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Contribution Details

Type Working Paper
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title The Many Facets of Workplace Moral Courage: Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Scale
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Carmen Tanner
  • Nicole Witt
Language
  • English
Institution University of Zurich
Series Name SSRN
Number 4670864
ISSN 1556-5068
Number of Pages 29
Date 2023
Abstract Text In the battle against unethical behavior in organizations, fostering employees' moral courage proves vital beyond conventional regulation and compliance efforts. To propel this frontier and empower individuals to uphold moral values, a robust measure of workplace moral courage becomes imperative. Drawing upon a competency-based approach, this paper introduces the Workplace Moral Courage Scale (WMCS). Unlike previous measures, the WMCS stands out by acknowledging the diverse ways in which moral courage can manifest within workplace settings. Building on data of two diverse German employee samples (total N = 995), we unveil five distinct factors: challenging colleague and supervisor misconduct, opposing unethical orders, confessing mistakes, and initiating positive changes. The WMCS exhibits good psychometric properties and convergent and discriminant validity. Confirming its concurrent validity, the WMCS effectively predicts various forms of employee silence, even after controlling for organizational influences. The paper concludes with a discussion of the results and implications of the WMCS.
Free access at DOI
Digital Object Identifier 10.2139/ssrn.4670864
Other Identification Number merlin-id:24227
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Keywords workplace moral courage, moral competencies, competency measurement, organizational ethics