Appreciative Management & Leadership, Revised
Edition
Organizations in the
twenty-first century will look very different from
those we know today. Faced with an environment of
unpredictable demands and a workforce of great
cultural and ethnic diversity, organizations will
have to find new ways to engage their members in a
spirit of common purpose. This book offers a new
perspective on organizational management that will
enable executives to unlock an organization's
potential for creativity, innovation, and
collaboration. In sixteen original essays the
authors demonstrate how appreciation - the act of
recognizing and valuing all kinds of diversity,
whether cultural, ethnic, or simply different and
unusual styles of management - is the key to forging
unity and purpose among individuals in an
organization. They show, for example, how consensus
and cooperation grow from members' understanding
that their personal integrity and abilities are
valued and will be integrated into the
organization's culture. They describe the specific
communication practices that can be used to forge a
common sense of purpose from conflicting points of
view and different personal goals. And they identify
the special personal and leadership skills needed to
cultivate an environment where managers work with
and build on differences, rather than denying their
expression.
