This is a book about how social sciences can be improved in ways that its relevance is expanded, the applicability of its knowledge is enlarged and increased, and the commitment to questioning the status quo is strengthened.

1. Introductory Remarks ; 2. The Corrosion of Character: Capitalist and Socialist Economics ; 3. Inhibiting Double-Loop Learning in Business Organizations ; 4. Inhibiting Double-Loop Learning in Government and I.T. ; 5. Features of Scholarly Inquiry that Inhibit Double-Loop Learning and Implementable Validity ; 6. Interventions that Facilitate Double-Loop Learning ; 7. Organizational Interventions that Facilitate Double-Loop Learning ; 8. Concluding Comments

`Review from previous edition Reasons and Rationalizations is one of the most challenging and powerful books produced in the field of management for many years. It is not surprising when you consider it was written by one of the world's leading management scholars. Professor Argyris' contribution to the management and applied social science literature has no rival, he is in a league literally by himself. This outstanding book is a must read for all managers and executives, academics in business schools, applied social scientists, and any others prepared to think about and confront the challenges of organizational life in our times.' Professor Cary L. Cooper, CBE, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster University, England `... the book provides a foundation in double loop learning for senior management executives, and organizational consultants.' Nurturing Potential (online magazine) `For the past half-century Chris Argyris has been one of the most important thinkers about organizations and personality, and developing creative interventions to bring out the best of both. This book is (for me) his clearest, most cogent, and perhaps most important, in summing up a lifetime of thought, action, and heart on the critical issue of how we live our lives in integrity, both in and out of organizations.' Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Business Administration at USC, Chair of Harvard University's Center for Public Leadership and author of On Becoming a Leader `For nearly half a century, Chris Argyris has been seeking to make knowledge a guiding light for human action, and more specifically the vehicle for a more humane, more effective and indeed more just workplace. Few authors have made such a persuasive case for management learning as possessing the potential of enlightening as well as liberating organizational participants from some of the unnecessary hardships and anguish that they experience as a routine part of their lives in organizations.' Management Learning

Challenging evaluation of the use and purpose of management knowledge, and the limits of learning. Addresses the issue of creating knowledge that is both useful and applicable within the research and business communities. Discusses some of Argyris' key concepts - 'single- and double-loop learning', 'theory in use', and 'espoused theory'.

Chris Argyris received his PhD in organizational behavior from Cornell University and served on the Yale University faculty for the next twenty years. He then became the James Bryant Conant Professor of Education and Organizational Behavior at Harvard University and held joint appointments over time at the Business, Law, and Kennedy Schools. His early research dealt with organizational structures and organizational change. His primary research methodology has been intervention, and his ongoing concern has been the applicability of knowledge.

Challenging evaluation of the use and purpose of management knowledge, and the limits of learning. Addresses the issue of creating knowledge that is both useful and applicable within the research and business communities. Discusses some of Argyris' key concepts - 'single- and double-loop learning', 'theory in use', and 'espoused theory'.