Chic, Mystique, and Misconception: Argyris and Schön and the Rhetoric of Organizational Learning

Few names are more closely associated with organizational learning than those of Argyris and Schön. Nevertheless, their impact on the literature of organizational learning has been fairly tenuous. Examination of references to Argyris and Schön shows that they are frequently drafted to support an author's or authors' arguments rather than to be followed or critiqued (“Chic”). From an analysis of Argyris and Schön's conceptual framework, and of their use of this framework in their consulting practice, the author suggests that the superficiality of Argyris and Schön's influence is due to their focusing on important, attractive, but hard-to-realize aspects of organizational learning (“Mystique”). As a result, the literature overlooks some important and more feasible substantive lessons that may be learned from Argyris and Schön (“Misconception”).