This paper analyses evidence from the public inquiry into The Grenfell Tower disaster, a devastating fire in a high-rise building in London that claimed 72 lives. The Grenfell Tower Inquiry exposed the scandal of long-standing corporate malpractices of selling flammable cladding and insulation materials for high-rise buildings. The analysis shows how discursive repertoires and sociostructural practices were used and reproduced in insulation companies to suspend morality by constituting flammable products as benign and rationalise associated practices. The study contributes to advancing research on organisational moral disengagement (OrgMD) by exploring its emergence and maintenance using a sensemaking perspective on organising. The proposition is that through sensemaking, a shared belief and social reality can be constituted over time where there is, in effect, no ethical predicament for either the organisation or participating members, no moral case to answer and no reason for moral censure. This enables organisational members to participate – to act conjointly and in coordination – in organised activity that causes harm, while also continuously taking part in reproducing shared repertoires for justifying and exonerating. Thus, organised activity that violates societal moral standards, such as the mis-selling of dangerous products, is made possible through sensemaking that suspends morality as part of organising processes.
