Books
Monitor thought leaders have made major contributions to business theory. See selected recent publications:
Overcoming Organizational Defenses l Chris Agyris
With Overcoming Organizational Defenses, Chris Argyris makes the undiscussable discussable. His book takes direct aim at organizational defenses. It uncovers what is often known privately in organizations about defenses but is bypassed and covered up.
This book is for thoughtful managers and graduate students who want to reduce the pollution created by organizational defenses. It is also for consultants, in any field, who are dedicated to providing value added by helping clients to solve their problems. Management consulting should focus on identifying and eradicating organizational defenses because they, more than any other factor, are likely to diminish the value the consultants can add for their clients.
Flaw Advice and the Management Trap l Chris Agyris
Management consulting is big business. Consultants often make very good money, and the good ones throw intriguing ideas on the table and get people excited about their work. But is any of their advice actually useful? Does it get implemented and lead to more productive workplaces? Chris Argyris thinks that most of it doesn't work, because it has too many "abstract claims, inconsistencies, and logical gaps to be useful as a concrete basis for concrete actions in concrete settings." No matter what managers hear from consultants, they ultimately resort to these five behaviors, according to Argyris: State a message that's inconsistent ( "You're in charge of this, but check in with Steve" ); act as if it's not inconsistent; make the inconsistency undiscussable; make the undiscussability undiscussable; act as if you're not doing any of the above. Flawed Advice and the Management Trap shows managers how to break out. He shows that a choice is sound when the emphasis is on facts and accumulated data and isn't influenced by the relative power positions of the people involved.
Knowledge for Action l Chris Agyris
The landmark book Action Science introduced a revolutionary theory of organizational inquiry that demonstrated ways to solve problems. enhance human development and learning, and promote individual, organizational, and social change. Now, Chris Argyris translates the powerful theoretical approach presented in that work into practical advice for researchers and managers. Knowledge for Action presents a step-by-step description of how to assess an organization's capacity to learn, analyze the data, and design and implement effective interventions that help create a more dynamic and innovative organization. Argyris demonstrates how his proven research methods produce actionable knowledge - knowledge that tests the validity of the research methods themselves when used in day-to-day operations - and calls for a genuine partnership between professionals and researchers both to implement the research properly and to test its results in everyday life.