University Press Scholarship Online

You are looking at 1-1 of 1 items for: keywords : organizational traps

Organizational Traps : Leadership, Culture, Organizational Design

Chris Argyris
Published in print: 2010 Published Online: Publisher: Oxford University Press October 2011 DOI: 10.1093/ ISBN: 9780199586165 eISBN: 9780191702426 acprof:oso/9780199586165.001.0001 Item type: book

This book questions why organizations often do not function effectively, focusing on leadership, cultural change, and organizational design. It considers how organizations often espouse a particular objective and yet frequently employ means of implementation that contradict that objective. The book illustrates how dysfunctional behaviour abounds in organizations and conflict is frequently avoided rather than dealt with openly, with the same arguments erupting repeatedly. It argues that people who feel like victims at work are not trapped by some oppressive regime, but they are trapped by their own behaviour; they themselves are responsible for making the status quo so resistant to change. The book reflects on the controversies that previous researchers have encountered on the subject: on the one hand, there is substantial agreement that these traps are counterproductive to effective performance, but on the other hand, there is almost no focus on how organizational traps can be reduced. The book ultimately concludes that whatever theory is used to understand such situations, should be used to implement interventions that prevent them.

Page 1 of 1