ABSTRACT
Chris Argyris was an advocate of Theory Y and asserted that establishing trusting relationships within organizations would result in greater efficiency and effectiveness. "The Individual and Organization" presented a direct challenge to the pyramidal scheme of classical theorists. It rejected the rather misanthropic belief that people are by default idle, unmotivated, without ambition, and unwilling to assume responsibility in the workplace. Argyris's immaturity-to-maturity theory gained wide academic acceptance. Beyond academia, business managers also heeded his advice. Argyris investigated the relationship between organizations and employees, and rejected the existing consensus on how organizations should be managed for optimal performance. He realized that improving organizational structures required the comprehensive exploration of their two central entities: organizational behavior and human behavior. The way Argyris expressed his theories and findings makes it unsurprising that he has generated intellectual dialogue among academics and practitioners about the relationships between organizations and individuals.
