The myth of greed

At a lunch last Friday, our discussion about the state of capitalism took an interesting right turn and ran headlong into a wall of differing opinions on whether the “self-interest” of corporations (or more specifically the people who work in them) makes it impossible for things to change. Thought provoking stuff.

But honestly, the idea of these purported greedy, self-interested human wrecking balls doesn’t play out for me. Sure we read about them in the papers, racking up headlines and decimating the companies and lives of people around them (hello Bernie Madoff and company). However in the everyday business world in which I work, I just don’t see it on any kind of grand scale.

What I see are well intentioned people doing the best they can with what they have. Often unrecognised, mostly unlauded, but there all the same. And it seems I am not alone in this.

For the better part of the last 50 years or so, economic theory has been built around the idea that people are inherently self-interested, however a raft of research in more recent decades has shown exactly the opposite to be true. Altruism lives! And further, is a greater motivator of people’s actions than money and things.

In the Ode Magazine article titled “The Altruism of Economics” author Salman Ahmad takes a blow torch to the outmoded ideas, citing numerous research studies, books, articles from around the globe.

It also seems like some economists are finally getting on board. The blossoming field of “behavioural economics” being one such example where the theory is finally moving beyond the outdated models of human behaviour that have too long propagated economics.

For those of us in the businesses world, perhaps the best lesson is – treat people as moral and altruistic and most will be. Are there “bad apples” out there? Sure. But that’s no longer an excuse to paint the whole of humanity with the broad brush of self-interest.

This quote by Ahmad from the article neatly sums it up, “Altruism isn’t irrational, because if it were, the only rational people would be sociopaths.”

Perhaps if any good is to come of the economic challenges we face today, it may be a re-examination of the outmoded ideas which directly and indirectly led us to this point-in-time, and the creation of a new “truer foundation” for economic theory.

See you next week.

Alignment is Michel’s passion. Through her work with Brandology here in Australia, and Brand Alignment Group in the United States, she helps organisations align who they are, with what they do and say to build more authentic and sustainable brands.

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