Someone makes an inappropriate comment, maybe a racist or sexist joke. You feel uncomfortable and hope that someone else will speak up. Everyone hopes that someone else will speak up. Uncomfortable silence falls. What does it take for active bystanders to speak up? When they do so, they can often avert brewing conflict. Learn more about how people can become active bystanders through awareness and practice.

For Further Reading: Bystander Training and Bystander Awareness

Maureen Scully is a Professor of Management and is currently the Interim Dean at the College of Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She coined the term "tempered radicals," with Debra Meyerson, to study how change agents inside the workplace take actions that push boundaries and make a difference. She conducts training workshops on how to be an active bystander – in universities, businesses, non-profits, and everyday life. Maureen is a coauthor of a textbook widely used in MBA programs, Managing for the Future: Organizational Behavior and Processes, now in its 3rd edition, and a coeditor of a volume on gendered approaches to work and change, Reader in Gender, Work and Organization.

For more information: Dr. Maureen A. Scully