Physical courage predicts relevant outcomes in associated contexts: The creation of a measure and empirical analysis into the construct

Abstract

The disregard of physical courage in modern research prevents a complete understanding of employee success in the many occupations that include physical dangers, such as military personnel, firefighters, nurses, police officers, athletes, performance artists, and blue-collar workers. To address this concern, the current article undergoes a four-study process to create the Physical Courage at Work Scale (PCWS) and provides evidence for its relationship with important employee behaviors and performance. Two empirical studies test whether the PCWS, while controlling for conscientiousness and social courage, relates to organizational citizenship behaviors, voice, counterproductive work behaviors, and performance. The empirical studies show that the PCWS does not relate to these outcomes in a general employee sample; however, it does relate to organizational citizenship behaviors, voice, and performance in a sample of United States Air Force Academy cadets. Physical courage does not predict all outcomes broadly, but it instead predicts relevant outcomes in associated contexts.