2004 Book Reviews
understand their positions” (p. 10) and “provide
a sign of culture-awareness” (p. 10) when imple-
menting TQM.
Noronha structures the book systematically.
He begins by laying a theoretical foundation for
his argument that a “culture-specific TQM” ex-
ists in contrast to the universalistic approach to
TQM. He then sets forth his research objective
and briefly discusses his methodology. He fol-
lows his introductory remarks with two distinct
chapters. In Chapter 2 he provides the finest and
most comprehensive review of TQM literature I
have ever read. He follows this chapter with an
extensive review of empirical research relative
to definitions of “value” and “culture,” suc-
ceeded by a very enlightening discussion of
Chinese cultural values as they relate to Confu-
cianism. Academics interested in the study of
Chinese culture will find this discussion
highly worthwhile. Scholars interested in TQM
will find the discussion of TQM to be thought
provoking.
In Chapter 4 Noronha begins to integrate the
two variables—TQM and culture—that were
treated independently in earlier chapters into
the development of his culture-specific TQM
theory. Noronha ties together the two variables
clearly and then proposes four interlocking
propositions that “represent a process-based
theoretical framework for cultural influence on
TQM” (p. 74). Chapter 5 follows with a superb
discussion of his research methodology. This
chapter is an excellent example of the painstak-
ing research methods utilized to control vari-
ables that may affect the outcomes of a study.
After describing his sample companies and
data collection methods, the author details the
origin and structure of two research instru-
ments, in the form of attitudinal questionnaires
that were administered to quality managers or
officers of sample companies. His instruments
included a modified seventy-three-item version
of the “quality and productivity self-assessment
guide for defense organization versions” (p. 78)
originally developed by the U.S. Department of
Defense. Noronha then proposes a structural
equation model to treat seven hypotheses.
The data analysis and results chapter profiles
the sampled companies (189 in Taiwan, 79 in
Hong Kong, and 117 in mainland China who
have earned ISO 9000 certifications), the as-
sumptions underlying the statistical methods,
and factors extracted from his TQM survey. Un-
141
derstanding the results requires careful reading.
To simply conclude that his results “only support a
relationship between TQM and Chinese cultural
values” would be an understatement.
A particularly attractive feature of this re-
search is the use of qualitative data in the form
of three case studies. The purpose of these case
studies is to “compliment and cross-validate the
quantitative findings and to suggest the charac-
teristics of a Chinese-style TQM model” (p. 12).
These case studies are a must read. They not
only serve to validate Noronha’s quantitative
findings but also to enrich one’s understanding
of TQM and culture in Chinese regions, as well
as the dimensional elements and characteris-
tics of Chinese-style TQM. An added bonus in
this chapter is a clear and concise map of Chi-
nese cultural values, along with a schematic
framework of Chinese-style TQM. The final
chapter presents excellent summary research
findings, a discussion of implications, weak-
nesses of the study, and suggestions for further
research.
In summary, I found this book to be extremely
fascinating. It covers two exciting subjects—
TQM and culture—and adds to our understand-
ing of TQM and the relationship between cul-
tural values and TQM. It is clearly written and
well documented. Noronha develops a theory
based on classical studies and the philosophies
of Krocber, Parsons, Guilford, and Kluckhohn
and Strotbeck, as well as contemporary writers.
The book provides results that indicate that
there is a relationship between TQM and na-
tional culture. I strongly urge scholars in TQM
and culture to read this exemplary book. They
will not be disappointed.
Toxic Emotions at Work: How Compas-
sionate Managers Handle Pain and Con-
flict, by Peter J. Frost. Boston: Harvard
Business School Press, 2003.
Reviewed by Jean M. Bartunek, Boston College,
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
Readers of the Academy of Management Re-
view generally expect theory pieces, the devel-
opment of new constructs and the constructs’
embeddedness within causal chains, to appear
in the articles located in the front section of the
142 Academy of Management Review
journal. Theory development is, after all, the
purpose of AMR. It’s a bit strange, then, to find a
masterful development of constructs and their
related links discussed in the book review sec-
tion, especially when some (Martens, Gagné, &
Brown, 2003) have already begun developing re-
liable measures of the constructs presented.
Conversely, readers of the Academy of Man-
agement Executive usually do not expect that a
book reviewed in AMR will also be reviewed in
AME (Safferstone, 2003). The overlap between
theory building work and direct contributions to
managers is often not very great.
So Peter Frost’s book, Toxic Emotions at Work:
How Compassionate Managers Handle Pain and
Conflict, is a bit unusual. It is conceptually
sound, thorough, and creative, and it simulta-
neously gives thoughtful, timely, and inspira-
tional advice for managers and their organiza-
tions. It is a very important contribution, one
that identifies and develops the construct of
“ toxicity” in organizations and its links, and ex-
plores how toxin handlers and their organiza-
tions might deal with it and how toxin handlers
may be protected. Its importance has been rec-
ognized in its having been the recipient of the
2003 George R. Terry book award. This award,
presented by the Academy of Management, is
granted annually to the book judged to have
made the most outstanding contribution to the
advancement of management knowledge.
The book’s chapters can be thought of as fall-
ing into three primary sections, along with a
personal prologue and a conclusion (Chapter 9).
In all the chapters clear outlines are given at the
beginning, and these make it easy to follow the
argument.
The first section (first two chapters) introduces
the main ideas behind the book. Here Frost dis-
cusses emotional pain as a fact of organization-
al life that can become toxic, depending on how
it is handled. He indicates how the human body
takes in toxins and, if healthy, naturally flushes
them out. However, there is no “ natural” equiv-
alent cleansing process in organizations.
Frost defines toxicity as “ the outcome of emo-
tionally insensitive attitudes and actions of
managers and the practices of their companies”
(p. 13). There are wide varieties of such insensi-
tive attitudes and actions, including abusive
and unfeeling managers, unreasonable poli-
cies, disruptive coworkers or clients, and poorly
managed change. These act “ as a noxious sub-
January
stance, draining vitality from individuals and
the entire organization” (p. 13). Chapter 2 is an
extensive discussion of multiple sources of tox-
icity in organizations, such as malice, incompe-
tence, and contemporary corporate agendas. But
Frost also introduces the healing possibilities of
people and organizations who respond compas-
sionately and, in so doing, help remove the tox-
ins from the system.
The second section (Chapters 3 through 6) con-
centrates on the experiences of toxin handlers,
what they can do, and the types of supports that
might be provided for them. In Chapter 3 several
characteristics of the work of toxin handlers are
described. These include listening, holding
space for healing, buffering and transforming
pain, and extricating others from painful situa-
tions. Frost gives examples of all of these, as
well as descriptions of the skills needed to ac-
complish them.
Chapter 4 makes evident that toxin handling
exacts a considerable toll on those carrying it
out. Toxin handling is stressful, and it is often
unnoticed and unappreciated by others in the
organization. Moreover, it is full of potential
traps for toxin handlers, such as an insidious
need to be liked. Thus, it is necessary to provide
ways toxin handlers can strengthen themselves.
The means Frost describes in Chapter 5 include
strengthening their physical, emotional, mental,
and spiritual capacities. In Chapter 6 Frost sug-
gests ways that toxin handlers can identify their
work to others in their organizations and help
create recognition and respect for it. Or-
ganizations can help by acknowledging the tox-
icity and toxin-handling dynamic, offering sup-
port, assigning handlers to safe zones, modeling
health toxin handling, and creating a supportive
culture.
The third section (Chapters 7 and 8) gives a
larger picture of the roles of leaders and or-
ganizations in handling toxicity. In Chapter 7
Frost focuses on how important it is for leaders
to pay attention to their employees, treat their
employees as important, learn skills of profes-
sional intimacy, anticipate emotional reactions
to announcements, and challenge the sources of
emotional pain. Chapter 8 includes several
challenges for organizations as wholes regard-
ing ways to prevent toxicity in the first place,
intervene when it occurs, and help employees
recover from it. The chapter includes a way of
2004 Book Reviews
assessing organizational capacity for dealing
with toxicity.
In Chapter 9 Frost concludes with a call to,
and illustrations of how to, recognize events
through the lens of pain— to pay attention to it
and see what insights it can offer. Such atten-
tion can, perhaps counterintuitively, help lead
to a healthy workplace.
There are some small problems in the book. It
is sometimes difficult to distinguish between
emotional pain and toxicity in organizations,
and the title (rather than the subtitle) probably
should have focused more on the role of the
toxin handler. However, these are minor issues
in comparison with the book’s strengths.
In addition to being well outlined, each chap-
ter is full of vivid examples that bring the points
home and enable readers to think about their
own roles in both causing and responding to
toxicity in their own organizations. The style of
writing makes the book readable and absorb-
ing. Alone, however, this would not be enough to
make the book so important for both theory and
practice.
Some time ago anthropologist Clifford Geertz
(1983), adapting a term developed by psychoan-
alyst Heinz Kohut, distinguished between “ expe-
rience-near” and “ experience-distant” concepts.
He writes: “ An experience-near concept is,
roughly, one that someone . . . might himself nat-
urally and effortlessly use to define what he or
his fellows see, feel, think, imagine. . . An expe-
rience-distant concept is one that specialists . . .
employ to forward their scientific, philosophical,
or practical aims” (1983: 57). Geertz distin-
guishes between “ love” and “ object catharsis”
to illustrate the difference between these two
types of concepts. He argues that the use of
experience-near concepts “ leaves an ethnogra-
pher awash in immediacies, as well as entan-
gled in vernacular. Confinement to experience-
distant ones leaves him stranded in abstractions
and smothered in jargon” (1983: 57).
Most concepts in AMR are presented in expe-
rience-distant, specialist terms. They may link
with the experience of the scholars publishing
them. However, that is not a requirement, and
the presentation of the concepts is for analytical
purposes. Yet practitioners may find it difficult
to move beyond experience-near conceptualiz-
ing, especially in areas in which they do not
have technical knowledge.
143
It is particularly rare, and a major contribution
of this book, that the conceptualizing in it has
both experience-near and experience-distant
features. As the prologue makes evident, the
work described in the book arises in part from
Peter Frost’s cancer, which, in turn, can be partly
traced to his experience as associate dean in his
university and to the toxicity he experienced in
that setting. The concept of toxin handling was
evoked for him at a seminar presented by a
medical scientist that he attended after he be-
came ill. Thus, the concept is very close to his
lived experience, and something with which
readers, even if they are not specialists in man-
agement research, can identify. But Frost has
also transformed this experience into terms that
specialists can use for organizational and man-
agement theory building. The terms toxicity and
toxin handling are precise, are part of causal
chains, and contribute new insights into organ-
izational practices. This combination gives the
concepts great strength and versatility.
What does it take for experience, especially
experience that is quite literally as personally
painful as what Frost has experienced, to
broaden into concepts that are both experience-
distant and experience-near, intellectually stim-
ulating, personal, and of considerable practical
value? A 1991 chapter on shamanism and
change by Egri and Frost may give a hint. In that
chapter Egri and Frost discuss shamans, people
who can see the symbolic as well as the mate-
rial nature of human relationships and integrate
multiple religious and spiritual traditions. The
authors suggest that shamans may be healers.
But “ to become a healer, the shaman needs to be
wounded (physically or psychically) as part of
the initiatory process. . . . Shamans function not
as ‘wounded healers,’ but as ‘healed healers’
who, as survivors of a transformational rite, can
help others along their own transformational
journeys” (1991: 180 – 181).
Perhaps the kind of conceptualizing that ap-
pears in this book requires personal, transfor-
mational journeys on the part of authors. Per-
haps the kind of insights a book like this
provides— enabling organizations and their
members to see and name phenomena they
could not recognize before— cannot happen un-
less an author has lived through the phenome-
non being described and has been willing to
pay disciplined scholarly attention to the expe-
144 Academy of Management Review
rience in a way that can help others. Contribu-
tions like this are very difficult to achieve. But on
the rare occasions when they are accomplished,
the work that emerges may be generative for all
those who encounter it.
REFERENCES
Egri, C. P., & Frost, P. J. 1991. Shamanism and change: Bring-
ing back the magic in organizational transformation. In
R. W. Woodman & W. A. Pasmore (Eds.), Research in
January
organizational change and development, vol. 5: 175– 221.
Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Geertz, C. 1983. Local knowledge: Further essays in interpre-
tive anthropology. New York: Basic Books.
Martens, M. L., Gagné, M., & Brown, G. 2003. Toxin handler
behaviour: An initial assessment of a new measure.
Proceedings of the Administrative Sciences Association
of Canada Annual Conference: 95– 105.
Safferstone, M. J. 2003. Review of toxic emotions at work: How
compassionate managers handle pain and conflict.
Academy of Management Executive, 17(2): 141– 142.