Chris Argyris: The Iconoclast

In a career that spanned more than 50 years, Chris Argyris played a unique, pioneering role in the development of our understanding of individuals, organizations, learning, and change. As a teacher and consultant, he was provocative, challenging, polarizing, and memorable. Many prominent scholars and practitioners credit Argyris as one of their most influential mentors. His influence stemmed from his writing as well as his personal impact. He provided the first major statement of the argument that conventional management practices create a fundamental conflict between organizations and people that is harmful to both because they treat employees like children. He developed the first comprehensive theory of organizational intervention, emphasizing core values, action research, and the ways that intervention and research can be mutually supportive. He emphasized the importance of clear values to guide efforts at organizational improvement, underscoring the importance of valid information, free and informed choice, and internal commitment. His work with Donald Schön on theories for action documented the pervasiveness of gaps between what people do and what they think they’re doing. Those gaps impede organizational learning and effectiveness but prevent individuals and groups from seeing their own causality and result in behavior that deepens the problems individuals wish they could solve. Those ideas also led into work on organizational learning which emphasized that self-awareness and willingness to talk about “hot” issues are necessary but rare in organizational life.