Tempered Radicals: How People Use Difference to Inspire Change at Work (Hardcover)

by Debra E. Meyerson (Author) "MARTHA WILEY sits in her tenth-floor office in a prestigious high-rise building in downtown Seattle..." (more)
Key Phrases: other tempered radicals, everyday leaders, tempered radicalism, Martha Wiley, Peter Grant, John Ziwak (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
"Tempered radicals" may not sound like the type to start revolutions or topple corrupt governments, but in the corporate world, it is often these quiet change advocates that get the ball rolling and policies changing. In her thoughtful study of employees whose differences place them outside the mainstream organizational culture, Debra Meyerson uses this term for those who want to succeed in their organizations without compromising their ideological beliefs and personal lives.

People who hope to "fit in without selling out" operate on a fault line, says Meyerson. While contributing to their companies' success, they support agendas that are often at odds with the dominant culture. This can involve their social identities, such as race, gender, or sexual orientation, or their philosophical values and beliefs, such as a concern for social justice, environmental sustainability, or family-friendly working conditions. They are not radicals in the sense that they want to enact a marked departure from the traditional, but tempered radicals in that they both challenge and uphold the status quo, working "within systems, not against them." Seeking to map the space between conformity and extreme radicalism, Meyerson conducted in-depth interviews with almost 200 people in three very different organizations (though both interviewees and companies were given pseudonyms, the companies are easily identifiable). The result is an insightful look at the way these people effect change, including the varieties of ways to stay true to oneself (through psychological, self-expressive, and behind-the-scenes resistance), how to leverage small wins, and how to organize collective action. There's also a lengthy chapter on the difficulties these tempered radicals face, from the psychological stress of constantly straddling a duality to the incremental lures of co-optation. Having taught in MBA programs at both the University of Michigan and Stanford University, Meyerson is an accomplished business professor; this book shows her to be a methodical researcher, sensitive interpreter of results, and well-organized and fluid writer, as well. Tempered Radicals is sure to be a beacon of inspiration for those wanting to make a difference from within and an inspiration to those who might have assumed that changing one's environment means changing one's job. --S. Ketchum

From Publishers Weekly
Meyerson, a professor of organizational behavior, offers insights into how people who have encountered difficulty at work because of politics, personality, ethnicity, etc. can alter their workplace behavior. With real-life examples from unnamed companies, the author shows that the key to success is in making the appropriate response, based on timing, stakes, likelihood of success and consequences of failure. Pitched toward managers and human resource professionals, the book includes a number of intriguing, practical approaches that should help employees navigate sticky situations.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business School Press; 1 edition (August 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875849059
• ISBN-13: 978-0875849058
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #477,272 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Effective, Subtle Persuasion at Work, September 21, 2001

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

Tempered Radicals will appeal to all those who feel uncomfortable at work. Professor Meyerson draws on over 200 interviews in 3 companies and with many change agents to provide role models for how to shift the world of work to more closely match your own values, preferences, and background. The examples include people of different social identity groups, lifestyle preferences, values, and beliefs from the majority in their work units or companies.

A tempered radical is someone who responds to an inappropriate circumstance at work in a measured and thoughtful way, that leads to improving the situation for themselves and everyone else. They want change, but do not pursue a radical way of achieving that change.

You and your spouse have busy careers. Your spouse is away overnight, and the kids are home with the baby sitter. Your boss asks you to fly to New York to negotiate a last-minute deal. What do you do? In this case, the husband politely declines to go, and asks his boss to give him more warning in the future.

In a hard-driving technology company, people gently point out that 5:30 staff meetings mean missing dinner with the kids and gradually the meetings shift to earlier in the day.

A gay man hears another executive complaining about how gay people are always showing off their sexuality. The gay man points out that he doesn’t have pictures of his partner in his office, but the man who is complaining has pictures with his wife and children. Now, who’s advertising his sexuality?

Your company makes it hard to recycle. You arrange for appropriate containers to be placed at every desk, and people use them. The cleaning staff empties them at night.

Your company says it wants to hire African-Americans, but only recruits at top-level colleges where your company is not competitive. You quietly put up notices in churches with African-American worshippers to let people know that they should apply at your company.

You want to do a social audit of your company’s performance, but no one else knows what that is. You use your training program experiences to educate others and come up with a unanimous recommendation of your group’s task force that such an audit be held. The CEO agrees to let you go ahead.

By reacting to misperceptions, oversights, and intolerance, individuals can help others to improve their perspective on what needs to be done. The environment improves, and at the right time greater gains can follow. That’s the main message of this book. It is all about leading from wherever you are in the organization, rather than a book for CEOs (although they will learn a lot about how to create and nurture a diverse workplace).

In all the environments that Professor Meyerson investigated over 15 years, she found the following process at work:

(1) People resist quietly in ways that let them stay true to themselves.

(2) Personal threats are turned into opportunities to teach and improve the situation.

(3) Focus shifts to broadening the impact of the needed change through getting support and negotiating for change.

(4) Small wins are leveraged into bigger ones through skillful improvisation.

(5) Organizing with others to take collective action that leads to bigger changes.

In each case, the person has grown beyond thinking of their career as the only game in town. They are trying to establish a wholeness with work, personal life, and self. In many ways the book reminds me of the better books on communications skills. You have to know what you want, tell people what you want, and focus on ways of getting changes made that work best.

So, the role model here is someone like Lech Walesa rather than the radical firebrand who causes confrontation and loses. Although the road is a difficult one, many people will find it psychologically and emotionally rewarding. People “do make a difference” in ways other than being lone heroes.

The book’s appendices have extensive methodological details that made the work much more understandable.

I was very impressed with this book. It’s the kind of subtle, careful work that you don’t expect to find coming from a business school professor, or Harvard Business School Press. Professor Meyerson describes herself as a tempered radical also, who felt apart from the system even while she worked on her doctorate. I look forward to reading her next book.

What should be changed at your workplace? How can you help others to understand the need to change? How can your intervention help build small wins that will establish the validity of the principles you favor? How can you then build broader support?

Be the role model you would like to have at work!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiration and hope, November 4, 2001

By	DK (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews

Many of us work in places where we have a vision for how things could be better -- how we could work differently, treat people more respectfully, act on our values. If only, we think -- we could do something different--then we would really feel good about ourselves and proud about the places we work. This book inspires you to lead that change, to act on your vision. In these times when the impulse is to hunker down and just do our jobs, Meyerson gives us role models of people who have been everyday heroes, leading change that made their organizations better for everybody.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book About Real Leadership, October 17, 2001

By A Customer

Meyerson's wonderful book has many virtues, it is well-written, it is well-researched, and it has diverse and lively examples. Best of all, it shows that leadership is not something that is reserved for the most senior managers in an organization, but rather something that can be done by anyone. Another great virtue is that it shows how to make a difference in a company without selling out or faking it. It should be required reading for everyone before they enter the workforce. Companies would make more money, treat their people better, and be filled with more joy and less fear if leaders at all levels followed her wise advice, and adopted the spirited, but constructive, attituide that exudes from this fine book.