CONCEPT
Espoused Theory vs. Theory-in-Use
Argyris's distinction between what people say they believe and what their behavior actually reveals they believe — and the diagnostic through which corporate AI rhetoric becomes legible as a coordinated performance distinct from what organizations are actually doing.
Espoused theory is the stated account of what guides one's behavior. Theory-in-use is the set of beliefs that actually does guide it, inferable only from the behavior itself. Argyris's four decades of research established that the two are almost always different, often in ways invisible to the actor. An executive may espouse a commitment to learning and operate from a theory-in-use that treats being wrong as professionally fatal. The executive is not lying; she genuinely believes she values learning. She is simply unaware that her theory-in-use is different from her espoused theory, and the invisibility is part of how the gap is maintained.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The espoused/in-use distinction is the methodological heart of Argyris's research program. It forces the analyst to treat behavior as the primary data and stated beliefs as secondary — a reversal of the usual hierarchy, in which stated beliefs are treated as sincere