[jglamine]

The book Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers explores this question. It was written in the 80s as an anthropological study of the ethics of middle managers at large companies. It still holds up today!

The book is descriptive - describing the ethical norms in large corporations, but it doesn't make a value judgement on whether those norms are good or bad.

A fascinating read of you're curious about the structural reasons for this sort of behavior. Really interesting to see how people act by different ethical codes inside vs outside of work.

It's not ideal, but also not likely to change. Understanding the structural reasons why it is the way it is has helped me to be less surprised / angry by things like this which I can't change.