Facing Ethical Challenges in the Workplace: Conceptualizing and Measuring Professional Moral Courage

• Published in: Journal of business ethics Vol. 89; no. 4; pp. 565 - 579
• Main Authors: Sekerka, Leslie E., Bagozzi, Richard P., Charnigo, Richard
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer 01.11.2009; Springer Netherlands; Springer Nature B.V
• Series: Journal of Business Ethics
• Subjects: Behavior; Business and Management; Business Ethics; Compliance; Conceptualization; Courage; Decision making; Education; Endurance; Ethical behavior; Ethics; Management; Management decisions; Measurement; Moral agency; moral decision-making; Moral judgment; Morality; Morals; Organizational learning; Philosophy; positive ethics; positive organizational scholarship; Private military industry; proactive organizational ethics; professional moral courage; Professionalism; Psychometrics; Quality of Life Research; Studies; Values; Work place; Workplaces; United States > US; proactive organizational ethics; professional moral courage; positive organizational scholarship; moral decision-making; positive ethics
• DOI: 10.1007/s10551-008-0017-5
• ISSN: 0167-4544

Scholars have shown renewed interest in the construct of courage. Recent studies have explored its theoretical underpinnings and measurement. Yet courage is generally discussed in its broad form to include physical, psychological, and moral features. To understand a more practical form of moral courage, research is needed to uncover how ethical challenges are effectively managed in organizational settings. We argue that professional moral courage (PMC) is a managerial competency. To describe it and derive items for scale development, we studied managers in the U.S. military and examined prior work on moral courage. Two methods were used to measure PMC producing a five dimensional scale that organized under a single second-order factor, which we termed overall PMC. The five dimensions are moral agency, multiple values, endurance of threats, going beyond compliance, and moral goals. Convergent and discriminant validity are analyzed by use of confirmatory factor analysis procedures. We conclude by presenting a framework for proactive organizational ethics, which reflects how to support PMC as a management practice.