“what Makes a King out of a Slave? Courage!” the Creation of a Social Courage Measure and implications for Its Use in Organizations
Open Access
- Graduate Program:
- Psychology
- Degree:
- Master of Arts
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- December 14, 2012
- Committee Members:
- James Lewis Farr, Thesis Advisor
- Alicia Grandey, Thesis Advisor
- Melvin Michael Mark, Thesis Advisor
- Keywords:
- Courage
- Scale Development
- Personality
- Abstract:
- Although courage is a concept with which almost everyone is likely familiar, little research into the construct has been performed, especially in the context of an organizational workplace. One potential reason for this may be the lack of an adequate measurement scale. Following a literature review of the various conceptualizations of courage, a specific dimension of courage which has particular benefits for organizations is identified – social courage. Six studies using multi-source data are presented. These studies create a psychometrically sound measure of social courage, and examine the newly created scale’s convergent, concurrent, and discriminant validity. Insights into future research needs and specific implications of social courage are discussed.