Using ‘Appreciative Inquiry’ in India to improve infection control practices in maternity care : a qualitative study

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The inputs and facilitation of field work from the Gujarat state government officials are acknowledged. We express our gratitude to the doctors, nurses and other health facility staff for actively participating in the study. Our special thanks to Dr. Pritam Pal for capacity building of the research team for appreciative inquiry and Mr. Sanjay Joshi for follow-up of the AI process. We appreciate the help of Dr. Purvi Shah in data collection and preparing transcripts for the study. The study was funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

An evaluation of staff engagement programmes in four National Health Service Acute Trusts

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report the findings from an evaluation project conducted to investigate the impact of two staff engagement programmes introduced to four National Health Service (NHS) hospital Trusts in England. It seeks to examine this development in the context of current policy initiatives aimed at increasing the level of staff involvement in decision-making, and the related literature. \ud \ud Design/methodology/approach – A mixed-methods approach incorporating document analysis, interviews, a survey and appreciative inquiry, informed by the principles of impact evaluation design, was used. \ud \ud Findings – The main finding to emerge was that leadership was crucial if widespread staff engagement was to be achieved. Indeed, in some of the trusts the staff engagement programmes were seen as mechanisms for developing leadership capability. The programmes had greater impact when they were “championed” by the Chief Executive. Effective communication throughout the organisations was reported to be a prerequisite for staff engagement. Problems were identified at the level of middle management where the lack of confidence in engaging with staff was a barrier to implementation. \ud \ud Practical implications – The nature of the particular organisational context is crucial to the success of efforts to increase levels of staff engagement. The measures that were found to work in the trusts would need to be adapted and applied to best meet the needs of other organisations. \ud \ud Originality/value – Many health care organisations in England will need to harness the efforts of their workforce if they are to meet the significant challenges of dealing with financial restraint and increasing patient demand. This paper provides some insights on how this can be done

Appreciative Inquiry Into IT Projet Management: Understanding Win-Win Contracts

Traditional systems development research largely adopts a negative view and focuses on failures. In contrast, this study adopts a positive approach to improve current practices. We report from an action research project at a small software firm, TelSoft, in which we applied appreciative inquiry to develop information technology (IT) project management skills. The inquiry process offers two contributions. First, we demonstrate how appreciative principles and the four steps of initiating, inquiring, imagining, and innovating were used to learn about existing strengths and share visions of possible futures. Acknowledging that humans under these circumstances respond constructively to change, this led to a new development program for IT project managers. Second, we adapt \u27win-win contracts\u27 to develop generative metaphors for the core knowledge areas: scope, time, cost, and quality management. The resulting metaphors are grounded in the particular context at TelSoft and informed by Theory W. The paper presents the appreciative inquiry process in detail and discusses the results in relation to the IT project management literature

Collaborative action research for the governance of climate adaptation - foundations, conditions and pitfalls

This position paper serves as an introductory guide to designing and facilitating an action research process with stakeholders in the context of climate adaptation. Specifically, this is aimed at action researchers who are targeting at involving stakeholders and their expert knowledge in generating knowledge about their own condition and how it can be changed. The core philosophy of our research approach can be described as developing a powerful combination between practice-driven collaborative action research and theoretically-informed scientific research. Collaborative action research means that we take guidance from the hotspots as the primary source of questions, dilemmas and empirical data regarding the governance of adaptation, but also collaborate with them in testing insights and strategies, and evaluating their usefulness. The purpose is to develop effective, legitimate and resilient governance arrangements for climate adaptation. Scientific quality will be achieved by placing this co-production of knowledge in a well-founded and innovative theoretical framework, and through the involvement of the international consortium partners. This position paper provides a methodological starting point of the research program ‘Governance of Climate Adaptation’ and aims: · To clarify the theoretical foundation of collaborative action research and the underlying ontological and epistemological principles · To give an historical overview of the development of action research and its different forms · To enhance the theoretical foundation of collaborative action research in the specific context of governance of climate adaptation. · To translate the philosophy of collaborative action research into practical methods; · To give an overview of the main conditions and pitfalls for action research in complex governance settings Finally, this position paper provides three key instruminstruments developed to support Action Research in the hotspots: 1) Toolbox for AR in hotspots (chapter 6); 2) Set-up of a research design and action plan for AR in hotspots (chapter 7); 3) Quality checklist or guidance for AR in hotspots (chapter 8)

Exploring Win-Win Contracts: An Appreciative Inquiry into IT Project Management

IT project management research largely adopts a negative approach with an emphasis on risks, problems and failures. Although that approach has led to important theoretical and practical insights, this study adopts a positive approach to explore complementary ways to improve current practices. Accordingly, we report from a small software firm, TelSoft, in which we applied appreciative inquiry (AI) to identify “win-win contracts” as generative metaphor for IT project management and to develop action strategies to manage scope, time, cost, and quality in TelSoft’s IT projects. As a contribution to the IT project management literature, we show how the generative metaphor and related action strategies were developed at TelSoft and discuss relationships to existing theory, most notably Theory W. In addition, as a contribution to the participatory change literature within the Information Systems discipline, we show how AI and the four steps of initiating, inquiring, imagining, and innovating were applied at TelSoft to learn about existing strengths in IT project management and to improve current practices through a series of workshops for project managers. We present the AI process in detail and discuss our experiences in relation to other approaches to participatory change

Making sense of assets: Community asset mapping and related approaches for cultivating capacities

This working paper critically reviews some main aspects from asset based approaches highlights key strengths and weaknesses for future research/development. Drawing on a large body of reports and relevant literature we draw on different theoretical traditions and critiques, as well as practices and processes embedded within a broad range of approaches including, widely acknowledged frameworks such Asset Based Community Development (ABCD), Appreciative Inquiry (AI), Sustainable Livelihood Approaches (SLA) and Community Capitals Framework (CCF). Although these are presented as distinct approaches, there is a sense of evolution through them and many of them overlap (in terms of both theories and methodologies). We also include emerging frameworks, including geographical, socio-spatial, visual and creative approaches, stemming from a number of projects within AHRC’s Connected Communities programme and additional collaborations