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Defining Moments

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Submitted By mikenator121
Words 2449
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Being a manager is hard. Throughout his book, “Defining Moments”, Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. explains the challenges managers face when making decisions on a daily basis and provides a framework for how to tackle those challenges. Early on, Badaracco explains how decisions between right and right (as opposed to right and wrong) are often the most difficult. Decisions like this can be seen as ‘defining moments’ because, according to Badaracco, they reveal, test, and shape a manager’s personal values as well as those of their organization. They also cause managers to come away with ‘dirty hands’, the unfortunate side effect of choosing one ‘right’ option over the other. It is how Badaracco puts these decisions in perspective that sets this book apart from other ethical decision-making books.
‘Defining Moments’ goes on to introduce a few real world cases that exemplify right versus right dilemmas. These examples demonstrate certain challenges that manager’s face, as well as serve to impress upon the reader the idea that there is almost never a clear-cut solution. The first case is that of Steve Lewis, a black analyst asked to represent his company’s diversity at a special presentation. The issue lies in whether he should sacrifice his personal values to satisfy his company’s request. Lewis’ case reveals how conflicts of personal integrity and moral identity shape one’s ultimate decision. A lot of thought must be given to choices that involve a matter of personal values in terms of who he is, what he stands for, and what regrets he would be willing to live with.
The second case involves Peter Adario, a manager tasked with deciding whether or not to fire a single mother that is not pulling her weight in the company. Making such a decision involves organizational issues that are intertwined with personal ones. The decision he was faced with not only had personal moral ties

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