may+1996+mount+Everest+disaster

Leadership in extreme contexts: a groupthink analysis of the may 1996 mount Everest disaster

event: Two team attempted to climb Mount Everest on May 1996. one team led by Rob Hall and Scott Fischer. Hall's team had 15 members and Fisher's team had 12 members. Climbing Mount Everest is extremely dangerous and the general rule made by Scott is that if you are not on top by 2pm don't go on climbing. But they decided to go on climbing even though it is around 3:30. Because they delayed their return, only four man from Hall's team survived. So is it group think that caused them to make that mistake?


 * How is this a group think thing?
 * The bad group decision they made was “the turn around time”.
 * It wasn't because of lack of skill because both Hall and Fischer were highly skilled.
 * Although they didn't know each other well, their shared commitment to their task made them a united team.
 * Group think mistake they made
 * Cohesion
 * cohesion based on commitment to a task rather than to the group and its member
 * they trained for long time and paid over $65,000 so they are very committed to the task.
 * Shared commitment to the collective goal of reaching the top
 * however lack interpersonal cohesion and loyalty o one another.
 * Directive Leadership
 * because climbing is very dangerous, they had clear leadership
 * they trusted the leader because he is more skilled
 * can not afford for unskilled people to wonder off
 * self censorship
 * even experienced climber did not speak up even though they should
 * “I tried not to be too pushy. As a consequence, I did not always speak up when maybe I should have.”
 * Provocative Situational Context (stress)
 * overall stress on member
 * death
 * time and money invested
 * uncontrollable danger
 * avalanches
 * icefalls
 * crevasses
 * publicity
 * Stress on The leader Hall
 * Hall didn’t make it to the top last year
 * he promised one guy from his team he would make it to the top this year
 * overestimation of the group
 * the leaders are very famous and skilled on climbing
 * they never thought that they might die
 * Pressure towards uniformity
 * uniformity promotes self-censorship, no one said anything
 * expressing disagreement is very risky in climbing
 * Closed-mindedness
 * they rationalized everything toward reaching the top
 * again, Hall promising his teammate made him even more closed minded
 * hostility against other climbing groups
 * hostility against other climbing groups