Why Good People Do Bad Things in Business

Original paper presented at the 5th Annual ABEN Conference Sydney 7-8 Dec 2015.

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions” but is it possible to become aware of the pitfalls that cause ‘good’ people with good intentions to create bad outcomes? Research shows that there is a distinction between ethics in theory and ethics in action that traditional thinking – and mainstream philosophy - fails to bridge. This paper systhesises inter-disciplinary research to develop a causal factor model for unethical outcomes. It then applies existential philosophy to propose a theory for moral intent that uses intrinsic values to create existential boundaries around intended outcomes. Moral intention theory proposes that the critical element of creating ‘good’ outcomes is ‘good’ moral intent and that the rationalisations and moral justifications that ‘good’ people use act to neutralise the very intrinsic values that ‘good’ people seek to empower. Instead of teaching people more ethics theory, this paper proposes instead that we should be teaching people how ethics works in a…