Mountain madness everest

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Running head: Mt. Everest Tragedy Case Study

Mt. Everest Tragedy Case Study

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The case study of Mount Everest in 1996 describes a tragic loss of lives as

expedition teams attempted to climb to the summit of Mt. Everest. Although multiple

teams were at Mt. Everest in May 1996, the case study focuses primarily on three

climbing expeditions and their endeavor to reach the summit. Adventure Consultants, led

by Rob Hall, Mountain Madness led by Scott Fischer and the IMAX team, led by David

Breashears. Climbing Mt. Everest is a dangerous and physically demanding experience

under the best conditions for even the most skilled climber, due to the treacherous

landscape, high altitude and dangerous weather conditions. In addition to the physical

conditions and complex logistics, the uniqueness of the individuals undertaking the climb

creates additional challenges. Analysis of the leadership styles and team dynamics

discussed in the case study demonstrate additional challenges faced by the expedition

teams climbing Mt. Everest. The leadership styles and group dynamics negatively

impacted communication among the team members.

In the case study of Mt. Everest, glimpses of the different styles of leadership

provide insight into various styles of leadership and how it impacted the climbing

expeditions. According to McShane and Von Glinow (2013), “leadership is about

influencing, motivating, and enabling others to contribute toward effectiveness and

success of the organizations of which they are members (p. 350). Although there are

competencies that are inherent with leadership such as skills, knowledge, and aptitudes,

the primary leadership competencies are related to “personality, self-concept, drive,

knowledge of the business and cognitive and practical intelligence” (McShane and

Glinow, 2013 p. 353). High levels of extroversion and conscientiousness are strong

predictors of successful leaders. Leaders also tend to have a consistent and confident

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self-evaluation, including high self-esteem, self-efficacy and internal locus of control and

identify themselves as a leader (McShane and Von Glinow, 2013, p. 353). Drive is

described as the leaders‟ inner motivation to pursue goals and to encourage their team to

accomplish team and organizational goals. Leaders tend to have a strong inner

motivation, a high need to achieve and a desire for socialized power in order to achieve

organizational goals. In addition to leaders‟ personal qualities, a leader must have a

strong knowledge of the business. McShane and Von Glinow describe business

knowledge as a “tacit and explicit knowledge about the company‟s environment”, which

enables them to make more intuitive decisions. Cognitive and practical intelligence

enables the leader to process large amounts of complex information in order to solve

problems in their work environment by adapting to various situations or selecting

appropriate environments. Emotional intelligence is also important for a leader in order

to monitor his own emotions as well as others‟ emotions and to use the information to

guide his decisions and actions. Each of the team expedition leaders exhibited strong

leadership competencies but demonstrated different styles as well.

Rob Hall (Adventure Consultants), a thirty-five year old New Zealander, was

described as being the potential “Mayor of Base Camp” due to his commanding presence,

intensity and focus. Although he is described as having a sense of humor, his confidence

and climbing skills served him well in leading past expeditions. Hall had successfully

taken thirty –nine amateur climbers to the summit. According to the text, “could not be

in safer hands and was perceived as the best in the industry.” He was also noted for

being extremely organized in the way he ran his expeditions. His marketing material

describes his company as “the world leader in Everest climbing”.