Can healthcare professionals benefit from appreciative inquiry? Evidence from quasi-experiments to improve job resources, work engagement and vigour

Purpose:

– To evaluate: (1) the effectiveness of team-based (quasi-)experiments developed with appreciative inquiry on job resources, team crafting, work engagement and vigour among healthcare professionals and (2) associations between the experimental process and changes in these outcomes. 

Design/methodology/approach:

– In a Dutch elderly care organisation, 174 participants and 495 non-participants were invited to complete baseline and three-month follow-up surveys. Participating teams designed a total of five quasi-experiments targeting job resources. Effectiveness was analysed using Kernel-based propensity score matching, and associations between the experimental process and outcome changes were analysed using linear regression adjusted for baseline values and covariates. 

Findings:

– Participation in experiments increased colleague social support. Workers more satisfied with experiment-related supervisor support showed greater improvements in work engagement, vigour, development opportunities, feedback about work and social support and coaching from supervisors. Workers more satisfied with the experiment’s effects and its alignment with their needs reported improved social support from supervisors. 

Practical implications:

– Using appreciative inquiry to collaboratively develop team-based experiments aimed at enhancing job resources may improve colleague social support among healthcare professionals. When supervisors provide more experiment-related support, work engagement and vigour might also improve. 

Originality/value:

– This is the first quasi-experimental study on the effectiveness of appreciative inquiry implemented within a regular work practice of healthcare workers. This design facilitated stronger causal inferences on the conditions under which appreciative inquiry might be effective, and allowed conclusions about the effects expected in similar work contexts.