Keep calm and carry on (ethically): Durable moral courage in the workplace

Abstract

We develop a model of factors that enable morally courageous actors to carry on even after encountering organizational opposition. The model specifies that durable moral courage facilitates continued moral action and that demoralization inhibits it, and presents the perceived manageability of the organizational response as a factor affecting the extent to which an actor experiences durable moral courage and/or demoralization. It is proposed that moral efficacy, hardiness, and planning for endurance insulate the actor before an act of moral courage, by enhancing the perceived manageability of the organizational response; and that emotional self-regulation fortifies the actor by enhancing the perceived manageability of that response once it comes. It is also posited that moral efficacy and hardiness contribute directly to durable moral courage, hardiness and planning for endurance increase durable moral courage by promoting moral efficacy, and emotional self-regulation augments planning for endurance. Implications for research and practice are offered.