TITLE:
The Practice of Moral Courage: Resolving Economic and Social Tensions
AUTHORS:
Jon Mertz, Candace Bloomquist
KEYWORDS:
Moral Courage, Leadership, Stakeholder Capitalism, Social Enterprise
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Leadership,
Vol.13 No.4,
December
10,
2024
ABSTRACT: Capitalism is a system that was constructed through economic and philosophical thinking by Adam Smith. Smith envisioned a model where morality could be achieved through an economic-based design. Today, social enterprise leaders embrace the friction when making decisions between the economic and moral tensions of profit and purpose, business and society, and stability and change. Given the rising tensions, building moral courage capacity within business leaders and organizations is imperative. This study explores how for-profit social enterprise leaders resolve the inherent economic and social tensions and proposes a model to build moral courage capacity within business leaders.