Working with Appreciation in Managerial Practice

Using a poststructuralist view of managerial practice, we elaborate the notion of working appreciatively by focusing on the contested, emergent meaning of appreciation. We begin by articulating a set of concerns regarding the traditional treatment of appreciation within managerial practice and suggest that working with appreciation requires cultivating an appreciative spirit. An appreciative spirit is enhanced when managers develop (1) an appreciation for the life enhancing, (2) an appreciation of the connection between spirit and technique, and (3) an appreciation for reflexivity.