McCoy B H
Harv Bus Rev. 1997 May-Jun;75(3):54-6, 58-9, 62-4; discussion 60.
When does a group have responsibility for the well-being of an individual? And what are the differences between the ethics of the individual and the ethics of the corporation? Those are the questions Bowen McCoy wanted readers to explore in this HBR Classic, first published in September-October 1983. In 1982, McCoy spent several months hiking through Nepal. Midway through the difficult trek, as he and several others were preparing to attain the highest point of their climb, they encountered the body of an Indian holy man, or sadhu. Wearing little clothing and shivering in the bitter cold, he was barely alive. McCoy and the other travelers-who included individuals from Japan, New Zealand, and Switzerland, as well as local Nepali guides and porters-immediately wrapped him in warm clothing and gave him food and drink. A few members of the group broke off to help move the sadhu down toward a village two days' journey away, but they soon left him in order to continue their way up the slope. What happened to the sadhu? In his retrospective commentary, McCoy notes that he never learned the answer to that question. Instead, the sadhu's story only raises more questions. On the Himalayan slope, a collection of individuals was unprepared for a sudden dilemma. They all "did their bit," but the group was not organized enough to take ultimate responsibility for a life. How, asks McCoy in a broader context, do we prepare our organizations and institutions so they will respond appropriately to ethical crises?
一个群体何时对个体的福祉负有责任？个体道德与企业道德之间又有哪些差异？这些就是鲍恩·麦考伊希望读者在这篇首次发表于1983年9 - 10月的《哈佛商业评论》经典文章中进行探讨的问题。1982年，麦考伊花了几个月时间徒步穿越尼泊尔。在艰苦跋涉的中途，当他和其他几人准备攀登到最高点时，他们遇到了一位印度苦行僧的尸体。他几乎没穿什么衣服，在刺骨的寒风中瑟瑟发抖，生命垂危。麦考伊和其他旅行者——包括来自日本、新西兰和瑞士的人，以及当地的尼泊尔向导和搬运工——立即用暖和的衣服把他裹起来，并给他食物和饮料。队伍中的几个人停下来帮忙把苦行僧送到两天路程外的一个村庄，但很快他们就把他留下，继续往山上走。那个苦行僧后来怎么样了？在他的回顾性评论中，麦考伊指出他从未得到这个问题的答案。相反，苦行僧的故事只是引发了更多问题。在喜马拉雅山坡上，一群人对突如其来的困境毫无准备。他们都“尽了自己的一份力”，但这个群体缺乏足够的组织性来为一条生命承担最终责任。麦考伊在更广泛的背景下问道，我们该如何让我们的组织和机构做好准备，以便它们能对道德危机做出恰当反应？
