Ravalier PhD Theis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

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1b.2) Theoretical Foundations and Assumptions of AI
AI is a theory and method for organising and changing social systems. According to the founding fathers of
the technique, the study of organisations needs to be guided by a desire to understand how and under what
conditions change is created and sustained. Indeed, Hammonds (1998) states that in order to understand AI one
needs to recognise that individual and group assumptions are central to any change effort.
AI is an approach to organisational change which emphasises and builds upon strengths and potential of a
social organisation, and is based on social constructionist thought and its applications to management and
organisational transformation. Social constructionism is the theory that people and organisations create their
realities through their interpretations of and conversations about the world (Krattenmaker, 2001). It argues that
individuals can have influence on the reality that they experience, and that we create our own realities to some
extent (Fitzgerald, Murrell and Miller, 2003). Busche (1995) is watchful of offering a complete description of how AI
should be conducted, particularly because the approach is only a little over two decades into its conception.
However, he does offer the following summary:
“Appreciative Inquiry, as a method of changing social systems, is an attempt to generate a collective image
of a new and better future by exploring the best of what is and what has been.” (Busche, 1995, pp. 14)