The Parable of the Sadhu free essay sample

Bowen H. McCoy’s friend Stephen is quoted as saying, â€Å"I feel that what happened with the sadhu is a good example of the breakdown between the individual and corporate ethic. † Explain what you think Stephen meant by this statement. What is the nature of that breakdown between the individual and corporate ethic as you see it? In the article, Stephen goes on that â€Å"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. † Ask the students if they have ever seen such a situation in their lives? Have the students ever observed student-teams told by the professor for the last team out of the classroom to clean up, turn off lights and lock the door? Yet, when the last team walks out of the classroom, often the instructions are forgotten. We will write a custom essay sample on The Parable of the Sadhu or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Each team may blame other teams for not doing their part. Is it true that individuals tend to lose their responsibility in groups? Is it easier to hide in a group and spread the blame? 2. In reflecting on his discussion with Stephen about the sadhu McCoy says, â€Å"The instant decisions that executives make under pressure reveal the most about personal and corporate character. † Do you think on-the-spot decisions better reflect the character of the decision maker and organization rather than those that might be more thoroughly thought through? Why or why not? On-the-spot decisions reflect our habits and pattern of making decisions. This is why the Greeks argued that virtues must be practiced every day to become a habit. More thoroughly thought through decisions may not be any better than the on-the-spot ones, but may be analyzed to consider the alternatives and consequences. The ultimate decisions of either thought process reflect the character of the decision maker and organization. 3. McCoy equates the parameters of the decision-making process about the sadhu with that in business. He believes there is an interesting parallel to business situations. Explain what you think McCoy meant by this statement. Do you agree with him? McCoy points out that decision making in business is similar to what happened on the mountain: Decisions had to be made based upon what was seen and with outside influences on the processes. It is possible that the big picture may not be seen or considered; the depth or consequences may not be immediately recognized; the situation and policies may be misunderstood; the decision maker may not know of or utilize available resources. Businesspeople must be aware of the risks but cannot run away from all risks in making decisions. Often the true dimensions of the situation will not be comprehended by the manager or all members of the business team. Have the students consider the pros and cons of the parallel. 4. McCoy concludes that the lesson of the sadhu is that â€Å"in a complex corporate situation, the individual requires and deserves the support of the group. When people cannot find such support in their organizations, they don’t know how to act. † What support in organizations do you think McCoy is referring to? If such support is not found, what should individuals do when they have an ethical dilemma such as that in the sadhu case? If the organization does not provide the support to evaluate and resolve an ethical dilemma, then the individual must rely on his own values and decision making models. Below is McCoy’s reflection on the sadhu 15 years later. He notes that Stephen was reacting to the situation from his Christian ethic of compassion while he (McCoy) had a utilitarian response. Neither are the only right responses. Many students will want or state one right response, only. 5. What is the moral of the story of the sadhu from your perspective? McCoy summarized the moral as â€Å"When do we take a stand? † When Do We Take a Stand? By Bowen McCoy I wrote about my experiences purposely to present an ambiguous situation. I never found out if the sadhu lived or died. I can attest, though, that the sadhu lives on in his story. He lives in ethics classes I teach each year at business schools and churches. He lives in the classrooms of numerous business schools, where professors have taught the case to tens of thousands of students. He lives in several casebooks on ethics and on an educational video. And he lives in organizations such as the American Red Cross and ATT, which use his story in their ethics training. As I reflect on the sadhu now, 15 years after the fact, I first have to wonder, What actually happened on that Himalayan slope? When I first wrote about the event, I reported the experience in as much detail as I could remember, but I shaped it to the needs of a good classroom discussion. After years of reading my story, viewing it on video, and hearing others discuss it, I’m not sure I myself know what actually occurred on the mountainside that day! I’ve also heard a wide variety of responses to the story. The sadhu, for example, may not have wanted our help at all – he may have been intentionally bringing on his own death as a way to holiness. Why had he taken the dangerous way over the pass instead of the caravan route through the gorge? Hindu businesspeople have told me that in trying to assist the sadhu, we were being typically arrogant Westerners imposing our cultural values on the world. I’ve learned that each year along the pass, a few Nepali porters are left to freeze to death outside the tents of the unthinking tourists who hired them. A few years ago, a French group even left one of their own, a young French woman, to die there. The difficult pass seems to demonstrate a perverse version of Gresham’s law of currency: The bad practices of previous travelers have driven out the values that new travelers might have followed if they were at home. Perhaps that helps to explain why it was so difficult for Stephen or anyone else to establish a different approach on the spot. Our Sherpa sirdar, Pasang, was focused on his responsibility for bringing us up the mountain safe and sound. (His livelihood and status in the Sherpa ethnic group depended on our safe return. ) We were weak, our party was split, the porters were well on their way to the top with all our gear and food, and a storm would have separated us irrevocably from our logistical base. The fact was, we had no plan for dealing with the contingency of the sadhu. There was nothing we could do to unite our multicultural group in the little time we had. An ethical dilemma had come upon us unexpectedly, an element of dram that may explain why the sadhu’s story has continued to attract students. I am often asked for help in teaching the story. I usually advise keeping the details as ambiguous as possible. A true ethical dilemma requires a decision between two hard choices. In the case of the sadhu, we had to decide how much to sacrifice ourselves to take care of a stranger. And given the constraints of our trek, we had to make a group decision, not an individual one. If a large majority of students in a class ends up thinking I’m a bad person because of my decision on the mountain, the instructor may not have given the case its due. The same is true if the majority sees no problem with the choices we made. Any class’s response depends on its setting, whether it’s a business school, a church, or a corporation. I’ve found that younger students are more likely to see the issue as black-and-white, whereas older ones tend to see shade of gray. Some have seen a conflict between the different ethical approaches that we followed at the time. Stephen felt he had to do everything he could to save the sadhu’s life, in accordance with his Christian ethic of compassion. I had a utilitarian response: do the greatest good for the greatest number. Give a burst of aid to minimize the sadhu’s exposure, then continue on our way. The bsic question of the case remains, When do we take a stand? When do we allow a â€Å"sadhu† to intrude into our daily lives? Few of us can afford the time or effort to take care of every needy person we encounter. How much must we give of ourselves? And how do we prepare our organizations and institutions so they will respond appropriately in a crisis? How do we influence them if we do not agree with their points of view? We cannot quit our jobs over every ethical dilemma, but if we continually ignore our sense of values, who do we become? As a journalist asked at a recent conference on ethics, â€Å"Which ditch are we willing to die in? † For each of us, the answer is a bit different. How we act in response to that question defines better than anything else who we are, just as, in a collective sense, our acts define our institutions. In effect, the sadhu is always there, ready to remind us of the tensions between our own goals and the claims of strangers. References: McCracken, Janet, William Martin, and Bill Shaw. Virtue Ethics and the Parable of the Sadhu. Journal of Business Ethics 17.1 (1998): 25-38. Goodpaster, Kenneth E. Work, spirituality, and the moral point of view. International Journal of Value-Based Management 7.1 (1994): 49-62. Beyer, Janice M., and David Nino. Ethics and cultures in international business. Journal of Management Inquiry 8.3 (1999): 287-297. Amine, Lyn S. The need for moral champions in global marketing. European Journal of Marketing 30.5 (1996): 81-94. Smith, N. Craig, and John A. Quelch. Pharmaceutical marketing practices in the Third World. Journal of Business Research 23.1 (1991): 113-126.