The virtue of courage: From historical European roots to current management studies

Paola M.A. Paniccia, Sara Poggesi and Luna Leoni

European Management Journal, 2020, vol. 38, issue 4, 547-554

Abstract: This article discusses the concept of courage – stemming from the ancient European traditions of this virtue – systematically analyzing 45 management studies that deepen the role of such virtue in business organizations. From the analysis, three major themes emerge: 1) the concept of courage in organizations, 2) the concept of moral courage in organizations, and 3) the concept of collective courage of organizations. Moreover, findings show that management research on the virtue of courage has progressed over the years and that – notwithstanding its strong European roots – the studies involved in the conversation are mainly not based in Europe. The contribution of this article is threefold. First, it sheds light on a still under-researched virtue, pointing out its relevance in business contexts. Second, it clearly highlights that a shift is occurring in scholars' interest, as an organizational and collective perspective of moral courage is slowly emerging. Finally, it shows that management scholars mainly embrace Aristotle's view of the virtue of courage, discarding the Christian approach introduced by Aquinas.

Keywords: Courage; European roots; Management; Systematic literature review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263237319301021
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eurman:v:38:y:2020:i:4:p:547-554

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/115/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... me/115/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.emj.2019.08.008

Access Statistics for this article

European Management Journal is currently edited by Michael Haenlein

More articles in European Management Journal from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().