Richard J. Boland – författare

Appreciative Inquiry has touched and affected the life of thousands who apply its principles in a wide range of settings including industry, government, spiritual and not-for-profit organizations. The "Advances in Appreciative Inquiry" series advocates an organizational science that focuses on advancing a scholarship of positive human organizations, positive relationships and positive modalities of change, which promise to be of world benefit for individuals, organizations and communities. The book series is dedicated to building such a discipline through the advancement of Appreciative Inquiry as an approach to organizational inquiry and human development, and through the interdisciplinary articulation of non-deficit theories of positive change processes in human systems. Guided by the ethos of Appreciative Inquiry, the book series supports a relentless inquiry into the true, the good, the better and the possible. It is dedicated to advancing a 'scholarship of the positive' and 'positive scholarship'. The book series aims to facilitate an emergent dialogue within the social sciences and to support innovative and challenging work. This book series is available electronically online.

Managing as Designing explores "the design attitude," a new focus for analysis and decision making for managers that draws on examples of decision making and leadership in architecture, art, and design. Based on a series of conference papers given at the opening of the Peter B. Lewis Building (designed by Frank Gehry) at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, the book includes keynote speeches from Frank Gehry and Karl Weick. The premise of this book is that managers should act not only as decision makers, but also as designers. Though decision and design are inextricably linked in management action, managers and scholars have too long emphasized the decision face of management over the design face. In a series of essays from a multitude of disciplines, the authors develop a theory of the design attitude in contrast to the more traditionally accepted and practiced decision attitude.The book will appeal primarily to scholars of management theory and organization strategy and managers, with many contributions from a variety of academic backgrounds including architecture, sociology, design, history, choreography, strategy, economics, music, and accounting. There is a potential for strong crossover appeal to these groups, especially to those people and groups interested in design and product development.