Courageous leadership has been increasingly recognized as an essential resource for organizations, yet empirical research remains limited, especially in everyday managerial contexts. This study is conducted in two parts to address both conceptual and empirical gaps.
The first part of the research focuses on developing and validating a scale to assess leaders' courageous behavior. Drawing on social learning theory and the Job Demands-Resources model, courageous leadership is conceptualized as leaders' willingness to assume responsibility, speak up under pressure, and inspire others despite risks. Through qualitative interviews and content analysis, scale items were generated and refined, followed by exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The results provide a reliable and valid measure that captures the multidimensional nature of leaders' courageous behavior, offering a foundation for further empirical investigations.
The second part of the study examines the trickle-down effect of leaders' courageous behavior on employees. Subordinate courage is proposed as a mediating mechanism through which leaders' courage influences innovative work behavior. To capture boundary conditions, interpersonal trust is hypothesized to moderate the relationship between leaders' courageous behavior and subordinates' courage, while psychological safety (team climate) is expected to strengthen the pathway from leader courage to subordinate outcomes. Data are collected from employees across diverse industries in Taiwan and analyzed using structural equation modeling and moderated mediation techniques.
This study contributes to leadership and organizational behavior research in two ways. Theoretically, it clarifies the construct of courageous leadership and empirically tests its trickle-down effect in a Chinese cultural context. Practically, it highlights the importance of cultivating courageous leadership, building trustful leader-follower relationships, and fostering psychologically safe climates to enhance employee courage and innovation.


Courageous Leadership, Courage, Interpersonal trust, Psychological Safety, Innovative Work Behavior