Case 3-1
The Parable of the Sadhu
The case examines the individual versus corporate ethic.
Ethical Issues:
How does the individual stay true to her values within a corporate ethic? How can one make changes for the better within an organization?
Questions
Consider corporate values and ethics as discussed in Chapter 3 and the ethical reasoning methods discussed in Chapters 1 and 2 in answering the following questions:
1.
Bowen H. McCoy’s friend Stephen is quoted as saying, “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
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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 “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 AT&T, 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
When he is not busy with finance and acquisitions, you will discover him participating in various benevolent programs, including The Ronald McDonald House, United Negro College Fund, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Inner City Foundation and various Jewish organizations.
He can see that others are scared of trying to say in the they live. He will agree with Ayn Rand’s Essay over moral judgment, she discusses the issue of what people are doing wrong, how they are suppose to act. Not to be ignored or undermined. Equality 7-2521 will likely agree that a man’s morals cannot harm another man’s morals. They are not to be defined on what others think of them, they have their own thoughts and have freedom over which culture they fall under. “I covet no man’s soul, nor my soul theirs to covet.” (page 96) Everyone has their own thoughts and that is something Equality 7-2521 will connect with very easily. It marks a new era of mankind, a thought that matters. Equality 7-2521 has surpassed the mind games and he easily escaped with his dignity, not falling in line of the primitive
The passage states, “The helicopter managed to evacuate one of the two climbers.” The other climber could not be rescued due to the conditions. The passage also states, “they got one climber off and they crashed attempting to rescue the second one. Ranger Nick Hall, a climbing ranger at Mount Rainer National park, fell 3,700 feet and was killed on impact. He fell down the mountains Northeast side of the mountain into a crevice. He was not moving after his fall. Another climber that fell into the crevice had slipped on the descent down Emmons Glacier after hiking Mount Rainer. Two women we dangling inside the crevice when one was able to contact the rescue rangers on her cell phone. The two women were able to get rescued very fast, they were rescued around 3:10 P.M. Rapidly lowering clouds made it harder for the helicopters to reach the climbers. Three of them had to be hospitalized from the falls and made a fast recovery. Although some was not as fortunate. In the Nick Hall’s family lost a son and now the family is “grieving and celebrating” his
The Parable of the Sadhu is a story of men climbing the Himalayas that run into a moral dilemma. These are not just any men. These are groups of men from many different cultural backgrounds. As they are climbing the mountain they run into a nearly naked Indian holy man that is near death. The moral dilemma comes into play when they are forced to make the decision to backtrack down the mountain to save the man and probably never reach their ultimate goal, or ignore the needs of the desperate man in order to fulfill their personal desires. By looking at the situation and what the men did it is clear that they acted through the ethical thought process of egoism and social contract. They acted
I decided to interview my father, Brad Berish, on September 21. He is a bankruptcy lawyer, and he experiences professional responsibility dilemmas on practically a daily basis. However, because he has over 25 years of experience in this field, his moral compass has been tried and tested over and over again, resulting in his steadfast core values.
On 23rd 1999, a catastrophic avalanche happened in Galtür, Austria, which is in the innermost Paznaun Valley, the furthermost southwestern corner of the state of Tyrol. Galtür attracts thousands of tourists each year, which makes it famous a ski resort, and in February 1999, 4000 visitors and residents were staying in the village of Galtür before everything happened.
Here the question is what action promotes McCoy's & the hiker's interest. The main purpose of all the hikers was to travel to Nepal and have a "once in a life time experience". It is conceivable that this is consistent with everyone's best interests, while helping the Sadhu is clearly not. Action was ethical. However the fact that McCoy feels guilty reflects that he was unable to promote his long term interest. Hence it becomes ambiguous to justify his actions.
If you would look at the theory of cultural relativism, it states that a company should adopt the ethics of the
For example he goes to hospitals and goes to see other people that are sick or really ill, or that
The key difference in the two accounts are that one took place on a mountain,
At that time the god from the Pure Abodes Heaven transfigured into a corpse. Four people carrying the cadaver appeared right before the Bodhisattva. Only the Bodhisattva and the charioteer saw this. No one else was aware of it. He asked, “What is this body, with flowers and banners adorned? Those trailing behind are all grief-stricken. Their hair hanging down, they wail as they follow along.”
How do ethical values shape behavior in organizations? According to Saleem (2014), ethical values and behaviors of an organization are made up of organizations institutionalized philosophies along with the moral ideologies of its members. In addition, the codes of ethics help to enhance the moral reasoning of employees while shaping their behaviors towards morally questioning unethical situations. Organizational leaders are encouraged to build cultures of trust with leadership who establish concerning goals employees pursue y setting examples for others to follow (Crosbie, 2008). The leaders whom are able to build training and development throughout their organization helps design and build relationships characterized by collaborative behaviors those results in mutually beneficial outcomes (Crosbie, 2008).
Business values can be defined as beliefs of an organisation, they are “the context in which an organisation’s norms are established and justified” (Nieuwenhuizen & Oosthuizen, 2014, p.95) therefore compel one to think about issues such as honesty, loyalty, morality etc.
Corporate values are ‘the operating philosophies or principles that guide an internal conduct of the organization and its association with its clients, partners and shareholders’. It is also a fundamental and long-lasting belief that specific mode of conduction highly valued by the organization’s membership’ according to IBM corporate responsibility report (2002, What is the value of company).
Strategic decisions move a company toward its stated goals and perceived success. Strategic decisions also reflect the firm’s social responsibility and the ethical values on which such decisions are made. They reflect what is considered important and what a company wants to achieve. Mark Pastin, writing on the function of ethics in business decisions, observes: There are fundamental principles, or ground rules, by which organizations act. Like the ground rules of individuals, organizational ground rules determine which actions are possible for the organization and what the actions mean. Buried beneath the charts of organizational responsibility, the arcane strategies, the crunched numbers, and