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Abstract

Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results (SOAR) is a strengths-based framework for strategic thinking, planning, conversations, and leading that focuses on strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results. The SOAR framework leverages and integrates Appreciative Inquiry (AI) to create a transformation process through generative questions and positive framing. While SOAR has been used by practitioners since 2000 as a framework for generating positive organizational change, its use in empirical research has been limited by the absence of reliable and valid measures. We report on the reliability, construct validity, and measurement invariance of the SOAR Scale, a 12-item self-report survey organized into four first-order factors (Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results). Data from a sample of 285 U.S. professionals were analyzed in Mplus using confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory structural equation modeling. The Four-Factor first-order exploratory structure equation modeling (ESEM) had the best model fit. Measurement invariance tests found the scalar invariance of the SOAR Scale across gender and education groups. Implications are discussed for using the SOAR Scale to build resilience at the individual, the team, and the organizational levels.

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fpsyg-13-854406.pdf
27 Jul 2022
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Metadata

  • Language
    • English

  • Subject
    • Business Administration

  • Institution
    • Lawrence Technological University

  • Journal title
    • Frontiers in Psychology

  • Volume
    • 13

  • Pagination
    • 854406

  • Date submitted

    27 July 2022

  • Digital Object Identifier (DOI) URL
  • Related identifier
    ISSN: 1664-1078
    OCLC: 9483506272 (relationship: Has Version)
  • Keywords
  • Additional information
    • M. Cole, J. Stavros, A. Stavros affiliated with LTU; J. Cox affiliated with Walsh College (Troy, MI)