This article explores the emotional aftermath of public managers’ decision making in contradictory situations involving conflicting values. Drawing on contingency and paradox theory, the article investigates the impact of two processing modes – value-congruent behavior and paradox mindset – on decision-making confidence. The study surveyed 400 public school managers from the German-speaking part of Switzerland and conducted Spearman Rho correlations to test the hypotheses. According to the results of the study and its replication, about thirty percent of the public managers made decisions that were congruent with their individual hierarchy of values, but value-congruent behavior does not significantly support confident decision making. Conversely, paradox mindset appears to be more effective in supporting confident decision making, especially in the value conflict between ‘justice’ and ‘critique’.