...Everest Tragedy 1996 Question 1. After understanding and analyzing the tragedy of Mount Everest , May 1996 that took lives of eight climbers during summit attempts, we can conclude that the tragedy may occur due to several root causes whether it is by nature or human error. The major factor that leads to this tragedy is that all the climbers are lack of team work and communication. Even though they are in the same expedition but they have their own individual’s goal, eager to reach at the summit. For example, Jon Krakauer one of the clients of Adventure Consultant said that he felt disconnected from the climbers around him, they were a team in name only. Supposedly, during the acclimatization exercises, the climbers should take time to get to know each other, learn their responsibilities as a team build their confidence and trust to their teammates, instead they were doubting each other whether they could rely own their team member during difficult times. That also might cause this tragedy, which is lack of trust towards team member. One of the potential causes of the tragedy was overconfidence. Overconfidence occurs when leaders believe that their experience, abilities, skill, or maybe even luck, will allow them to overcome any challenge they face. Research has shown that such overconfidence can lead to poor decision making as leaders substitute their own personal skill for careful analysis of the situation and planning. Hall, in particular, may have been prone to overconfidence...
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...Roberto B usiness leaders and scholars have learned important lessons from tragedies such as the Challenger disaster, the Bay of Pigs fiasco, and the Three Mile Island accident.' Similarly, we can leam important lessons about leadership and decision making from the unfortunate events that took place on Mount Everest several years ago. Survivors have offered many competing explanations for this tragedy. While they have focused on the tactical blunders, this research examines the underlying cognitive, interpersonal, and systemic forces that played a role in the incident. This conceptual analysis suggests that cognitive biases, team beliefs about interpersonal risk taking, and system complexity interacted to create a fatal disaster. Incredible achievement and great tragedy unfolded on the treacherous slopes of Everest on May 10, 1996. TVventy-three people reached the summit along the South Col route in Nepal on that day, including Rob Hall and Scott Fischer, two of the world's most skilled and experienced high-altitude climbers. Unfortunately, Hall, Fischer, and three members of their expeditions died as a storm enveloped the mountain during their descent. Others barely escaped with their lives after many hours wandering in the dark while braving subzero temperatures. Hall, the leader of the Adventure Consultants expedition, had established an impressive track record of Everest ascents, guiding thirty-nine climbers to the summit over the previous six years....
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...Mt. Everest Case Study Review Jackie Cheng, J.P. McIntosh, Josephine Richardson, Stephen Winfree Harding University Abstract The 1996 Mont Everest tragedy, no doubt-ably, has marked terror in the lives of the survivors and climbers alike. The analyses do a fantastic job of sifting through the different situations that the climbers came across on the mountain and the possible reasons for the outcomes of each situation. In retrospect, effective and ineffective leadership skills are displayed in various situations, prudent verses imprudent decisions are targeted, the trust and faith in each climber, and in oneself, is identified and the planning and timing of the hike is examined. Overall, each situation has been analyzed from different angles and suggested decisions have been implemented to help the reader in collecting a better understanding of why this climb ended up becoming so disastrous. Introduction The journey to Mount Everest was a tragedy and a sorrowful one at that. A journey that was expectant on great victory turned to a grave catastrophe. A reflection of what happened nearly two decades ago reveals likely flaws taken at the time. Rob Hall and Scott Fischer were the leaders of two of the largest commercial expeditions on Everest in the spring of 1996. In the years leading up to the expedition, the climbing seasons had been tame and had drawn much less experienced...
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...TENERIFE AND MT EVEREST PAPER First and foremost, I would like to discuss Mount Everest regarding the individual level decision-making. The Mount Everest disaster happened due to poor decision, poor judgment, and no reinforcement of the rules regarding how everyone must descend from the Summit by 2:00pm. In addition, the two lead individuals of the expedition, Rob Hall and Scott Fischer were very confident in their ability to bring their clients to the summit. During this adventure, early on, there were obvious issues and signs, such as health issues amongst clients, warning signs of possible bad weather conditions during hike to summit, which they ignored. Moreover, these signs and interruptions lead everyone to believe that there was a possibility, that they would not make a safe return during their descend from the summit. My main concern about this venture was how they both were responsible for everyone getting on top of the summit and failed at taking heed to the warning signs at based camp. Although Hall and Fischer hired all types of individuals they still needed to find out to make sure that everyone that was on this venture was capable to go up to the summit and in good health. In the end both Hall and Fisher lost their lives helping others and still left their clients to survive on their own. Clients that were upon this expedition had concerns but his only concern that he would possibly have to save somebody else during his hike to the summit. They both...
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...tallest manmade structure, Mount Everest looms over the rest of the world with the spectacular height of 29,029 feet. Imagine how amazing it feels to stand on the summit of this mountain, the highest elevation on Earth that any human can climb to, peering over the rest of the beautiful world. The author of Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster, Jon Krakauer, experiences this, but he has determined that it is by far the worst incident of his entire life. Krakauer ascends the mountain with well-respected and world-famous mountaineer Rob Hall’s team. Several of the people on Hall’s team, including Krakauer, successfully reach the summit, but descending proves...
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...KALU ANYA TECH 4850-SEMINAR IN ADMINISTRATIVE AND TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT DR. CHRISTIE BURTON 9/16/2013 CASE STUDIES: MOUNT EVEREST BY MICHAEL A. ROBERTO AND GINA M. CARIOGGIA Indeed it was an awesome tragedy that the world saw in the curvaceous terrain of Mount Everest in May of 1996. This tragedy claimed the lives of 15 mountaineering adventurers, while ninety-eight men and women who embarked on this venture achieved a remarkable fit of reaching the summit. Among these incredible men and women were Rob Hall and Scott Fischer known to be the world’s renowned high-altitude climbers. Unfortunately, Hall and Fischer with three others were among the dead. Putting Mount Everest in historical, it should be noted that it is the tallest mountain in the world. Mount Everest is stands at 29,035.4 feet above the sea level. This claim was made by Radhanath Sikhdar in 1852. The range of the mountain is bordered between Nepal and Tibet. The Nepali people call the mountain Sagarmatha, meaning the goddess of the sky, and the Tibetans call it Chomolungma, signifying the mother goddess of the universe. It was Sir Andrew Waugh who renamed the mountain; Mount Everest in recognition of his predecessor, Sir George Everest was the first British Surveyor General of India. In 1922, George Mallory and his British team were the first to venture out on expedition of the mountain. Mallory and his team’s effort to reach the summit proved abortive. In 1924, in a desperate attempt for the summit again...
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...After understanding and analyzing the tragedy of Mount Everest , May 1996 that took lives of eight climbers during summit attempts, we can conclude that the tragedy may occur due to several root causes whether it is by nature or human error. The major factor that leads to this tragedy is that all the climbers are lack of team work and communication. Even though they are in the same expedition but they have their own individual’s goal, eager to reach at the summit. For example, Jon Krakauer one of the clients of Adventure Consultant said that he felt disconnected from the climbers around him, they were a team in name only. Supposedly, during the acclimatization exercises, the climbers should take time to get to know each other, learn their responsibilities as a team build their confidence and trust to their teammates, instead they were doubting each other whether they could rely own their team member during difficult times. That also might cause this tragedy, which is lack of trust towards team member. One of the potential causes of the tragedy was overconfidence. Overconfidence occurs when leaders believe that their experience, abilities, skill, or maybe even luck, will allow them to overcome any challenge they face. Research has shown that such overconfidence can lead to poor decision making as leaders substitute their own personal skill for careful analysis of the situation and planning. Hall, in particular, may have been prone to overconfidence. He had reached the summit...
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...In the text, Beck Weathers is described as having love and passion towards Mt Everest and climbing in general. Many people wonder why someone would to do something that has an average chance of survival of 1:4 – one death for every 4 people that summit. In Beck Weathers case like many other climbers it was his obsession to conquer her, “her” because in the text Into Thin Air, the mountain is a very important character and is portrayed as a volatile female. Jon Krakauer says in the book “Beck seems to lack in skill, but he makes up for it with sheer determination”. I cannot understand this’ drive beyond logic to conquer’ either but I think it’s something that only those who want to have attempted to or have summited Everest before (and lived to tell the tale) can understand. Mt Everest is supposedly not a very challenging climb and doesn’t allow climbers to show their skills, but It is stereotyped that it’s what “real” climbers should do. Being on top of the world is big deal for some people and we need to respect their dreams just as they do ours.// Beck Weathers first encountered his own problems in Mt Everest’s “Death Zone” when the altitude (close to 29,000 feet at this stage) started to affect his surgically repaired eyes. It only got worse for Beck from this point, he got caught in the storm along with many of his fellow climbers. The storm was not for the mountain to “pick it’s victims” but to test them to their mental and physical limits. Five people that were...
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...Jon Krakauer records in detail his experiences of adventure and tragedy on Mount Everest in this journal-like novel. A successful voyage summiting to the top of Mount Everest was completely omitted when the team of climbers had a disastrous journey back down the Mountain. By the time Krakauer made it back down, 12 of his teammates had died and his life was changed. Originally, this novel came about when a magazine wanted krakauer to climb to base camp of the mountain and document competition and growing commercialism of Mountain climbing. However, Krakauer went above and beyond when he decided to trek to the top of Mount Everest. After quitting the mountain climbing world to raise a family, Krakauer accepted the magazines request and bravely packed his bags to take the risk to the top of Mount Everest. It would have been the tallest mountain he has ever attempted to climb....
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...Human Error and a Mountain’s Fury is a bad combination When you decide to take on the extremely dangerous journey of climbing Mount Everest, you need to take every precaution to be as safe as possible. Perhaps the most important precaution is to stick to your designated plan or listen to your professional guide. No matter what the weather conditions may have been, human error, including lapses of judgment and simple physical mistakes were the cause of eight people dying up on the summit on that fateful day of May 10th 1996. Of the various mistakes made on the Summit, the most obvious mistake would be that the guides, Rob Hall and Scott Fischer, did not make their clients turn around at the designated time. The last client reached the summit at 4:00 P.M.; this was two hours after the latest turn around time Hall had preached about the month prior. Fischer had passed a few of his clients on his way down the mountain after 3:40 P.M. and still allowed them to continue to climb the summit. Hall waited at the top of the summit for Doug Hansen far past the turn around time to make sure he made it to the top. Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air, stated that Doug Hansen…” had been talked into returning this year by Hall, who felt sorry that Hansen had been denied the summit and had significantly discounted Hansen’s fee to entice him to give it another try.” (72) Rob Hall’s guilt regarding Hansen’s previous attempt and failure of the summit could account for his lapse of judgment...
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...have spent prior to their decision. This is known as the Sunk Cost Effect. According to Arkes and Blumer (1985), the sunk cost effect is “manifested in a greater tendency to continue an endeavour once an investment in money, effort, or time has been made” and this behaviour is based off of the “desire not to appear wasteful”. Both Hall and Fischer made decisions while falling victim to the sunk cost fallacy. Even though there was a defined time in which the team must turn around and start their descent, both leaders chose to ignore their own rules and continue their ascent well beyond their previously determined turnaround time. Hall was aware of the sunk cost effect and how it could alter good decisions, and pointed this out in the Everest case when he commented on Göran Kropp’s, a young Swedish solo climber, decision to descend. To turn around that close to the summit… That showed incredibly good judgement on young Göran’s part. I’m impressed – considerably more impressed, actually, than if he’d continued climbing and made it to the top… With enough determination, any bloody idiot can get up this hill. The trick is to get back down alive. (p.9, para 4) Hall knew how hard of a decision Kropp had to make, considering how much time, money, and effort he had most likely put in, as well as considering that he was only an hour away from the summit. During the climb to the summit, four clients decided to turn around before reaching the summit. These four clients chose...
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...Mt. Everest Simulation- Personal Reflection Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction to Mount Everest team and Leadership simulation 2 2.0 Our Team Process Efficacy 3 2.1 The role of the leader 3 2.2 Psychological Safety 5 2.3 Group Thinking 7 3.0 Conclusions 8 4.0 Reference 9 1.0 Introduction to Mount Everest team and Leadership simulation Climbing Mount Everest is a dangerous undertaking, a Herculean task fraught with difficulties, danger, complexities and volatile weather conditions. Disaster can strike without warning, leaving the most competent and experienced professional high altitude mountain climber gasping for breath, and desperately fighting to stay alive. Death is not uncommon to mountaineers who ascend Mt. Everest, a simple mistake, faulty judgments, miscommunication, wrong decisions or complacency can lead to disastrous consequences. Indeed, climbing Mt. Everest cannot be accomplished alone, individuals need to work together as a team, cooperate and collaborate with one another, and rely on one another's capabilities to ascend the mountain summit successfully. Everest leadership and team multimedia simulation is an attempt to help the participants experience and understand team dynamics and leadership. It requires participants to work as a unit, a cohesive entity, collaborating and communicating essential information in order to make effective decisions that will benefit individuals and the group in achieving their goals. The interactive...
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...Management Excellence Toolkit-Part 4: Improve Your Estimating and Forecasting Effectiveness March 16, 2011 by Art Petty Leave a Comment 27 Note from Art: Your decisions define you as a leader and a manager, yet we spend very little time in our busy lives finding ways to improve our abilities in this area. This Management Excellence Toolkit Series will help you recognize the challenges and pitfalls of individual and group decision-making and offer ideas on improving performance for you and your co-workers. Part 1 of this series emphasized the importance of developing, updating and referencing a Decision Journal. Part 2, focused on understanding how we make decisions and how various traps and biases often derail us. In Part 3, we tackled the power and importance of framing situations properly to improve your odds of success. Part 4 focuses on improving estimating and forecasting accuracy by strengthening management and leadership practices. Let’s kick this one off with the conclusion: poor management and leadership practices make a tough job tougher by introducing pressures and biases that directly impact estimating and forecasting activities. If these environmentally imposed biases weren’t enough, human nature gets a vote as well. Studies in the field of decision-making have shown, “we are systematically over-confident in our own abilities.” Consider the unscientific annual BusinessWeek poll results: “90% of managers believe they are in the top 10% of all performers...
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...Everest Case Analysis Reflections on the Literature William A. Dinger Lipscomb University Author Note This paper was prepared for Leadership and Organizational Behavior, taught by Professor Malcom Howell (Author Email: adinger@gmail.com or wadinger@mail.lipscomb.edu ) Abstract To prepare, lead, or be lead, and complete a major expedition such as climbing Mount Everest is a significant undertaking. Leadership is critical in these endeavors. As is the case with businesses focused on a specific vision, the team must trust the leaders to make the best decision for the group, which sometimes means telling a client No. Pride, arrogance, and ambition can potentially be more barriers to success than someone might realize. Qualities such as ambition and pride can be appealing at first glance, but neither of those qualities served the expedition leaders in this case study. This paper will have comparisons of the events on Everest. Showing how the leaders might have handled things differently with only a few minute changes to their leadership style. There will be prescribed questions answered, then compared to my personal business experiences, explaining how potentially the loss of 15 lives on that fatal expedition could have been avoided. Everest Case Analysis Reflections on the Literature Two, well skilled, guides took a group of less experienced climbers than themselves on an expedition to climb Mount Everest. Fifteen of the thirty seven people climbing on that expedition perished...
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...Debunking the Goal Setting Theory Presented to Trudy Dunson, Instructor MGMT 2125, Performance Management By Andrea Smith 10/13/2014 Often times in the business world, organizations become so fixated on the goals they set, that when they begin to go wrong, an organization will invest more into that goal instead of looking for a different path. Oliver Burkeman’s book, “The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking” devotes a whole chapter to the importance or lack thereof of setting goals. In his book, he tells a story of Chris Kayes who was on the foothills of Mt. Everest at the same time the tragedy that took the lives of eight climbers depicted in the book, “In Thin Air.” Kayes observed even through this tragedy, that the climbers did everything correct based on the goal setting theory; they had a clear goal and worked to achieve it above all else however the results were devastating still. In this example, the climbers ignored the evidence that told them that they should turn away from their goal an instead invested more time and energy which led to their deaths. According to Locke and Latham (2006) as long as a person is committed to their goal and does not have any other conflicting goals, there is a positive relationship between the goal and performance. Unfortunately though, goal setting has been prescribed and not monitored. Therefore, like all prescription abuse, organizations fail to recognize the harm that goals can caused due to creating...
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