Leadership, Courage, and Ethical Behavior: An Executive Approach

Abstract

Organizations constitute morally complex environments, requiring organization members to possess levels of moral courage sufficient to promote their ethical action, while refraining from unethical actions when faced with temptations or pressures. Courageous leadership requires a true understanding of organizational structure and pressures. In terms of methodology, this study will examine the moderating and mediating variables of courage, leadership and ethics on leadership in contemporary organizations. This study will be a qualitative study utilizing the 2007 Woodard and Pury Courage Scale, a 23-item survey measuring two dimensions, courage as the ability to act and the fear factor involved with the action. The sample will consist of graduate students working in global corporations located in the South and Central Florida region of the USA. Relevance of the professions of the participants studied will be considered. The importance of this study is that preconceived notions of whether a leader is perceived ethical and trustworthy may be as important as the outcomes that can be observed.  This study seeks to examine the moderating and mediating variable of courage, leadership and ethics in contemporary organizations. Recognizing the courageous and ethical leadership traits that inspire trust may assist organization searching for new leadership. Only few research studies have tried to empirically derive types or categorizations of courage, but scholars have shown renewed interest in the construct of courage.