Mount Everest Case Study Solution —1996 PDF

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it is the solution of one of the most famous case studies of history Mount Everest. this incident happened in 1996 where 2 groups had decided to reach top of the Everest and failed which leads to death of most of the mountaineers....

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Questions: 1. What faulty judgements and choices did they make? https://www.thecasesolutions.com/mount-everest-1996-2-27679   

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Both were very good at climbing & but failed in leading Both had individual expertise and skills for climbing such high altitudes, but didn’t have sufficient knowledge and abilities and grouping, organizing and leading a team Fischer – - Lacks experience - Goal setting/ objectives were incorrect main motive was to compete with Hall so missed out on other imp. aspects - Bad delegation/ Unable to identify the strengths and weaknesses of his team members - Another major decision that went wrong was not putting the right man to lead the team or guide the team upwards - Great Recruitment (Sherpa) but failed to delegate - On the contrary, Fischer ordered the most experienced guide from the Sherpas, who was moving ahead without supplementary oxygen to guide a single team member upwards. He was given a less imp. Task instead of leading a team owing to his experience - Overconfident - climbing the summit without supplementary oxygen as he was overconfident, which eventually led to his death Hall – - Poor decision making – not adhering to 1 pm turnaround time rule -( Sherpas, Taske and Hutchinson strictly followed the rule and survived) - Assisting one single member ,and leaving rest of the team behind (Didn’t set his priorities right and everyone faced the consequences – hurricane) - Leadership style – No room for discussion, non – participative, had no room for difference of opinions (Eg: The hall’s decision of allowing Boukreev to climb the summit with supplemental oxygen forced Bouyrkeev to move downwards quickly, which left the team without a guide in their downward movement. This decision was not questioned by anyone due to the rigidness in the style of Hall, which further led to other disasters)

2. Did the teams function effectively? Why or why not? Both the timeline and schedule made by the team were effective and ideal: Despite both teams having a mix of both

3. Your evaluation of Hall and Fischer as leaders

Overconfidence, when “we think we can forecast uncertain outcomes better than we actually can,” played a key role in this tragedy ([Session 14] [October 29]). Hall and Fischer were both very accomplished mountaineers: Hall had summited Everest four times and guided thirty-nine clients to the top while Fischer climbed to the top of Everest without any supplemental oxygen (Roberto 2). At one point, Hall stated that “something bad” would most likely occur during the climbing season, but he suggested that naturally, it would be his team that would have to “save another team’s ass” (Roberto 2). Hall and Fischer’s past success climbing Everest made them overconfident, clouding their judgements and leading them to believe that perhaps their expertise and experience made them invincible.

The final missteps that led to the tragedy were errors in organizational culture. Hall and Fischer had unintentionally created a hierarchy within their organizations through the different pay grades they assigned to their guides. Since Beidleman, one of Fischer’s guides, received a pay of $10,000 compared to another guide’s $25,000, which “reflected his junior status,” he was too afraid to speak up about turning back past 2:00pm (Roberto 12). A seemingly small detail heavily influenced the guides’ understanding of their status in the expedition, resulting in a lack of open communication between the guides and leaders, which ultimately had grave consequences.

Overconfidence bias. According to Roberto, most leaders experience an overconfidence bias in such widely varying fields as medicine, engineering, academia and business. Overconfidence is fairly normal among high-achieving individuals because possessing strong confidence is necessary to reach such heights of success and expertise. The remarkable achievements of starting and running a multi-million dollar business, or planning and executing one of the most difficult climbs on the planet, requires more confidence than most possess. However, that same overconfidence can circle back around to create distressing problems. Hall had made the summit of Everest four times and led more than 39 people to the summit, leading him to believe that he could not fail. In fact, Hall is recorded by Krakauer expressing his belief that some future team would experience disaster on Everest, but did not believe that disaster would befall his team. He was only worried that his team would be the one called on to rescue the hypothetical

struggling team. Hall’s overconfidence blinded him. He couldn't see that he could be the one who failed. Successful leaders often have an overabundance of confidence, so this cognitive bias is essential to understand. While confidence is crucial for any leader, this should not preclude preparing for possible failures in a comprehensive way. You should never be caught off guard....