Some Causes of Organizational Ineffectiveness Within the Department of State (Occasional Paper #2)

So vast has the international commitment of our government grown in the last decades, and with this the corresponding increase in the staff engaged in foreign affairs activities, that it is no longer possible to find the channels for personal communications we once had. Yet undoubtedly today’s officers are engaged in a wider variety of experiences than ever before in our history.

This series of Occasional Papers produced by the Center for International Systems Research was designed to provide a forum for the expression of significant ideas by foreign affairs professionals, whereby they may go beyond the language of everyday reporting, may speculate or conjecture in the field of their specialization. In particular, these papers will provide an opportunity to assess the impact of contemporary systems research upon the operations of the foreign affairs community. This series offers an opportunity to communicate new ideas and evaluate old. At the same time, students of foreign relations, and others, have the opportunity to listen in, as it were, to a record which is neither an official report nor a formal journal, but a highly individualistic, personal narrative.

Because these Occasional Papers are indeed personal by nature, and are so meant to be, they do not represent the official position of the Department of State. They are considered reactions of highly skilled professionals to professional problems, situations, events that are of concern to them.

At the time of publication, CHRIS ARGYRIS was professor of organizational behavior and chairman of the Department of Administrative Sciences at Yale University. He received an A.B. from Clark University, an M.A. from Kansas University, and the Ph.D. from Cornell University.