A comprehensive model of leader moral courage - a study of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. using grounded theory approach

C.S. Chandrahaas and Niranjan Narasimhan

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 2023, vol. 29, issue 4, 524-544

Abstract: An individual's moral judgment only weakly predicts their moral behaviour and moral courage is a critical factor that reduces this disparity. However, research on moral courage and its antecedents has been sparse and studies have been largely conducted in contexts where the social costs for morally courageous actions are low. This study explores the antecedents of leader moral courage by investigating the lives of two renowned socio-political leaders - Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Eleven autobiographies and biographies of these leaders were studied and critical incidents from their lives that are relevant to this study were identified. A comprehensive model of leader moral courage has been developed by using grounded-theory-based theoretical sampling, coding and constant comparison techniques on these critical incidents. Three novel antecedents to leader moral courage have also been identified. The findings of this study have implications for both business ethics research and practice.

Keywords: moral courage; grounded theory; moral intention; moral action; leadership; Gandhi; Martin Luther King; ethical challenges; antecedents; spirituality. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=132736 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:ids:ijicbm:v:29:y:2023:i:4:p:524-544

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().