Skip to Content
To Reform Meritocracy, Put Character at the Center
article

To Reform Meritocracy, Put Character at the Center

by Thomas A. Cole
November 2025
Intermediate to advanced
4 pages
8m
English
MIT Sloan Management Review

Overview

A meritocratic organization may seem ideal in principle, but the ideal has been widely seen as failing in practice. For meritocracy efforts to succeed, leaders must clearly define and communicate what constitutes merit — and include character, not just capabilities and performance, as a key consideration. Organizations have much to gain from taking traits like integrity, humility, empathy, and respect for others into account when making hiring and promotion decisions.

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace

Achieving Meritocracy in the Workplace

Emilio J. Castilla
How to Become a Game-Changing Leader

How to Become a Game-Changing Leader

Douglas A. Ready, Alan Mulally
The Trouble With Heroic Leadership

The Trouble With Heroic Leadership

Janaki Gooty, Corinne Post, Jamie Ladge
How Leaders Can Move Past Personal Obstacles

How Leaders Can Move Past Personal Obstacles

Katherine W. Isaacs, Richard C. Schwartz

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 53863MIT67228