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Building relationships and developing understanding, trust, and collaboration in transcultural strategic alliances involve enormous challenges that have been well documented. Organization development (OD) technologies, including appreciative inquiry (AI), are uniquely suited to deal effectively with these challenges. Thus, two alliancebuilding OD interventions were implemented to develop relational capital in a U.S.-India biotechnology alliance. Substantive cultural differences existed between the alliance partners at formation, and the ways in which those differences influenced the design and implementation of the two interventions are discussed. Overall, AI as modified was found to support building relational capital. Six years later, the alliance continues to thrive; however, many of the same issues that hampered the effectiveness of collaboration 91 and building of trust in the alliance still exist. Recommendations are offered for modifying the design of AI and other OD interventions to provide ongoing support for building successful transcultural alliances.The relative contribution of two different organizational development (OD) interventions to the building of relationships, trust, and goodwill in a transcultural strategic alliance (the alliance) is explored in this case study. The two OD interventions were conducted in 1998 to help build the alliance. Six years later, the alliance continues to thrive, which is remarkable given the high failure rate of transcultural joint ventures (Ramu, 1997, p. 9). Even given its success, many of the issues that faced the alliance during its formation continue to persist today, thus heightening the importance of dealing with difficult issues during formation. Alliance building is not an event but needs to be an ongoing effort in building successful alliances.The background of the alliance is explored next, followed by a discussion of the two alliance-building sessions. The outcomes of those sessions are then presented, including suggestions for design modifications to the standard appreciative inquiry (AI) cycle when applied to alliance-building interventions. Finally, conclusions are drawn regarding ways to heighten the efficacy of transcultural alliance-building OD interventions.

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Relational Capital (RC) is referred as intangible asset that an organization acquires while sustaining effective relations with suppliers, customers or business partners. Prior research suggests that enhanced RC could significantly improve organizational performance. Therefore, for accentuating the role of RC in a manufacturing concern, an organizational development intervention called Appreciative Inquiry (AI) was conducted in this study. The primary objective of this action-oriented study was to develop relational capital, which was identified by respondents as one of their strengths, through the application of appreciative inquiry. The study was carried out by involving 26 participants from procurement and sales departments in 4-D cycle of AI. Post-intervention survey revealed improved RC and more friendly exchanges among stakeholders. Findings of this study would be useful to inform practitioners about the effectiveness of AI and would set new directions for appreciating the strengths of employees and other stakeholders.

Health care organizations around the world are recognizing the benefits of maintaining electronic medical records for patients with improved quality of service, free flow of information (across multiple locations), reduced cost of operations resulting in cost efficiencies, better health and efficient utilization of resources. Recognizing these benefits as opportunities, health care providers have or are in the process of migrating from paper-based health care records to electronic medical systems. This transition is not always free from challenges. This study presents recommendations for managing challenges with data conversion from paper form to electronic database based on a case study done by students from Colorado Technical University, Colorado Springs, CO, USA, for a prominent eye hospital in Jalna, India, using appreciative inquiry. The Culture, Administrative, Geographic and Economic (CAGE) framework at the industrial level is applied to evaluate the options considered for data conversion and transition.