Developing Resolve to Have Moral Courage: A Field Comparison of Teaching Methods

David Christensen; Jeff Barnes; David Rees

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Developing Resolve to Have Moral Courage: A Field Comparison of Teaching Method

David Christensen, Jeff Barnes and David Rees

Southern Utah University, USA

Volume 4: 2007, pp. 79-96: ABSTRACT

Ethics research literature often uses Rest’s Four Component Model of ethical behavior as a framework to teach business and accounting ethics. Moral motivation, including resolve to have moral courage, is the third component of the model and is the least-tested component in ethics research. Using a quasi-experimental design with pretest and posttest measurements, we compare the effectiveness of several methods (traditional, exhortation, reflection, moral exemplar) for developing resolve to have moral courage in 211 accounting students during one semester. Results show that traditional, reflection, moral exemplar methods increased resolve to have moral courage, and that the reflection and moral exemplar methods were more effective than the other methods.