The novel Into Thin Air is about Jon Krakauer, who works for a magazine, and upon his own request is sent to Mount Everest to climb the mountain and write a story about his experience. He is very anxious to get to the summit because it has been a dream of his since childhood, and he feels that now it is finally within reach. When he meets the other members of his group he is a little unsure, knowing that when he is on the mountain he will have to trust them, and that this is the first time he has ever met any of them. Throughout his journey he goes through many difficult situations and suffers from varying forms of altitude sickness. On the mountain he is confronted with knowing the very real possibility that he will not make it down the mountain, reinforced when he stumbles upon a corpse lying on the side of the trail more than once. He is frightened by the fact that he becomes accustomed to the sight, and narrowly escapes the misfortune of many of the people from his group and the others on the mountain. The Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster has attempted to explain how events get so out of control. Several explanations compete: human error, weather, and all the dangers inherent in human beings pitting themselves against the world's most forbidding peak.
The Everest case advocates that managers need to connect in a balancing act with regard to confidence, dissent, and commitment within their organizations. First, executives must strike a balance between overconfidence on the one hand and insufficient confidence on the other. Managers must act decisively when faced with challenges, and they must inspire others to do so as well. A lack of confidence can enhance anticipatory regret, or the anxiety that individuals often experience prior to making a decision. High levels of anticipatory regret can lead to indecision and costly delays. This anxiety can be particularly problematic for executives in fast-moving industries.
