Crossroads Tempered Radicalism and the Politics of Ambivalence and Change

Debra E. Meyerson and Maureen A. Scully
Additional contact information
Debra E. Meyerson: School of Business, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 (visiting 1995 and 1996 at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305)
Maureen A. Scully: Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

Organization Science, 1995, vol. 6, issue 5, 585-600

Abstract: “Tempered Radicals” are individuals who identify with and are committed to their organizations, and are also committed to a cause, community, or ideology that is fundamentally different from, and possibly at odds with the dominant culture of their organization. The ambivalent stance of these individuals creates a number of special challenges and opportunities. Based on interviews, conversations, personal reflections, and archival reports, this paper describes the special circumstances faced by tempered radicals and documents some of the strategies used by these individuals as they try to make change in their organizations and sustain their ambivalent identities.

Keywords: organizational change; organizational activism; women in management; minorities in management; ambivalence; identity; fit; feminism in organizations; marginality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1995
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (47)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.6.5.585 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:6:y:1995:i:5:p:585-600

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Organization Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().