Chris Argyris

Single-Loop and Double-Loop Models in Research on Decision Making.

September 1 976, volu me 21 Some current research and theory on organizational decision making from the political science literature is examined, in which the potential role of learning and feedback in the decision-making process is largely ignored. An espoused theory of action based on single-loop learning is found to be the most general model of action. A double-loop model is proposed as providing feedback and more effective decision making.

The Blackwell handbook of organizational learning and knowledge management

Organizado em duas partes, este livro trata da aprendizagem organizacional e das organizações de aprendizagem sob a perspectiva técnica e social. Na primeira parte, os artigos trazem importante contribuição ao apontar dificuldades e limitações à construção do campo teórico e ao realizar uma revisão crítica da literatura existente. Já a segunda parte reúne estudos práticos de implementação da aprendizagem organizacional em ambientes organizacionais, com base em diversas metodologias de intervenção, mesclando teoria e prática.Once upon a time the publication of an edited handbook constituted a landmark event that brought together the worlds leading authorities within a major field of study to map out the territory, reflect comprehensively on the main theoretical, methodological, and empirical developments that had occurred from the fields inception, drawing out, where necessary and appropriate, the implications for practice, and giving clear pointers to where the field might move next, say, over the coming two decades or so. Dunnettes (1976) handbook, which remains a citation classic some thirty years on (despite there having been a four-volume second edition little over a decade ago) is in many ways a prototypical exemplar of handbooks falling within this genre, as is Marchs (1965) handbook, which made the initial statement of what organization theory is.

Organizational learning and management information systems

Abstract The current debate around the implementation crisis of management information systems is re-examined in the light of a theory of organizational learning (the detection and correction of error). The analysis suggests that many of the recommendations to overcome the difficulties may be inadequate and, in some cases, counterproductive.

Action science and organizational learning

Describes how individuals hold theories which govern their actions and how these theories unintentionally create organizational defensive routines and inhibit learning. Presents an action science approach whereby consultant researchers can help individuals see their taken‐for‐granted theories, test them and then redesign their action in the light of their learning.

A Life Full of Learning

I began my career with a dedication to reducing injustices. The injustices that intrigued me were those that inhibited the expansion of liberating alternatives. Soon I narrowed my focus even further to those injustices created by human beings when they were acting to reduce the injustices. The more that I studied these phenomena, the more I found myself studying processes that were selfsealing, compulsively repetitive, and non-interruptable and changeable by the very people who created them. Kubie (1958) described such processes as neurotic and undermining creative change. Fromm (1955) made a similar point, emphasizing societal variables. It became increasingly clear that human beings were skillful at maintaining vigilantly these corrosive and non-learning features. These features continue to exist today in organizations. Yet there are no courses at universities or other executive programs that teach human beings, groups, intergroups, and organizations the skills of producing these counterproductive, compulsively repetitive processes. How do we explain their omnipresence and perseverance? I chose to become a scholar because I felt a deep sense of responsibility to test the claims that I would make in the most robust manner possible. I sought to assure myself that I was not unwittingly kidding myself or others in the claims that I was making. At the outset of my career, I assumed that justice and seeking truth represented unbounded good. As I will illustrate below, I learned that both features contain inner contradictions. As justice is strengthened, it can also produce knowledge that violates it. As truth is strengthened by the use of the ideas in good currency in the scholarly community, it can also create conditions for limiting truth.

Actionable knowledge : Design causality in the service of consequential theory

Knowledge produced by empirical research can have external validity, which means it is relevant to the everyday world. Actionable knowledge is that knowledge required to implement the external validity (relevance) in that world. The claim is made that the concept of causality that underlies much rigorous empirical research makes it difficult to transform knowledge with high external validity into actionable knowledge. Moreover, this concept of causality can lead to knowledge that, if made actionable, could inhibit learning and, in some cases, produce undesirable unethical consequences. A different concept of causality is proposed that enhances actionability. Design causality is defined, and how it can be implemented is illustrated.

Some Limits of Rational Man Organizational Theory

Organizational theory in public administration may be undergoing an important transformation. The new critics find much administrative descriptive theory to be nonrelevant to many critical problems of organization. They suggest that the present theories are based on a concept of man, indeed a morality, that leads the scholar to conduct research that is, intentionally or unintentionally, supportive of the status quo (Marini 1971). The newer, critical writings are also concerned with individual morality, authenticity, human self-actualization. The scholars are not only asking what makes organizations more effective; they are concerned with the issues: For whom are organizations designed? How humane can organizations become and still be effective?

Action Science and Intervention

Individuals, programmed with Model I theories-in-use, often use reasoning processes to diagnose and invent solutions to threatening problems that they then appear to ignore when they act. Moreover, the reasoning processes they use to act contradict the ones they use to diagnose and invent their actions. Individuals, therefore, appear to be disconnected from their reasoning processes, programmed to be so, and unaware of the program that keeps them unaware. This results in behavioral environments composed of escalating error and self-sealing processes that, in turn, leave people feeling helpless. They react by distancing themselves from their personal responsibility and creating an organizational culture to support their behavior. An intervention strategy for beginning to deal with these complex phenomena is described.

Explorations in Interpersonal Competence—II

A set of categories is presented designed to measure interpersonal competence. The primary plus categories on the individual and interpersonal levels are owning up to, openness, and risk taking. On the norms level they are individuality, concern, and trust. The primary minus categories on the individual and interpersonal levels are not owning up to, not being open, and rejecting risk taking. On the norms level, they are conformity, antagonism, and mistrust. Exploratory research suggests that the categories can be used (1) with an encouraging degree of reliability, (2) with an encouraging degree of predictive validity, and (3) as the basis to describe increases or decreases in individual and group competence during T-Group and other training.

Learning and Teaching: A Theory of Action Perspective:

This article describes learning and teaching activities in large group settings that are informed by a theory of action perspective and examines the epistemological and pedagogical implications for effective management education. The author lays out the underlying tenants of a theory of action perspective most relevant to learning and teaching, explores the implications for action and implementation in the management classroom, and illustrates a case writing process and teaching method that meets the criteria for good theory in action-based education.