Title: What is organisational inquiry in the 21st century?

Authors: Frank Stowell

Addresses: School of Computing, Faculty of Technology, University of Portsmouth, Lion Gate, Portsmouth PO1 3AE, UK

Abstract: Organisational intervention is problematic and nowhere more so than in the age of instant communications. But models of organisation are unsatisfactory as they assume a certain level of predictability, but research shows that it is far from being predictable. Each inquirer has a different notion of what an organisation is and in order to make sense of it the inquirer adopts a particular ontological model or concept of organisation. Organisational research suggests abandon ontology for epistemology in recognition of the dynamic of organisational behaviour. Organisations are in a continuous state of change and at a time of change tensions are created that threaten its stability. Instability creates an environment where individual members and groups use their power in an attempt to shape outcomes. In this paper, we provide a brief account of the way organisational behaviour and power can be understood and managed through the medium of the appreciative inquiry method incorporating the notion of 'commodity'.

Keywords: organisational change; appreciative inquiry method; AIM; PEArL; power; organisational inquiry; organisational behaviour; commodity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMABS.2015.070295

International Journal of Markets and Business Systems, 2015 Vol.1 No.1, pp.28 - 37

Received: 27 Mar 2015
Accepted: 27 Mar 2015
Published online: 01 Jul 2015 *

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