNDERLYING RITUAL PRACTICES OF THE APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY SUMMIT: TOWARD A THEORY OF SUSTAINED APPRECIATIVE CHANGE

Abstract

This paper presents a framework to study organizational change using the metaphor of ritual. Concepts of myth and ritual facilitate understanding of change interventions. A qualitative study of Appreciative Inquiry helped answer the question: what mechanisms or processes explain the effect of the Appreciative Inquiry Summit? Four mechanisms, based on qualitative interviews and anthropological and sociological theory, explain why the AI Summit produces organizational change: (1) internal dialogue: recognizing a positive dimension and new vocabulary at the individual, interpersonal, and organizational levels of analysis; (2) communitas: the mechanism whereby new relationships form due to relational anti-structure; (3) commitment: how organization members cognitively and cathectically commit to the organization; and (4) longitudinal repetition: how sustained and continuous change involves repetition of ritual practices and the recognition.

Citation

Powley, E.H. (2004), "UNDERLYING RITUAL PRACTICES OF THE APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY SUMMIT: TOWARD A THEORY OF SUSTAINED APPRECIATIVE CHANGE", Cooperrider, D.L. and Avital, M. (Ed.) Constructive Discourse and Human Organization (Advances in Appreciative Inquiry, Vol. 1), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 241-261. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1475-9152(04)01011-7