ABSTRACT
Chris Argyris is best known for his work, with his long-time collaborator Donald Schön, in developing the theory of ‘action science’ and its application to business situations. Action science is a process of scientific research and analysis which is closely connected to the process it studies and continuously feeds back knowledge into that process, rather than trying to remain objective and impartial as does ‘normal’ science. A recognition of the role of knowledge in breaking down barriers and driving forward organisational change and innovation lies at the heart of Argyris’s later theories on organisation. His work on action science in the 1970s laid the groundwork for many of the theories of ‘knowledge management’ that emerged in the 1990s.
