Answer

Develop, Reflect on, and Apply Personal and Organizational Credos

Introduction

Part 1

Some of the qualities that I have and would keep regardless of external motivators include being a caring person, being honest, treating others and the environment right, being a caring human being among many others that cannot be listed here. I would like to be remembered as a person, who cared deeply about those around him including wok colleagues, his family and his neighbors. I want everyone that I ever interacted with to bear testimony of my kindness to them through my words and actions as I helped them in one way or another. I would prefer my work colleagues to remember me as a person of integrity who could never sacrifice the right principles in order to complete work soon or to earn praise and bonuses from employers. I would like my family to remember me as a caring father who could go to great lengths to provide for his family within the bounds of the law as well as ethical boundaries in society. I would like to be remembered as someone who would never sacrifice his ethical principles regardless of outside pressure including some of the things that I love dearly, even my family (Monge, 2015). I would also like to be remembered as a person who cared deeply for the external environment and would do nothing that would harm the environment, which include polluting the environment at a personal level as well as at work.

Part 2

The qualities I listed in my personal credo above are highly applicable in an organizational setting as they are qualities that can be championed by the top executives within any organization. The CEO of an organization can easily champion a culture of honesty and candor throughout the organization where people express their honest opinions about each other’s work throughout the organization. Such an environment of candor was championed by Jack Whelsch when he was CEO of GE, which created a transformation within the company and boosted the results achieved by GE. I would also champion a culture of acting responsibly towards the environment by ensuring that my company’s production activities do not pollute the environment. I would also ensure that the actions of my company are governed by a set of ethical principles, which are widely accepted and followed by everyone in the company. The personal philosophy of kindness that I practiced on an individual level could easily be translated into an organizational culture through the process of giving back to society (Rama, 2012). The organizations should engage in activities targeted at giving back to the society such as giving to the poor and the sick as well as taking care of the environment on behalf of the society. All these measures are ways in which my personal credo can be applied on an organizational level in an organization where I am a stakeholder.

Discussion questions

1. Do you have some thoughts on your credo based on Mr. McCoy’s and Mr. Mazur’s experiences and actions?

Mr. McCoy’s story indicates how the lack of an organizational credo that a group can rally behind can cause people to do only the minimum required of them and pass on the buck to the next person. Mr. McCoy’s group did not give Stephen the self-appointed leader of the group the support he needed to take the Sadhu to the safety if the hut and to ensure that the Sadhu was safe and well (Ardelean, 2015). The thought I have regarding my credo revolve around the fact that I want to be remembered as a person who cared for others regardless of the cost, which in hindsight means that if I was in Mr. McCoy’s position, I would have helped Stephen take the Sadhu to safety. However, some facts to keep in mind regarding Mr. McCoy’s decision was the fact that the Sadhu had taken the more difficult road back to the bottom of the mountain and it was not clear why he chose such a difficult path. Mr. Mazur’s sacrifice demonstrates that he was a man with a strong moral compass with a principle on preserving human life at all costs as evidenced by him forfeiting his trip to take care of the Australian at great personal sacrifice as he had to incur the financial losses. Mr. Mazur’s actions show that he valued human life over the achievement of reaching the top of the mountain, which is how I would like to be remembered on earth.

2. Why do you think no one made sure the sadhu was going to be fine? What would they have had to do to be sure that the sadhu would live?

The issue of personal sacrifice highlights why the various groups of people did not stay behind to ensure that the Sadhu was okay and that he would reach the ground safely. If MR. McCoy and Stephen had stayed behind to take care of the Sadhu, they could have surely missed to complete their climb, which could have resulted in significant financial loss for the two of them. The situation also illustrates how the lack of organizational goodwill in maintaining some ethical principles can lead to people only doing the minimum that they can do in order to meet the basic requirements of good conduct. Everybody involved did the minimum with others straight out refusing to help in order to reach their own personal goals of climbing the mountain to the top (Kleyn, Abratt, Chipp & Goldman, 2012). To ensure the Sadhu was okay and could reach the ground safely, the Japanese should have allowed Stephen to use their horse to transport the Sadhu. Mr. McCoy should have stayed with Stephen to ensure that the Sadhu reached safety and the Austarliajn who carried him down should have joined Stephen and Mr. McCoy in ensuring the safe travels of the Sadhu. The actions of everyone involved in their own small way as well as the personal sacrifices of Stephen and Mr. McCoy could have ensured that the Sadhu survived and reached safety.

3. Are the rules of the mountain different from the rules of our day-to-day lives? Is it survival of the fittest on the mountain?

The rules of the mountain are inherently similar to those of our day-to-day lives with the only difference being that the stakes were higher as most actions determine the survival of human life. The stakes in our daily lives are much lower as most of our decisions are not a matter of life and death as we deals with life’s challenges although in some cases, our decisions are actually a matter of life and death. This is especially true in situations such as emergencies where human lives are at stake and our decision to help or not help might typically result in a death or the saving of a human life. The rules of our day-to-day life are very similar to those of the mountain where it is survival of the fittest, but what makes us human is caring about those who have been dealt a bad hand in life (Monge, 2015). These groups of people include the homeless, those without food, and those with disabilities among many other disadvantaged groups. The way we treat the disadvantaged in society demonstrates how we would have treated the Sadhu, the Briton, or the Australian who was saved by Mr. Mazur. Although the rule of survival of the fittest applies both in life and on the mountain, it is important as human beings to care about others who are disadvantaged.

4. Why do you Think Mr. McCoy wrote about his experience?

I think that Mr. McCoy wrote about his experience to warn future mountain climbers if the danger of leaving the less fortunate on the mountain to survive on their own as in such cases, they are likely not to survive. He also wrote about his experience as a reminder to himself and others of the moral dilemmas we face on a daily basis, which we breeze through without realizing that they even exist. Mr. McCoy wanted to document his experience so that it could be a lesson to others who faced similar dilemmas to take the high road and do what is right regardless of the financial or physical consequences of their actions. I believe that Mr. McCoy felt guilty for leaving the Sadhu to fend for himself after being made aware of the possible consequences of his actions by Stephen who also felt guilty and that he wrote about his experience to warn others of repeating his mistakes. He wanted to warn future climbers of the importance of valuing human life during their time on the mountain and generally in life because human life is priceless and cannot be replaced (Ardelean, 2015). These lessons have been documented for all people who read about Mr. McCoy’s experience.