The Business of Being Good: Why Ethics is Everyone’s Job

“Most people want to be good, but they don’t always work toward it with purpose,” says Associate Professor Isaac Smith.

Smith notes that this tendency isn’t deliberate; many people start out with good intentions, but those intentions don’t always translate into actions. He calls this phenomenon moral autopilot: wanting to be good but skipping the work it takes to make course corrections. “There’s research suggesting that people value being good over being successful, but they pursue being successful more than being good,” says Smith, who teaches organizational behavior and human resources at BYU Marriott.

Smith explains that a well-developed “moral map” helps people anticipate ethical challenges and know how to respond. “But if our moral maps are not well planned out, then autopilot becomes an even bigger risk,” Smith says.

MPA alumnus Andrew Marshall has significant experience in helping others chart moral maps. He and his wife, BYU sociology alumna Ariel Marshall, cofounded Model Leader—a leadership development firm that helps individuals and organizations strengthen values-based leadership and decision-making.

In his work as an executive coach and facilitator in the Washington, DC, area, Marshall compares moral clarity to solid ground and ethically gray areas to the edge of a precipice. “If you don’t know where you are or the foundation you’re standing on, and suddenly there’s a cliff ahead, you’re much more likely to fall,” says Marshall, who graduated in 2011. “But if you know where the safe ground is, it’s much easier to get back to it.”

Because being good at business isn’t the same as being good in business, it takes intention—not autopilot—to steer clear of the edge. When developing our moral maps, what it means to be “good” may shift with our direction—that is, our values, beliefs, and experiences. But one thing stays constant: Moral skill takes practice. The real question isn’t whether we want to be good but how we practice it.

Practicing Moral Humility

Harvard Business Review published Smith and Maryam Kouchaki's “Building an Ethical Career” in 2020; the article explored what it means to plan and prepare for moral behavior in the workplace.¹ The call to treat goodness as a skill at work, as suggested by Smith and Kouchaki, a professor of management and organizations at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, has resonated with people around the globe.

The piece has been selected for reprint four times in HBR’s 10 Must Reads series, most recently in the forthcoming updated and expanded 10 Must Reads volume Managing Yourself. The article has also been assigned reading in more than 25 college courses internationally, including in Singapore, South Africa, China, and South Korea.

The enthusiastic reception of the piece has pleasantly surprised Smith. “Maryam and I started with the assumption that most people want to be good, and identifying steps to achieving that goal really spoke to people,” he says.

In their research, Kouchaki and Smith suggest a mindset of “moral humility,” which means accepting that “we all have the capacity for ethical transgressions if we aren’t vigilant.” In other words, we can all slip up. To prevent this, Kouchaki and Smith recommend that everyone demonstrate greater moral humility. A three-stage process can help: Plan ahead, make thoughtful decisions in the moment, and reflect afterward to learn from the experience.

Everyone means everyone, says Kouchaki. Moral humility is important for anyone who wants to be “good at work or good in the roles we play, whatever those might be.”

The challenge to practicing moral humility? Overcoming our own tendency to make and justify decisions that go against our morals. “As human beings, we are masters at rationalization—the mental gymnastics that contort the situation so that we still feel good about ourselves,” Smith explains. “When we rationalize, we can do bad things and still feel like we’re good people.”

The question for Smith and Kouchaki is how to help individuals move from wanting to be ethical to actually achieving it. “We observe what people do and how they think,” says Smith. “We try to give people tools to live their own values. How do you help people avoid unintentionally violating their values? How do you get people to be their best selves?”

Smith and Kouchaki’s research digs into why that gap between intention and action exists. “One thing we noticed in our research was that people tend to have moral overconfidence,” Smith continues. “They think, ‘I know what right and wrong are. I’m a good person, and I want to keep being good.’ But so often they fail to live up to their own personal values, and then they rationalize immoral behavior. We realized that everyone needs to be careful.”

That need for awareness and self-reflection, Kouchaki adds, is at the heart of their research. “It’s about aligning what we do with what we value, looking for ways to create meaning through our contributions, and approaching decisions with integrity and care for others,” she says. “These principles are relevant in family life, community involvement, and any setting where our actions affect people around us.”

But aligning what we do with what we value means knowing what those values are.

Faith and Other Frameworks

Max Moore draws upon some wisdom from Mark Hansen, a BYU Marriott assistant professor of organizational leadership and strategy. “I remember Professor Hansen’s counsel to be careful with how we use the time and talents God gave us. To my best recollection, he said, ‘Many of you are so naturally driven and talented that you’ll likely achieve what you set out to do. So be careful with what you set out to do.’”

That advice stuck with Moore, a BYU Marriott strategic management alum and recent MPA grad who has set out to better understand what it means to be good at work. Previously a research assistant for Smith, Moore is now pursuing a PhD in organizational behavior at the University of Illinois.

“One definition of ethics is behavior that reaches some minimal standard of morality, such as telling the truth,” Moore says. “But I think that for BYU Marriott alumni and disciples of Jesus Christ, being good at work means more than just adhering to a baseline standard of ethical behavior. We should be the disciple-leaders God expects us to be.”

Moore’s perspective is shared by Smith, who sees a strong connection between his faith and the ethical education of his students: “People often think of morality in the context of church and home, but I teach students that every area in their life, including their job, provides an opportunity for moral growth and development. Don’t make the gospel a part of your life. Make your life a part of the gospel.”

Smith also believes that no matter one’s religious affiliation, it’s important to consider any ethical dilemma from multiple philosophical approaches to ensure a holistic view. “At BYU we have a clear anchor in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Adding to this viewpoint with additional perspectives can only help us see the problem more clearly,” Smith says. Kouchaki affirms, “Relying on only one perspective risks overlooking important considerations that other perspectives might surface.”

For example, if a company is considering recalling a product with a minor flaw, Kouchaki says a utilitarian approach (which emphasizes making decisions that create the most benefits) might suggest that the high financial losses outweigh the low chance of harm. However, a deontological perspective (which emphasizes duties and rights regardless of consequences) might weigh the company’s duty to protect customers above financial concerns.

“By engaging with more than one lens, we can develop a richer, more nuanced understanding of the situation and avoid blind spots inherent in any single framework,” Kouchaki says. “Considering both perspectives can help decision-makers see the ethical trade-offs more clearly and make a more balanced choice.”

To learn more about these and other philosophical approaches, Smith recommends comedy writer Michael Schur’s book How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question or the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. But you don’t have to delve into philosophy to discover the approaches that work for you. Simply identifying a few values you hold in both your personal and professional lives and considering how your actions align (or don’t) with each can be a useful starting point.

The sticky part of building an ethical career is what comes next: deciding which actions to take based on our values. “There’s a gap between knowing and doing when it comes to the values we hold,” Smith says.

Values Creating Value

Good intentions meet resistance once people enter the picture—something Amy Dalebout understands well. As a startup executive leading HR teams in Washington, DC, she helps leaders balance desired outcomes with the needs and fallibilities of employees. “Even in the age of AI, companies are created by and made of people,” says Dalebout, who earned her MPA from BYU Marriott in 2010. “Creativity, innovation, ingenuity, and heart are always going to come from the people.”

For Dalebout, encouraging ethical behavior begins with a simple question: Am I creating lasting value? “Often, ethical decisions feel tricky because we are tempted to prioritize short-term appeasement over long-term success,” she explains.

Dalebout points to startup hiring processes as one example of that tension between immediate results and lasting value. “Startup companies might not feel they have the resources to invest in and develop employees the way other organizations do,” Dalebout says. In these cases, employee growth comes through stretch assignments rather than development programs. “We need to be transparent about the growth opportunities that do or do not exist for new hires. In the end, the most long-term value will be created when we are up-front about the experience.”

She also notes that this same quick-win thinking can surface when leaders hire friends. “Hiring someone you have a relationship with is going to be a short-term win, but it can be a long-term loss because you really want to align talent with the role. If you want to be more successful, you need to hold all incoming hires to the same standards. It’s great when ethical choices also drive the right business outcomes.”

Taking care of yourself physically and mentally might not have an obvious connection to ethics, but being holistically healthy is another practice that creates long-term value. “Employees who handle ethical dilemmas the very best take care of their minds and their bodies, which are really intertwined,” Dalebout says. “They exercise, practice gratitude, leverage respect from doing meaningful work, and maintain an awareness of when things feel off so these situations don’t sneak up on them.”

Smith and Kouchaki also recommend “implementation intentions,” a preventive strategy for anticipating common ethical dilemmas. This practice centers on “making a plan so if a certain dilemma arises, a person knows how to respond,” Dalebout says.

One place Smith practices implementation intentions is in his own classroom. “When I taught at Cornell, students would sometimes swear or make inappropriate comments in class,” he recalls. Smith decided in advance that he would respond by saying, “Let’s keep our language professional”—a strategy that improved class for everyone. “If I hadn’t thought about it beforehand, there might have been some awkward moments, or I might have missed out on a teaching experience. Planning my response helped me stay on top of the situation.”

The most unlikely—but important—implementation intention involves deciding at what point you might need to leave a position. “Leaving an organization is likely a last resort, but sometimes it may be necessary,” says Moore.

Keep to Your Code

Walking away is an extreme scenario. Dilemmas are more likely to be best resolved through careful, deliberate actions that create the most value for everyone involved. Marshall encourages clients to prepare for the complexity of today’s workplace by creating and reflecting on their own code of living.

“How clear are you on your values?” Marshall asks. “How do those values manifest in behaviors? How do those behaviors align with your situation? If you see misalignment, you’ve found yourself in an ethical dilemma. If you don’t know your own code, then when you encounter a situation with cracks, you’re likely to fall through.”

Marshall often has these values-oriented conversations when political administrations shift and his public service clients find their personal values at odds with a new agenda. Reflecting on how to live their values can help them decide whether to uphold their oaths of office—bridging political divides—or to step away when the dissonance becomes too great.

Values guide Marshall’s own decision-making process as well. Every day when he sits at his desk, Marshall reconnects with his own leadership model, which stems from his personal priorities and religious beliefs. “Touching base helps me have moments of zooming out regularly,” he says. “I ask myself, ‘How does what I’m doing today align with the truest version of me?’”

Marshall remembers a moment when he recognized significant misalignment between his values and his work. A company he hadn’t worked with before reached out to request an emotional-intelligence training. The well-paying contract was signed and the date set before Marshall learned that the company produced adult content. While he sees value in providing services for organizations whose policies he may not agree with, “there’s a pretty clear line for me on pornography, and I don’t want to be associated with an organization that’s part of that,” Marshall says.

But what could be done when he had already signed on the dotted line? “I realized I couldn’t justify this, so I said no and offered to look for another facilitator,” Marshall recalls. “I even shared how I’d seen pornography negatively impact people I knew. The company came back very grateful for my openness. My approach helped the company know the kind of work I am looking for, so the exchange ended up generating other work for me with other introductions.”

Finding creative solutions like Marshall’s can be tricky. For someone like Moore, who is early in his career, turning to a seasoned mentor can help. “Building relationships with trusted, experienced individuals with whom you can speak openly and seek honest advice is a great strategy for navigating potential ethical dilemmas,” he says.

For those on the flip side—experienced leaders and mentors—Marshall recommends two steps for helping others through ethical dilemmas: “First, have good relationships so people can come to you and be fully transparent,” he says. When relationships are strong, Marshall explains, people are less afraid of judgment and more willing to be candid. “Second, help people to zoom out to figure out what their values are and what they want for the world. Zooming back in after big-picture conversations can quickly bring clarity and can give people the closure they need.”

Charting an Ethical (and Happy) Career

Smith often finds himself inspired by the N. Eldon Tanner quote displayed in the Tanner Building, which emphasizes an ethical obligation to serve others: Service is the rent we pay for living in this world of ours. “I love that. It’s through service and outwardly seeking and loving others that we become our best selves.”

Living a life of service, he explains, shapes both your happiness and your professional path. He points to Jeffrey Rosen’s book The Pursuit of Happiness, which suggests that many of the founders of our nation grounded their understanding of happiness in Cicero and other philosophers’ teachings. “In their view, long-term happiness is really the pursuit of moral virtue,” says Smith. “The book makes the compelling case that the pursuit of happiness is truly the pursuit of goodness. The irony is that you have to lose yourself to find yourself.”

That idea of happiness as goodness carries over into everyday work. “At the end of the day, building an ethical career is twofold: It means being intentional about being good, and specifically, being intentional about being good at work,” Smith says. “If you’re not working on moral development at work, that’s an opportunity missed.” Practicing goodness on the job, he notes, can make the difference between those who intend to be good and those who actually become good.

Written by Clarissa McIntire
Illustrations by Richard Mia

About the Author
Clarissa McIntire is a BYU grad and a PhD candidate in English at the University of Oklahoma.

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Notes

1. Maryam Kouchaki and Isaac H. Smith, “Building an Ethical Career,” Harvard Business Review 98, no. 1 (January–February 2020): 135–39, hbr.org/2020/01/building-an-ethical-career.