Journal Article Review #1: “Parable of the Sadhu” Anh Nguyen MGMT 4330 07/11/11 Journal Article Review #1: “Parable of the Sadhu” This article review will contain a summary of the article, a listing of three discussion questions, and a response to each of the discussion questions. Article Summary Many years ago, the author and his friend joined in a climber group in which climbers came from different places in the world, gathering together to Nepal to walking through hundreds of village in Himalaya and climbing thousands of vertical feet.
His group included a local leader Pasang, his friend Stephen, four New Zealand, two Swiss couples, and another Japanese hiking club. They started their journey in early morning before the ice melted by the sun. Some of them were affected a light sickness due to the weather but they still kept going. Just after the daybreak, one of the New Zealanders came toward the author group who went behind and carried an Indian holy man, a sadhu, on his back. The man was nearly naked with bare foot and was shivering due to coldness.
The New Zealander put him down and lest saying that he had done what he was supposed to do and it is the others’ turn to help this poor guy. The author checked the body to find out that the man was still alive while his friend Stephen and the Swiss gave him clothes and shoes to warm up. Spotting that the Japanese group was coming with horse, the author left the man and his group behind afraid of the harsh weather at the slope and wanted to get over the pass. At the resting area, the Swiss caught up with him and they told him the sadhu was settled fine now.
At the summit, everybody in the group finally met up. Until then, the author realized how difficult situation it was after he left. The Swiss lest soon after the author; the Japanese refused to help the sadhu; Pasang is resistant to let a group of their porters carry the sadhu down to the village for better treatment and come back join the trip. Having no other choice, Stephen had to carry the sadhu to lay on a rock in the sun, the Japanese left some food and drink for him. The last scene they could see was the sadhu throwing rocks listlessly to the frightening Japanese party’s dog.
He was not sure whether the man was able to be still alive up till this time or not. The story soon became to argument of the ethics issue between individuals and a group. After the trip, the author again relating back to the sadhu accident to imply the corporate’s responsibility to gain a strong ethics in workplace and the immediate support from managers to help employees work as ethical and reasonable people. Discussion Questions The article introduced many ethical principles. Three questions have been included below to stimulate discussion of some of those principles 1.
Discuss the implication of sadhu accident and people’s reaction differently to help him in the story. 2. Who are responsible for the problems happening at corporation and what influences them according to the author? 3. To what extent that the corporate should support their employees and maximize its stakeholders’ return? Response to Discussion Questions This section presents responses to the three discussion questions. Those questions involve the following topics: the ethical issue of the article, the meaning of a “deep moral vision,” and the recommended course of action
Implication of sadhu accident and people’s reaction differently to help him in the story The New Zealanders were the ones that found out the body of sadhu but they just passed him to other people and left, even not considering how terrible condition the sadhu was in. in other way, it can be said that they saw the problem but did not help to solve it, letting others to deal with. The others tried to help the man to regain alive but then left him all alone there to fight for a way going down the village. The Japanese had the horse which could carry him down the slope but they did not do that.
Pasang could ask porters to carry the sadhu but he resisted that idea for the fear that the porters would exhaust all their energy to rejoin the journey later. No one could tell whether the man was able to alive or not. Their different reaction to the sadhu implied the individual ethics acting for personal benefit. As the author mentioned, the group did not act as a group but as an individual without any leader’s clear instruction. The diversification in the group made it more complex and difficult to do it together.
For the corporate ethics, there should be one to take the lead, give instruction, and support other work in order to minimize the ethical issue so that it could increase the corporate’s character. Responsibility and influencing factors to solve corporate’s problem: Everyone in the corporation is responsible for every action they make and should take blame for the problem they create during the work. Yet, it is important to understand the shared values between every employee in workplace to conduct a business ethics code in a corporation.
The problem that the author’s group met during the trip was that they had no process to develop a consensus so that each contribution would help the sadhu get a better treatment. As a corporate, managers’ or supervisors’ role is important since they will direct employees with right path and reinstruct when they go off the road. Their ability to deal with diversity and complexity is also helpful characteristics to be responsible for the success in corporation. It is common to know that in large corporation, respecting employees’ values and belief also help them to avoid the increase in ethical issue in workplace.
The extent that the corporate should support their employees and maximize stakeholders’ return: Although the corporate supports employees to fully develop skills and business ethics, it is employees’ concept to accept the ethical act due to their different view of standard and norms. Giving employees comfortable working condition and offering them a fair return will be more likely to increase their work performance and reduce ethical dilemma in workplace. In addition, leaders’ support plays an essential part to keep plans and projects on right track and also help the work flow be organized.
Moreover, stakeholders of an organization not only concern on the firm’s profit but also the society seeing the firm to be organized and ethical business, which increases the reputation of the company and also maximize stakeholders’ return in term of indirect benefit, such as increasing in creditability, social recognition, etc. Back to sadhu case, if the company does not concentrate on bringing employees together to act ethically, the form will fall and lose its nature value of an organization. References McCoy, B. H. (1983). The parable of the sadhu. Harvard Business Review, 103-108
