argyris c. overcoming organisational defences: facilitating organisational learning, prentice-hall,...

1

Argyris C. Overcoming Organisational Defences: Facilitating Organisational Learning, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1990.

Organizāciju aizsardzības mehānismi


‘I did not know’

Error

causes

‘I have to correct it’

causes

First order error

Skilled incompetence

Error

causes

‘It is necessary for survival’

causes

Second order error


Activities failure

succ

ess

Framing of the success

Criteria for framing

description of the success

seeing success

perceiving failure


Activities

succ

ess


description of the success

failu

re

??


?


Activities

succ

ess


description of the situation

fail

ure


6


Logic of defensive routines

• Craft messages that contain inconsistencies.

• Act as if the messages are not inconsistent.

• Make ambiguity and inconsistency in the messages undiscussable.

• Make the undiscussability of the undiscussable also undiscussable.


Decision(on the basis

of inconsistent information)

Covering up of the

error

Covering up of the covering up of the

error

1)violation of managerialstewardship2)inconsistent information(error)

1)prevention of threat from error,2)threat from covering up the error,3)inconsistent information

1)prevention of the threat from covering up the error,2)inconsistent information

Mechanism of organisational defenses

Threat


New system with defensive routines

New system without defensive routines

Faster death of an application organisation

Temporary slow down in the application organisation

Threat to loose a market for application organisation

Potential cause for defensive routines in the development organisation

Delay in stating the requirements because of defensive routines in the application organisation

Threat not to do a project

Potential cause for defensive routines in the application organisation

RE

9


Model 1 (behaviour causing skilled incompetence)

• To be in unilateral control

• To win

• Not to upset people

• Face saving face sawing white lies cover up white lies

10


Seven world wide management errors

1. Actions intended to increase understanding and trust often produce misunderstanding and mistrust

2. Blaming others and the system for poor decisions

3. Organisational inertia: the tried and proven ways of doing things dominate organisational life

4. Upward communication for difficult issues are often lacking

5. Budget games

6. People do not behave reasonably, even when it is in their interest

7. The management teem is often the myth

11


Budget games (1)• Foot in the door. Sell a new program modestly. Conceal its real

magnitude• Hidden ball. Conceal a politically unattractive program within an

attractive one• Divide and conquer. Seek approval of a budget request from

more than one supervisor• Distraction. Base a specific request on the premise that an overall

program has been approved when this is not in fact the case• It’s free. Argue that someone else will pay for the project so the

organisation might as well approve it.• Razzle-dazzle. Support the request with voluminous data, but

arranged in such a way that their significance is not clear

12


Budget games (2)• Delayed back. submit the date late, arguing that the budged

guidelines required so much detailed calculation, that the job could not be done on time

• Our program is priceless. It is difficult to argue against defense or human life

• It can’t be measured. The real benefit is subjective• Tomorrow and tomorrow. If there is no results today, promise

some in the future• Stretching things. The real skill is not simply to promise something

that is difficult to prove; promise something that is impossible to disprove

• Both ends against the middle. Play competing committees against each other

13


People do not behave reasonably when they are faced with facts that are upsetting. Some of the most common defenses people use, when in difficulty, are

the following:

• There is nothing wrong with us that the long production run wouldn’t cure (rejection)

• Tomorrow we’ll get organised and plan (procrastination)• Death in the drawer (indecision)• Paralysis by analysis (lack of implementation follow-up)• The more paint we sell, the more money we lose (strategic

ineffectiveness)• What the boss doesn’t know won’t hurt him (sabotage)• Let’s get back to real work (regression)


Informed choice

Valid information

Responsibility to monitor how well the choice is implemented

Seek to produce

stimulates stimulates


Inconsistentinformation

Misunderstan-dings

Blaming others

Organisational inertia

Budged games

Lack of upward communication of difficult issues

Unreaso-nable behaviour

Manage-ment team - a myth

Undis-cussible topics

Consistency and completeness checking of information

Analysis of knowledge distribution in organisations

Analysis of history of organisational processes

Analysis of vertical communication lines in organisations

argyris c. overcoming organisational defences: facilitating organisational learning, prentice-hall,...

Documents