Individual Cognitive Effort and Cognitive Transition During Organization Development

Abstract

How do personal mind-sets change during an organization development intervention and how are these transitions associated with the intervention characteristics? In a qualitative theory-driven case study based in South Africa, the transitions of six individuals during an appreciative inquiry were scrutinized longitudinally for firstorder and second-order changes. Five individuals showed first-order changes and two showed second-order changes. The engaging and emergent characteristic of the intervention explained the majority of these cognitive transitions. A third type of change in mind-set emerged in four of the cases: the development of an appreciative stance, which we classify as a form of cognitive effort rather than a cognitive transition. We conclude that interventions focusing on positivity may lead to participants developing an appreciative stance, but successful organization development might not occur without sufficient engagement in an emergent process. We provide some guidelines for practitioners for conducting an engaging emergent change process.

Enhancing Researcher Reflexivity About the Influence of Leading Questions in Interviews

“…Adopting a reflexive approach has been advocated broadly for researchers (Cassell et al, 2009). We suggest that considering the influence of interviewer questions may be of particular interest to qualitative research about the subjective nature of organizational development and change—the topic focus of JABS—for example, mindset (Maxton & Bushe, 2018), resilience (Gover & Duxbury, 2018), sensemaking (Sharma & Good, 2013), identity (Akram, 2013; Foldy, 2012; Kram et al, 2012), commitment to change (Ford et al, 2020), intrinsic motivation (Auger & Woodman, 2016), cultural competence (Foldy & Buckley, 2017), and psychological contracts (Sverdrup & Schei, 2015).…”

Making Interviews Meaningful

“…This might be seen as a strength if it enables scholars to work with and give back to the world of practice through joint learning. Moreover, while appreciative methods, may initially seem idealistic and possibly even a little naïve, the suggestion that interviewing around positive issues might have more generative effects on respondents than interviews that raise problematic issues, certainly offers food for thought for anyone intending to undertake interview-based research of any kind on organizational change in complex settings (Maxton & Bushe, 2018; Michael, 2005).…”

Bushe, Gervase Roy: Progressing Ideas and Practices to Make the World a Better Place

“…While this involves change, it is quite different from change management and leads to different approaches. Arguing that there are no universal models of a great team or organization because of the inherent paradoxes of group life, and the contextually dependent nature or organizing processes, OD is better thought of as an emergent process (Maxton & Bushe, 2018) where leaders lead a process of engaging stakeholders in inquiry and conversations that launch many small innovations that leaders then nurture, amplify, and scale up. Since all models of great organizations, from Likert (1961) to Laloux (2016) envision engagement in inquiry by all organizational members as essential for superior organizing, by using a generative change approach to manage a complex problem, OD creates better organizations.…”