ABSTRACT
Chris Argyris's focus on individual attitudes and behavior is in line with the thinking of Mary Parker Follett, Elton Mayo, Abraham Maslow, and Douglas McGregor. He was like a psychotherapist in the way he evaluated complex organizations and placed them within a systematic framework of relationships. Argyris further tested and refined his theoretical approach at the Research Center for Group Dynamics. Argyris became a major figure in the behavioral school of management. The behavioral school can be contrasted with the classical school of management which dates to the Industrial Revolution. The start of the twentieth century was a period of rapid change in organization theory which included the synthesis of management, administrative, and bureaucratic theories. Scientific management theory, which aimed to increase labor productivity by analyzing and manipulating workflows based on earlier ideas of economic efficiency, was in vogue by the 1910s.
