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This chapter aims to enhance understanding of the main drivers of internal auditors' moral courage to speak up about sensitive information and their cause-and-effect relationships. We use cognitive mapping method to analyze 20 chief audit executives' cognitive maps in Tunisia. A collective map was grounded through assembling the full individual maps. Using the Decision Explorer software for our analysis, we find that the state hope, whistle-blowing policy, self-efficacy, perceived supervisor support and independence of internal audit function are the main drivers for internal auditors' moral courage. Our findings are also supplemented by semi-structured interviews. Our chapter offers a novel methodological contribution to auditing literature as well as new empirical evidence (contribution to knowledge) on the drivers of internal auditors' moral courage.

This chapter explores courage as an emotionally involved form of action. The notion of courage is challenging as we have physical, psychological, moral and existential forms of courage but also because what engenders courageous actions is still somewhat of a puzzle within social science. Firstly, I introduce the main forms and explanations of courage. Secondly, dating is discussed to illustrate how courage is an important analytical category to understand people's actions. In dating persons often overcome their fear of being rejected. During the COVID-19 crisis, new insecurities and fears were added to the practice of dating which now could imply both fear of being infected and fear of moral condemnation by others who would consider dating a morally irresponsible behaviour. Thirdly, I discuss theoretical and methodological implications of a mini analysis of a story about active and direct dating interactions during the first lockdown period in Denmark during the COVID-19 crisis. Often courage is thought of as so extraordinary that it is not part of people's ordinary social life. But it is not. People do experience situations that call forth courage, which implies overcoming fear and insecurity in striving to realise goals more important than avoiding feeling such uncomfortable emotions – situations in which they cannot merely rely on routine and/or self-confidence and others' trust. Consequently, this chapter explains how and why courage is an important analytical category for the sociological enterprise. Finally, the conclusion offers some reflections concerning courage and dating in future neo-COVID predicaments and how courage can be studied methodologically speaking.

This is a narrative describing events that led to four women finding their courage to save a nonprofit. Theirs was not the kind of courage that you see in movies where a hero saves the planet. Their courage was subtle, faint, and quiet. Their courage was driven by conviction and belief that someone must always do the right thing, despite the circumstance. The situation and circumstance were a local nonprofit organization being put at risk. That risk would have expanded into the community and impacted the human service work of the organization. The courage in this narrative includes whistleblowing. Whistleblowing is action that is generally considered to be most difficult, due to the potential impact on personal income and reputation. It took courage for three women, who remain anonymous to this day, to become whistleblowers. These women took a risk; they became vulnerable to fear of exposure, as they put their family incomes and personal reputations on the line. This is also the story of a novice chairwoman of a passive board of directors. She was forced to step outside her comfort zone to find and claim her courage. She was tasked with protecting the whistleblowers, addressing the issues, and resolving the problem. Yes, courage is just a seven-letter word, but when you are involved in a situation or circumstance, the weight of courage can feel monumental. The courage of four women and the seven-letter word courage saved the reputation, the service to the community, and the nonprofit organization.

In this chapter, we examine how the concept of heroism was defined and used during the Covid pandemic in 2020, particularly in connection with the nursing profession. We begin with a sociological examination of heroism and courage. Using textual data from US newspapers, we then compare current constructions of nurses as heroes with views of them during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. The analysis will show that during the earlier pandemic nurses were seen as essential health workers who were in great demand, but there was little reference to them being heroic. However, with Covid, nurses were often presented in the media as heroes. This was largely done by transposing the ‘emotion codes’ (Loseke, 2009) of warfare on the Covid crisis. Emotion codes like ‘fighting the enemy at home’, ‘sacrifice’, ‘bravery’ and ‘service to the country’ were used rhetorically to construct the administration of medical care in the context of a pandemic as inherently courageous and heroic. We end by arguing that the expansion of the concepts of heroism and courage, especially in the context of a profession dominated by women, offers new possibilities for a less masculine orientation toward courage and heroism.

In this chapter, I share my courage story. I have waited 14 years to share my story, and in honor of all the women who also shared their courage stories in this book, I knew I needed to open my heart to vulnerability and, also, share mine. Sharing a courage story is a courageous act in and of itself. Women often resist owning their courage, knowing they essentially do what they need to do to take care of their work, families, friends, and communities. But, sometimes, women need courage to survive a traumatic event. This is the case in my story, which I hope is beneficial to anyone facing domestic or emotional abuse. My story is of a long walk through a painful labyrinth, and how I survived while working, raising a family, and a maintaining a home.

Alisha, a native of the United States, has lived in Kampala, Uganda, for 12 years leading a team of Ugandan teachers daring to impact their community for good. She and her team birthed an organization that educates, develops leaders, and creates opportunities. One hundred children and youth train at Terra Nova Soccer Club and Academy, and 50 have earned athletic scholarships to attend high school. In 2013, they opened a preschool with 32 students and now serve 250 students from nine countries and their families.

This chapter explores the fiery transformation of a founder and her staff from a collective yet leader-centric culture to a power-with culture in which multiple leaders follow the invisible leader of common purpose. Other theoretical lenses include the expatriate transformation process and intercultural communication competence, the impact of white fragility on cultural dialog, integrative conflict, four skill sets of courage, and collective courage as a predictor of a successful organizational culture, leadership, and mission fulfillment.

Alisha’s courage grew as she waged war with realities of her outsider status and her white body privilege in an African context, and the harm that can inflict on a community. She learned that it was in staying but not staying the same that allowed her to integrate her blended marriage, her responsibility as a mother to three daughters of color, and her passion to lift young women on their journeys of community development and leadership into her truest self.