The Parable of Sadhu was based on a real life incident that happened with Bowen H. McCoy, who participated on a trip to Himalaya for 60 days with people from other countries. McCoy had prepared for over six years for this hike and spent a lot of time and money for this. A New Zealander had found the Indian Sadhu shivering and suffering from hypothermia. The entire group had contributed in reviving the Sadhu and comforting him just as much to fulfil their duty but didn’t want to take full responsibility.
However, nobody took on complete responsibility of Sadhu’s well-being. Each group was caring and ethical towards the Sadhu as an individual, but no one wanted to take responsibility as a group. McCoy’s friend Stephen played a large part in this story because he really wanted to help the Sadhu. He didn’t feel passing him on from hiker to hiker would benefit him at all. The group was faced against making the decision to go back down the mountain to save the Sadhu and never reach their goal. Or leave the Sadh and go with the plan they had worked so long to achieve and wouldn’t reach if they helped.
There are a few ethical dilemmas when approaching this situation; Individual Ethics vs. Group Ethics, Applicability of Rule based Ethical Theory and Implementing Ethics in Corporate World. In the Individual vs. Group, every person did their share for the Sadhu. However, no one ensured the ultimate well-being of the Sadhu. So the question is, where does the ethical responsibility of an individual end? In Ethics in workplace, the hikers need to know how to ensure collaborative effort towards the end goal. Also synchronizing individual efforts with collective vision and reaching consensus and selecting a leader in a rough situation. How does one or the leader in essence ensure the entire groups support on a decision?
The Sadhu parable brings into relief our notions, about the different moral characters of persons, rather than our justification of the moral worth of actions. As moral people we have an obligation to expect the most from ourselves and from others, and that is the way we behave. To conclude the decision of the hiking group, McCoy regrets, not that he and the group members acted impermissibly, but that they acted merely permissibly.
The group acted only as society would have been expected to act, and not as a good person should be expected to act. McCoy and the group of hikers were given one of life’s rare opportunities to be heroes, and they let that opportunity pass them. The hiker’s decision, then, were blameworthy, because they were merely justifiable in a situation which actually called for heroism and sacrifice.
To relate this conclusion to the workplace is for an individual to pose questions for oneself in terms of excellences of character, to facilitate healthy habits of moral thinking, and use those healthy habits for prevention of tough situations. In complex situations, individuals need and deserve support of the group to make the right choice. This support provides success from the group and also directs and focuses each individual member of the team a benefit from the group as a whole.
To address ethical issues that were faced in this story, there are speculations that need to be examined and split up into two separate groups. The first group applies directly to individuals and the second group applies to a much larger group of individuals or a corporation. In the small group of individuals, understanding the contents is the first action to achieving the best ethical clarification for future events.
Beginning with how the hikers should have taken on the weight of the crisis during the dilemma and how they should have dealt with judging the stranger they just ran into? This is important because it defines the issue and lets the individuals process the problem and solutions of the situation. Then, communicating with one another to decide what shall be done.
The lack of communication was very obvious in this story of the Sadhu because the hikers were too far apart on the mountain to communicate in a group. The lack of moral common ground made it impossible to make the group decision to change up plans for the day. Although, Stephen had made up his mind he could not follow through with his decision without the help of the group. For this particular situation, help was needed from more than just one individual.
However, in a larger group or corporation these individuals have additional questions to address due to having more resources and the ability to affect situations in a more powerful way than just one individual could. The next question would be, should a corporation approach the issue differently from individuals? For example letting the corporation get involved to assist in solving the problem involving corporate resources, or allow the individuals to assist with smaller individual pockets of resources. Working with groups is not always easy and not always hard, they definitely have their ups and downs. Not everyone agrees with every decision that
needs to be made but that is where individuals can take on a leadership role and explain what the right ethical decision would be to make. Which in the story of the Sadhu lacked. The hikers didn’t have a leader to say this is what we should do and why and get everyone on board.
Throughout the story of the Sadhu, McCoy refers to an individual and corporate ethics, like I have previously mentioned. McCoy states, “Is there a collective or institutional ethic that differs from the ethics of the individual? At what level of effort or commitment can one discharge one’s ethical responsibilities?” At an individual standpoint you cannot set standard levels. This leads to every person has different viewpoints on certain situations. For example, the situation McCoy is in, can be seen as he did enough and he didn’t do enough to save the Sadhu. Companies have core values throughout their business in which they expect their employees and leaders to follow. This method should help leaders make healthy decisions for the group and/or the corporation.
All these questions throughout the essay begin to address the difficulty of the dilemma that was shown in The Parable of the Sadhu. Bowen McCoy (1997), stated “often times the decisions needs to be instant and the action taken immediately, and that a failure to respond was a response itself.” This statement is very accurate for many situations especially in the corporate world. If the group members can’t come to a conclusion first hand then the leader needs to take the spot and state what the right choice is.
