On management

I've be struggling with my perception on someone I've known for quite a while.

One should not allow personal relationships to impair professional judgements.

One should allow, however, personal relationships to enhance one's ability in making a professional judgement.

What if the relationship is reversed in the case below :-
Should one allow professional judgements to impair personal relationships?
(I am not referring to clear cut right/wrong decisions here)

(realise that the question is not CAN one allow...) I am asking SHOULD one allow... cos this involves making an informed choice about another individual both at the professional and personal level. This becomes a conscious choice bound by one's moral ethics.

I suppose the answer to
a) CAN one allow professional judgements to impair personal relationships?

would be YES. One simply allows. Yes or No question. One CAN allow it, but this individual can ask at a more conscious level "SHOULD I allow it?"

b) SHOULD one allow professional judgements to impair personal relationships?

would depend entirely on the individual. This individual (assuming is not of an impaired state of mind ) is capable of independent thought processes, and would base his/her decision on their perception of the matter, gathering of facts and sieve these through his/her own web of moral and professional ethics before coming to a decision.


Can one really separate work and private matters if these matters all affect one individual?

If scenario (b) is allowed to happen, this decision would have been put through a complex, conscious thought process. And if the outcome is a YES (ie I allow my position in an organisation to impair my personal relationship with a work friend ) then the affected individual at the receiving end gets to review the decision maker's ethical web and decide if this friend's ethical and moral standing can be of the same platform as oneself. Those who fall below the same platform, simply fall away.

I think only a handful succeed in becoming real Managers of People. Others just go along being called one.