Appreciative Inquiry: Applied to Information Technology

Abstract In Organizational development (OD), Appreciative Inquiry (Ai) is a process for engaging people across the system in renewal, change and focused performance. The basic idea is to build organizations around what works, rather than trying to fix what doesn't. A proven benefit of the approach is its reliance on the acknowledgement of contribution at the individual level, which leads to trust and organizational alignment. Since the method creates meaning by drawing from stories of concrete successes and lends itself to crossindustrial social activities, it is enjoyable and natural to many managers, who are thought to be naturally social people focused on the bottom line The potential benefits are as numerous as is the application of Ai. Such benefits identified through this study can be leveraged within IT management, leadership and governance. This papers' objective is twofold; first to determine whether the paradigm or the methodological approach would invalidate its use for IT research; and second to understand the Ai process, identify current applications in IT, and to describe how using Ai in the alignment effort between IT and business could be deployed