Management Papers
Title
Positive Identity Construction: Insights from Classical and Contemporary Theoretical Perspectives
Document Type
Book Chapter
Date of this Version
8-2011
Publication Source
Oxford Handbooks Online
DOI
10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199734610.013.0056
Abstract
This chapter presents a framework for innovation-inspired positive organization development (IPOD); IPOD is presented as both a radical break from the problem solving approaches that have come to dominate the field, as well as a homecoming to OD’s original affirmative spirit. The converging fields that inform the theory and practice of IPOD are detailed: appreciative inquiry, positive organizational scholarship, positive psychology, design theory, and the rise of sustainable enterprises. The theory of change underlying IPOD is articulated, including the three stages in creating strengths-based organizational innovation: the elevation-and-extension of strengths, the broadening-and-building of capacity, and the establishment of the new-and-eclipsing of the old. Recent work from the city of Cleveland, Ohio, illustrates how these stages unfold. The chapter concludes with an agenda for evolving the field of IPOD, calling for a focus on designing positive institutions that refract and magnify our highest human strengths outward into society.
Copyright/Permission Statement
Morgan, L., Creary, S.J., (2011).Positive Identity Construction: Insights from Classical and Contemporary Theoretical Perspectives . In G. M. Spreitzer and K. S. Cameron (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Positive Organizational Scholarship. Reproduced by the permission of Oxford University Press.
Keywords
Innovation-inspired positive organization development, appreciative inquiry, managing as design, sustainability, positive institutions, strength-based management, innovation, theory of change
Recommended Citation
Morgan, L., Creary, S.J., (2011).Positive Identity Construction: Insights from Classical and Contemporary Theoretical Perspectives . In G. M. Spreitzer and K. S. Cameron (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Positive Organizational Scholarship. Oxford University Press.
Date Posted: 19 February 2018