Organizational Learning

Argyris, C., & Schon, D. A. (1978). Organizational Learning: A Theory of Action Perspective. Addison-Wesley.

Type

Book

Intellectual base

Textbook

Year

1978

Link

https://archive.org/details/organizationalle0000argy

Cited from

biology_ecology, ethnography_qualitative_methods, organizational_management

Cited by

10 citations across 10 artifacts.

Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.

Primes

• Collective Systemic Learning
  • The essential commitment is that learning occurs at the system level, not merely at the level of individual members, and is embedded in processes, structures, documentation, and culture that make learning organizational rather than personal and transient

    This sourceIntroduces single-loop (error correction within existing strategy) vs. double-loop (questioning governing values/assumptions) learning and espoused-theory vs. theory-in-use.

• Inquiry-Change Learning Loop
  • The target may also move: the problem frame is itself revisable, and a pass whose main product is a better question has not failed.

    This sourceDistinguishes single-loop learning, which corrects error inside a fixed frame, from double-loop learning, which revises the governing variables themselves, so a pass whose product is a reframed problem counts as learning rather than failure.

• Metaplasticity
  • The language of priming, refractory periods, and saturation has been borrowed by organizational-change literatures, where double-loop learning is essentially metaplastic — change in the change rules.

    This sourceIntroduces double-loop learning—change in the governing rules of change—the organizational analogue of metaplasticity.

Domain-specific

• Organizational Metacognition
  • Argyris and Schön used deutero-learning for inquiry into previous organizational learning contexts and the invention and evaluation of new learning strategies.

Mechanisms

• Improvisation Learning Harvest
  • Because it revises the governing repertoire and grammar rather than just fixing the single incident, it is a form of double-loop learning.

    This sourceDefines double-loop learning as revising governing norms and assumptions rather than only correcting errors within them.

• Organizational Review
  • Where it examines its own governing assumptions rather than just its performance against them, it enacts Argyris and Schön's double-loop learning.

    This sourceDefines double-loop learning as inquiry that changes the governing variables, norms, or assumptions behind organizational action.

• Reflective Norm Dialogue
  • It is the archetype's chief guard against blind reproduction and bias transmission — this is double-loop learning, where the learner examines the governing norm itself rather than only correcting actions within it.

    This sourceDouble-loop learning examines governing norms and assumptions instead of only correcting actions within them.

• Script-Revision Workshop
  • At its best it is double-loop learning: the body doesn't just tune actions within the current script, it questions and revises the governing script itself.

    This sourceDefines double-loop learning as questioning and changing governing variables rather than merely correcting action within an existing script.

• Strategic Learning Curriculum
  • Its attention to why early practice must precede later practice reflects the logic of double-loop learning — the curriculum aims not just to add techniques but to change how the organization examines the assumptions behind its own strategy.

    This sourceDefines double-loop learning as examining and changing governing assumptions, values, and strategies rather than merely correcting action within them.

• Tool-Mismatch Postmortem
  • Done well it drives double-loop learning, altering the repertoire and assumptions rather than just retrying the same tool harder.

    This sourceDefines double-loop learning as revising governing norms and assumptions rather than merely correcting action within them.

Verification

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Links previously used in the corpus

Before the registry existed this work was also linked 5 other ways.

• https://search.worldcat.org/title/394956102 ×2
• https://search.worldcat.org/title/Organizational-learning-:-a-theory-of-action-perspective/oclc/394956102 ×2
• https://books.google.com/books/about/Organizational_learning.html?id=kbi3AAAAIAAJ ×1
• https://search.worldcat.org/title/3653585 ×1
• https://search.worldcat.org/title/Organizational-learning-%3A-a-theory-of-action-perspective/oclc/610749704 ×1

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