1. According to the Ethical Dissonance Model, the ethical person-organization fit helps to define the ethical culture of an organization and one’s role in it. The ethics of an individual influences the values one brings to the workplace and decision-making, while the ethics (through culture) of the organization influences that behavior. Throughout The Parable of the Sadhu, Bowen McCoy refers to the breakdown between the individual and corporate ethic. Explain what he meant by that and how, if we view the hikers on the trek up the mountain in Nepal as an organization, the ethical person-organization fit applied to the decisions made on the climb.
2. Evaluate the actions of McCoy and Stephen from the perspective of Kohlberg’s model of moral development. At what stage did each reason throughout the trek? Do you think there was a “bystander effect” in how McCoy and the others acted?
3. What role did “ethical fading” have on the decision-making of Bowen and other members of the group? How is utilitarian thinking involved in ethical fading?
4. McCoy concludes that the lesson of the sadhu is that “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?
5. What is the moral of the story of the sadhu from your perspective?