ABSTRACT

The most informed, effective steps to strengthen ethics in organizations and the people within can succeed only if we actually take the steps. Taking action requires us to leave our cocoon as passive bystanders (a.k.a. enablers) when we come across questionable or unethical behavior, especially when the safety and welfare of others is at stake. Although both research-based interventions and organizations themselves can try to help us do the right thing when confronting these challenges, we may have to push, persuade, or force ourselves to abandon the comforting insulation and safety of “it’s not my problem,” “someone else will take care of this,” “it’s probably not as bad as it looks,” “I wouldn’t even know where to begin,” “I just don’t have time for this,” or “nothing I do will make a difference.” This chapter discusses moral courage, its obvious and its more subtle risks, and its paradoxical effects on the organization. It also examines the special kind of moral courage required when we ourselves helped create the ethical problem, and the special challenges of making an authentic apology in contrast to the prevalent practice of issuing insincere, evasive, incomplete, or completely bogus apologies.