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Strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results: An emerging approach to organization development
Author(s) -
Zarestky Jill,
Cole Catherine S.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
new horizons in adult education and human resource development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1939-4225
DOI - 10.1002/nha3.20166
Subject(s) - soar , swot analysis , strengths and weaknesses , appreciative inquiry , strategic planning , management science , process management , knowledge management , psychology , business , computer science , marketing , engineering , pedagogy , social psychology , artificial intelligence
Organization development ( OD ) interventions have typically relied on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats ( SWOT ) framework for strategic planning. The strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results ( SOAR ) framework is a relatively new innovation in OD that may serve as a viable alternative to SWOT for those who wish to apply an appreciative inquiry approach. This paper presents the results of a scoping study in which the limited but varied literature support for SOAR is reviewed. An extensive search uncovered 27 publications pertaining to SOAR , which were then analyzed chronologically and thematically. Although findings include an overwhelmingly positive appraisal of SOAR , many gaps were uncovered in the literature and research regarding empirical support for the framework.