DEVELOPING THE RESOLVE TO HAVE MORAL COURAGE: AN EXPERIMENT WITH ACCOUNTING STUDENTS

Abstract

Recognizing that moral judgment is a necessary but insufficient condition of moral behavior, we explored ways to develop the resolve to have moral courage, defined as the courage to be moral when under professional duress. In a post-test with control group design, we measured the effect of exposing 91 students to stories of moral exemplars on their resolve to have moral courage using the Moral Competency Inventory. Results show that their resolve to have moral courage increased significantly and was sensitive to differences in gender, class standing, religiosity, and prior-service experiences.