Reasons and rationalizations

"Argyris is one of the best known management scholars in the world - a leading light whose work has consistently addressed fundamental organizational questions, and who has provided some of the key concepts and building blocks of our understanding of organizational learning: single and double learning, theory in use, and espoused theory, amongst others." "In this book, he questions many of the assumptions of organizational theory and research, an investigation which is not confined to academic analysis. He also scrutinizes that capacity for 'unproductive reasoning' (even as self-deception and rationalization) that is common amongst managers, consultants, and indeed more generally. As well as engaging with the work of leading organizational researchers (Sennett, Gabriel, Burgelman, Czarniawska, and Grint, for example), he also ponders the work of the consultants, commentators, and accountants who endorsed Enron." "Drawing on his own wealth of experience of researching and working with organizations, this book will be a reference point for developing useful knowledge and confronting the defences and deceptions that are only too commonplace in the business and academic worlds."--Jacket.