ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses that the organizational evil (OE) is a nonsensical idea and a concern of real importance for studying or leading organizations. It is organized into three major sections: first, the organizations and evil are both quintessentially social facts with no existence independent of their social context, the common ways of speaking about organizational evil as a thing in-and-of-itself are largely nonsensical. Next, the chapter explores how that understanding helps people to make sense of the real ways in which scholars, managers, and lay people respond to acts and actors that seem bad as to be morally incomprehensible. The chapter concludes by noting paradoxically that the organizational evil, if properly understood, may be functionally beneficial, serving to promote constructive moral vigilance and correction among an organization's members and other stakeholders. The chapter explains the demonization and moral panics that are not the only options after the perception of evil takes hold in an organizational setting.
