Overcoming Organizational Defenses: Facilitating Organizational Learning

by Chris Argyris

Organizational defences that exist in most organizations can inhibit organizational performance. This book shows how to diagnose the organization to expose the weaknesses. Each chapter contains advice about how to reduce organizational defences to bring about improved involvement and performance.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Leadership, Psychology, Management

192 pages, Perfect Paperback

First published March 25, 1990

About the author

Chris Argyris is a director of elite strategy consulting firm, the Monitor Group, and is the James Bryant Conant Professor of Education and Organizational Behavior at Harvard Business School.

Agyris's early research focused on the unintended consequences for individuals of formal organizational structures, executive leadership, control systems, and management information systems, and on how individuals adapted to change those consequences. He then turned his attention to ways of changing organizations, especially the behavior of executives at the upper levels of organization.

During the past decade, Argyris has been developing, a theory of individual and organizational learning in which human reasoning (not just behavior) becomes the basis for diagnosis and action.

Reviews

[Scott Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm right. I'll convince you I'm right. And we're going to be happy about it! That get's to the heart of Argyris' Model I Theory-in-Use, which he attributes as establishing of organizational defenses, generating skilled incompetence. This information is very useful to have in mind when trying to figure out what the heck is happening at your place of employment. Fear not! Argyris proposes an alternative Theory-in-Use (Model II) to move organizations in alternative and more productive directions, and suggestions on how to proceed with establishing new patterns and approaches.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful combination of theory and worked examples from the 90s, that describe a pathway for professionals to become enlightened adults in the workplace in order to break the defensive, anti-learning, counter-productive patterns of a "Model I" (control-based) organisation and mature the organisation and people to be "Model II" (commitment-based).

You know Model I, it's (still) common place. The staff complain about the organisation and its practices, feel unable to change anything, yet unknowingly reinforce the culture. If you hear "Living the dream" through clenched teeth at the water-cooler, it's a Model I dream you're living.

This book is an organisation's equivalent of a self-help guide, and relies upon the reader being a professional willing to self-reflect, be brave and step up to professional adulthood.

While the book feels a little dated in its format and language, the problem it identifies and its message is still very relevant in the 21st century. The author may have even given rise to such contemporary ideas as "The 5 Whys", Emotional Intelligence and the Learning Organisation.

[Ryan Lafferty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I rarely recommend scholarly reading from my coursework, but Chris Argyris packs a punch in understanding why organizations simply don't work the way they should. This is a relatively short read with immeasurable value. Concepts range from intentional "learned incompetence," fancy footwork, and countless other gems that uncover why things aren't as they appear within any organization. I highly recommend this for anyone taking on a leadership role in any capacity. The lessons learned here would be quite costly to learn through experience.
Buy it today!

[Kate Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

The preface to this book says it all ... the usual guideposts of employee morale, satisfaction, and loyalty are not enough to build organizational excellence. Rather, excellence comes from learning, competence, and justice. The author shows the path to the latter three. Not an easy read, but well worth considering.

[Mirjam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very, very hard to read. I will return to it when I have more time at hand.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book I first read in Grad School in 1992. I provides a systematic way to view people based upon their tendency to fib, then cover up, then get mired in the management of the cover-up.

[Alice Nylander · Rating 2 out of 5]

Säkert användbara begrepp och bitvis givande och intressant resonemang. Men ack ack vad svårbegriplig den här boken var för mig som inte är så insatt på området, hängde inte riktigt med.

[Antonella Milanini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Raffaello Cortina Editore

[Gello · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written in a very difficult style, so hard to understand what he was getting it, much of the time.