Managing in the Gray

What Are My Core Obligations?

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idea of democracy: the idea that we all count, and we all

count the same.

Neither of these two deep obligations can be specified pre-

cisely or completely. There is no bulletproof philosophical

argument that mandates our belief in them. But neither fact

gives managers permission to ignore these duties or replace

them with something else, like the economics of their orga-

nizations. In fact, because these two basic human duties are

open-ended, managers have to work harder and think more

carefully about what they require in particular situations.

The Tysabri situation shows the importance of making

this effort. Mullen’s decision, as we have seen, would deter-

mine which of his fellow human beings got medicine they