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

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Abstract

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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, Menlo College, Brawner Hall, #465, Atherton, CA, 94027, U.S.A.

    Leslie E. Sekerka

  2. Department of Psychology, Menlo College, Brawner Hall, #465, Atherton, CA, 94027, U.S.A.

    Leslie E. Sekerka

  3. Dwight F. Benton Professor of Behavioral Science in Management, Ross school of Business, University of Michigan, 701 Tappan Street, Ann Arbor, MI, U.S.A.

    Richard P. Bagozzi

  4. Professor of Clinical, Social, and Adminstrative Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Michigan, 701 Tappan Street, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1234, U.S.A.

    Richard P. Bagozzi

  5. College of Public Health, Department of Biostatistics, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, U.S.A.

    Richard Charnigo

Authors
  1. Leslie E. Sekerka
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  2. Richard P. Bagozzi
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  3. Richard Charnigo
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Correspondence to Leslie E. Sekerka.

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Sekerka, L.E., Bagozzi, R.P. & Charnigo, R. Facing Ethical Challenges in the Workplace: Conceptualizing and Measuring Professional Moral Courage. J Bus Ethics 89, 565–579 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-008-0017-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-008-0017-5

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