Why do people sometimes make poor choices when faced with ethical dilemmas? One set of reasons has to do with flaws of character. Such character defects include malice(intentional evil); sociopathy(lack of conscience); personal greed; envy, resentment; the will to win or achieve at any cost; and jealousy, fear of failure. There are also flaws in corporate culture that lead Weaknesses even good people to make poor ethical judgments. in corporate culture include indifference, a lack of knowledge or understanding of standards on the part of employees; poor or incentive systems; and poor leadership, including inappropriate the use of mixed signals such as: