Right Versus Wrong: How to Discern the Difference
This may seem trivial as most of what we know about what is right and wrong comes from our parents as kids. “Do this, don’t do that, avoid this group of people,” and so on. However, there really is no one “way” to differentiate between right and wrong as it's completely subjective. Now I am not talking about the legal and civil laws that bind us as a society, these are created to form natural barriers that help all individuals understand basic rights and give everyone guard rails to live by.
I believe most everyone has seen a depiction of the Angel and Devil on a person's shoulders counseling us as we struggle with tough, crucial, decisions. My favorite example of this is from The Emperors New Groove. If you haven't watched the movie, I highly recommend it. It definitely has some great lines in there. As a kid, I grew up with these cartoon examples that taught me a lot about ethics and morals.
In this particular case, Krunk is debating rescuing Kuzco as he is about to cascade off a ridiculously tall waterfall as is trapped in a tied-up sack (I have embedded the small clip of it so click the picture for a short laugh!) Now your dilemmas may not be as life-threatening, or as comical as Krunk's; but let's face it, everyone has had these moments where we need to make a tough or challenging decision. It may be a crucial conversation with our bosses at work, it may be a tough conversation to uphold the standard at work. Regardless of the situation, knowing the difference between right and wrong, ethical or not, and having the courage to choose is a game-changer.
This paradox is something educators, business leaders, political leaders, and pretty much everyone still wrestles with. This is why there hasn't been any universal standard implemented for determining what is ultimately right and ultimately wrong. We all hold our own beliefs, and we filter our individual decisions through our own personal values and principles. This isn't something that can be imposed on another free-thinking human being. However, if the inverse occurs different standards can be imposed upon others that hold a particular decision unacceptable. Ultimately, this is why leaders need discernment to navigate our global and diverse community.
Discernment, as it’s defined, is the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure: or the skill in discerning. In order to understand right from wrong [at its core] leaders must be able to understand their own unique values and principles. As I researched this topic, I found many interesting and incredibly deep articles by some fantastic researchers across several industries. Gretchen M. Wilhelm & Michael W. Firmin, in their article, Character Education: Christian Education Perspectives assert that "Character education means coming to understand, care about, and practice virtue (p. 159)." Lickona (1991) echoes this logic when he offers this very concise definition of character: "Good character consists of knowing the good, desiring the good, and doing the good (Wilhelm & Firmin, p. 51, 2008)."
Varying perspectives on this subject don't belong only to the educational community. This directly impacts the business community as well. Especially within the self-help, and consultancy space. By studying economics, we can see the tremendous amount of money spent on training and other resources that are purchased to give business owners, industry leaders, managers, and corporations tangible and trainable answers for this very question of right versus wrong within the context of their business. Thus providing guardrails for their employees for what is acceptable and unacceptable. However, as COVID-19 has proven, the locus of control can make these guardrails harder to control without a Company Culture that is present to promote acceptable behavior.
There have been countless other researchers that have made solid arguments commenting on the application of training. In 1999 alone, over $60 billion was spent on training, particularly management training. "Much of this training, on subjects such as Total Quality Management (TQM), customer service, and building customer loyalty, leadership, and organizational change…this knowledge and principles are fundamentally timeless-unchanged and unchanging. Nevertheless, the training is often repeated (Pfeffer & Sutton, 1999).”
Pfeffer and Sutton also identified two main gaps between Knowing and Doing. They call this the "Knowing-Doing Gap" and they assert that it stunts the growth of organizations and allows for a complete loss of productivity and necessity from moving from knowing what to do; to do what you know. They provided eight guidelines for leaders to consider:
“Why before How: Philosophy Is Important
Knowing Comes from Doing and Teaching Others How
Action Counts More Than Elegant Plans and Concepts
There is No Doing without Mistakes. What Is the Company’s Response?
Fear Fosters knowing-doing Gaps, Do Drive Out Fear
Beware of False Analogies: Fight the competition, not each other
Measure what matters and what can help turn knowledge into action
What leaders do, how they spend their time, and how they allocate resources, matters
These eight guidelines help create universal understanding in the context of practical business strategy. They also supply us with ways to conceptualize what “right” may look like through the lens of business strategy. These guidelines attempt to equip leaders with proper principles and values and turn them into common business practice. It's also important to note that, if implemented, these eight guidelines can help everyone answer the overall question of what is “right” versus what is “wrong” by creating universal duplicatable guidelines.
On a much smaller scale, management principles and practices can also help leaders understand right versus wrong. “Ambiguity may surround the intrinsic nature of a problem, the extent or reliability of the information, inconsistent interpretations, lack of clarity around goals and roles, poor understanding of cause and effect or responsibility around decision making (Weick 1995, p. 93).” This ambiguity surrounding the problem of right versus wrong is also exasperated because what is right is fueled through results-oriented environments rather than through the careful monitoring of ethical decision making.
Even though it is difficult to answer this question and unpack its complexity; every leader must examine for themselves and know their Purpose. Without that, and a firm grasp of their own unique values and principles, ambiguity and uncertainty creep in and unravel the culture of accountability necessary for high-level productivity. This also inhibits the leader from properly discerning the difference between right and wrong for themselves which is essential to keep the leader grounded and set upon their True North.
As many business leaders have added incredible value and essential research on this topic, it's so important to ensure that whatever guidelines are established for appropriate behavior that they align with that Purpose. Without proper alignment, proper follow-through cannot happen at the lowest level of the organization. Especially in an environment like we have now where the locus of control is limited to an increase in projects to turn in, and an overload of virtual meetings to ensure accountability is maintained.
Fundamentally, the question of right and wrong is impossible to answer without our own value system set firmly in place. This is why it's important for all of us to understand that there are only a few overarching principles that everyone can be held to.
One of those is the Golden Rule or Gold Standard. Anyone you interact with can easily understand that it's always wise to treat everyone the way you wish to be treated. That basic principle is shared across cultures and is just good common sense. Another universal principle is that you reap what you sow. If your intention is to reap positivity, then you must also sow positivity.
Even if our definitions of right and wrong don't match, we can still make a difference in our world, if we are looking to truly add value to others!
References:
- Crossman, J., & Doshi, V. (2015). When "Not Knowing" is a Virtue: A Business Ethics Perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 131(1), 1-8. Retrieved October 11, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24703484
- Gretchen M. Wilhelm & Michael W. Firmin (2008) Character Education: Christian Education Perspectives, Journal of Research on Christian Education, 17:2, 182-198, DOI: 10.1080/10656210802433384
- Horrell, D. G. (2019). Judaean Ethnicity and Christ-Following Voluntarism? A Reply to Steve Mason and Philip Esler. New Testament Studies, 65(1), 1-20. http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.1017/S0028688518000279
- Matherne, C. F., J, K. R., & Farmer, S. (2018). Organizational Moral Identity Centrality: Relationships with Citizenship Behaviors and Unethical Prosocial Behaviors. Journal of Business and Psychology, 33(6), 711-726. http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.1007/s10869-017-9519-4
- Merriam-Webster. (2020). Definition of discernment. Dictionary by Merriam-Webster: America's most-trusted online dictionary. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/discernment
- Pfeffer, J., & Sutton, R. I. (1999). Knowing "what" to do is not enough: Turning knowledge into action. California Management Review, 42(1), 83-108. http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fdocview%2F216131354%3Faccountid%3D12085
- Tae, W. K., & Donaldson, T. (2018). Rethinking Right: Moral Epistemology in Management Research: JBE. Journal of Business Ethics, 148(1), 5-20. http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.1007/s10551-015-3009-2