The Field Guide › Paper

Organizational Learning: A Theory of Action Perspective

Argyris · Team Learning, Origins · Addison-Wesley · 1978 · Open access

Foundational text on organisational learning, introducing single-loop learning (correcting errors within existing frameworks) and double-loop learning (questioning the frameworks themselves). Argued that defensive routines — the organisational equivalent of self-protection — are the primary barrier to genuine learning. The intellectual precursor to much of the PS field.

Connected concepts (21)

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• Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams (paper)
• Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems (paper)
• Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning (paper)
• The Effects of Feedback Interventions on Performance: A Historical Review, a Meta-Analysis, and a Preliminary Feedback Intervention Theory (paper)
• Personal and Organizational Change Through Group Methods: The Laboratory Approach (paper)
• Psychological Safety Comes of Age: Observed Themes in an Established Literature (paper)
• A Stupidity-Based Theory of Organizations (paper)
• Collective Mind in Organizations: Heedful Interrelating on Flight Decks (paper)
• Coming to a New Awareness of Organizational Culture (paper)
• History of PS
• Just Culture
• Learning Teams
• The Collapse of Sensemaking in Organizations: The Mann Gulch Disaster (paper)
• A Tale of Two Safeties (paper)
• Barriers to PS
• How Can Organizations Learn Faster? The Problem of Entering the Green Room (paper)
• How Not to Investigate an Accident (paper)
• Knowledge Transfer and International Joint Ventures: The Case of NUMMI and General Motors (paper)
• WAI vs WAD
• Retrospectives