Read The Parable of the Sadhu on blackboard. Then thoroughly answer the questions herein. The Parable of the Sadhu raises some enlightening questions and conflicts of human ethics that can be addressed only if the underling tenants and presuppositions are addressed.
-1- Should the team climbing the mountains that day have restructured their goals and resources to assist the starving, hypothermic, delirious, almost naked man found on the mountain that day?
-2-Does the answer to number 1 translate into a framework that can be applied to corporations and other large organizations of people? If so, how? If not, why not?
-3- Does this parable relate to the business world? Cite three examples where companies have ignored various issues at their doorstep to continue to their goal. Has the current pandemic impacted how companies react to situations?
-4-How should individuals and companies assess the issues in any situation to see if the issues can be defined into a problem and then crafted into a solution? Does the pandemic create any opportunities?
-5- What has occurred to date 2021 in corporate and employee relations that may be generally comparable to the parable? Describe, and use citations as appropriate.
The Parable of the Sadhu 2021.pdf FINAL MGMT 385 SPRING 2022 Due 11:59PM TUESDAY MAY 24 2022 UPLOAD AS INSTRUCTED ON BLACKBOARD Read The Parable of the Sadhu on blackboard. Then thoroughly answer the questions herein. The Parable of the Sadhu raises some enlightening questions and conflicts of human ethics that can be addressed only if the underling tenants and presuppositions are addressed. -1- Should the team climbing the mountains that day have restructured their goals and resources to assist the starving, hypothermic, delirious, almost naked man found on the mountain that day? -2-Does the answer to number 1 translate into a framework that can be applied to corporations and other large organizations of people? If so, how? If not, why not? -3- Does this parable relate to the business world? Cite three examples where companies have ignored various issues at their doorstep to continue on to their goal. Has the current pandemic impacted how companies react to situations? -4-How should individuals and companies assess the issues in any situation to see if the issues can be defined into a problem and then crafted into a solution? Does the pandemic create any opportunities? -5- What has occurred to date 2021 in corporate and employee relations that may be generally comparable to the parable? Describe, use citations as appropriate. Your answers should be complete. One word answers are unacceptable. Completely support your answers in carefully worded paragraphs. Feel free to cite references to support your answer. The Parable of the Sadhu 8/23/15, 1:41 PM https://hbr.org/1997/05/the-parable-of-the-sadhu Page 1 of 15 L ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE The Parable of the Sadhu by Bowen H. McCoy FROM THE MAY–JUNE 1997 ISSUE ast year, as the first participant in the new six-month sabbatical program that Morgan Stanley has adopted, I enjoyed a rare opportunity to collect my thoughts as well as do some traveling. I spent the first three months in Nepal, walking 600 miles through 200 villages in the Himalayas and climbing some 120,000 vertical feet. My sole Western companion on the trip was an anthropologist who shed light on the cultural patterns of the villages that we passed through. The Parable of the Sadhu 8/23/15, 1:41 PM https://hbr.org/1997/05/the-parable-of-the-sadhu Page 2 of 15 During the Nepal hike, something occurred that has had a powerful impact on my thinking about corporate ethics. Although some might argue that the experience has no relevance to business, it was a situation in which a basic ethical dilemma suddenly intruded into the lives of a group of individuals. How the group responded holds a lesson for all organizations, no matter how defined. The Sadhu The Nepal experience was more rugged than I had anticipated. Most commercial treks last two or three weeks and cover a quarter of the distance we traveled. My friend Stephen, the anthropologist, and I were halfway through the 60-day Himalayan part of the trip when we reached the high point, an 18,000-foot pass over a crest that we’d have to traverse to reach the village of Muklinath, an ancient holy place for pilgrims. Six years earlier, I had suffered pulmonary edema, an acute form of altitude sickness, at 16,500 feet in the vicinity of Everest base camp—so we were understandably concerned about what would happen at 18,000 feet. Moreover, the Himalayas were having their wettest spring in 20 years; hip-deep powder and ice had already driven us off one ridge. If we failed to cross the pass, I feared that the last half of our once-in-a-lifetime trip would be ruined. The night before we would try the pass, we camped in a hut at 14,500 feet. In the photos taken at that camp, my face appears wan. The last village we’d passed through was a sturdy two-day walk below us, and I was tired. During the late afternoon, four backpackers from New Zealand joined us, and we spent most of the night awake, anticipating the climb. Below, we could see the fires of two other parties, which turned out to be two Swiss couples and a Japanese hiking club. The Parable of the Sadhu 8/23/15, 1:41 PM https://hbr.org/1997/05/the-parable-of-the-sadhu Page 3 of 15 To get over the steep part of the climb before the sun melted the steps cut in the ice, we departed at 3:30 A.M. The New Zealanders left first, followed by Stephen and myself, our porters and Sherpas, and then the Swiss. The Japanese lingered in their camp. The sky was clear, and we were confident that no spring storm would erupt that day to close the pass. At 15,500 feet, it looked to me as if Stephen were shuffling and staggering a bit, which are symptoms of altitude sickness. (The initial stage of altitude sickness brings a headache and nausea. As the condition worsens, a climber may encounter difficult breathing, disorientation, aphasia, and paralysis.) I felt strong—my adrenaline was flowing—but I was very concerned about my ultimate ability to get across. A couple of our porters were also suffering from the height, and Pasang, our Sherpa sirdar (leader), was worried. Just after daybreak, while we rested at 15,500 feet, one of the New Zealanders, who had gone ahead, came staggering down toward us with a body slung across his shoulders. He dumped the almost naked, barefoot body of an Indian holy man—a sadhu—at my feet. He had found the pilgrim lying on the ice, shivering and suffering from hypothermia. I cradled the sadhu’s head and laid him out on the rocks. The New Zealander was angry. He wanted to get across the pass before the bright sun melted the snow. He said, “Look, I’ve done what I can. You have porters and Sherpa guides. You care for him. We’re going on!” He turned and went back up the mountain to join his friends. I took a carotid pulse and found that the sadhu was still alive. We figured he had probably visited the holy shrines at Muklinath and was on his way home. It was fruitless to question why he had chosen this desperately high route instead of the safe, heavily traveled caravan route through the Kali Gandaki gorge. Or why he was shoeless and almost naked, or how long he had been lying in the pass. The answers weren’t going to solve our problem. The Parable of the Sadhu 8/23/15, 1:41 PM https://hbr.org/1997/05/the-parable-of-the-sadhu Page 4 of 15 Stephen and the four Swiss began stripping off their outer clothing and opening their packs. The sadhu was soon clothed from head to foot. He was not able to walk, but he was very much alive. I looked down the mountain and spotted the Japanese climbers, marching up with a horse. Without a great deal of thought, I told Stephen and Pasang that I was concerned about withstanding the heights to come and wanted to get over the pass. I took off after several of our porters who had gone ahead. On the steep part of the ascent where, if the ice steps had given way, I would have slid down about 3,000 feet, I felt vertigo. I stopped for a breather, allowing the Swiss to catch up with me. I inquired about the sadhu and Stephen. They said that the sadhu was fine and that Stephen was just behind them. I set off again for the summit. Stephen arrived at the summit an hour after I did. Still exhilarated by victory, I ran down the slope to congratulate him. He was suffering from altitude sickness—walking 15 steps, then stopping, walking 15 steps, then stopping. Pasang accompanied him all the way up. When I reached them, Stephen glared at me and said: “How do you feel about contributing to the death of a fellow man?” When I reached them, Stephen glared at me and said, “How do you feel about contributing to the death of a fellow man?” I did not completely comprehend what he meant. “Is the sadhu dead?” I inquired. “No,” replied Stephen, “but he surely will be!” The Parable of the Sadhu 8/23/15, 1:41 PM https://hbr.org/1997/05/the-parable-of-the-sadhu Page 5 of 15 After I had gone, followed not long after by the Swiss, Stephen had remained with the sadhu. When the Japanese had arrived, Stephen had asked to use their horse to transport the sadhu down to the hut. They had refused. He had then asked Pasang to have a group of our porters carry the sadhu. Pasang had resisted the idea, saying that the porters would have to exert all their energy to get themselves over the pass. He believed they could not carry a man down 1,000 feet to the hut, reclimb the slope, and get across safely before the snow melted. Pasang had pressed Stephen not to delay any longer. The Sherpas had carried the sadhu down to a rock in the sun at about 15,000 feet and pointed out the hut another 500 feet below. The Japanese had given him food and drink. When they had last seen him, he was listlessly throwing rocks at the Japanese party’s dog, which had frightened him. We do not know if the sadhu lived or died. For many of the following days and evenings, Stephen and I discussed and debated our behavior toward the sadhu. Stephen is a committed Quaker with deep moral vision. He said, “I feel that what happened with the sadhu is a good example of the breakdown between the individual ethic and the corporate ethic. No one person was willing to assume ultimate responsibility for the sadhu. Each was willing to do his bit just so long as it was not too inconvenient. When it got to be a bother, everyone just passed the buck to someone else and took off. Jesus was relevant to a more individualistic stage of society, but how do we interpret his teaching today in a world filled with large, impersonal organizations and groups?” I defended the larger group