Book Review: Chris Argyris – Reasons and Rationalizations

Margaretha Warnicke

PAF 603 (Spring 2009)
Argyris, C. (2004). Reasons and rationalizations: The limits to organizational knowledge. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.

Chris Argyris’ (2004) most recent book builds on his prior scholarship in organizational learning and change. He unites several different theories with which he has worked over the years in this concise volume to explain two key issues: why individuals in organizations do not learn effectively and why scholars have not been very successful at helping organizations reverse this trend. He identifies defensive reasoning as the chief factor that prohibits individuals and groups within organizations from learning because they: protect one another from embarrassment or harm; employ self-referential logic; avoid transparency in order to ensure self-protection; deny and cover up their self-protective efforts; and then deny the cover up. In order to escape the cycle of defensive reasoning, Argyris proposes that organizations employ double-loop learning and action theory.