S K Chakraborty (1987), in his book* Managerial effectiveness and Quality
of work life *provides an entirely new perception to the concept of
managerial effectiveness. He emphasizes on the need of the management to
place increased efforts towards improving the values, principles and
overall wisdom of the modern day manager. Talking of a paradigm shift from
the concept of knowledge worker to a newer notion of wisdom worker, the
author has addressed the key issues of management like leadership,
motivation, teamwork and decision making by performing a comparative
analysis of their western and Indian concepts. He has propounded the S-R-T
model of *guna* dynamics and has prescribed various exercises to improve
levels of *Sattvic guna *for a better mind. The author further emphasizes
that educating organizations on the *Doctrine of Karma *will help in
preventing unethical decision making and behaviour in organizations.
Swami Jitatmananda, in his talk on* Indian Ethos in Management, Rajkot:
Ramakrishna mission (1992) *explains that Indians knew the secret of
management very well as they had already experienced two great facts of
life. The first truth was that every human had immeasurable power, ability,
vigour and knowledge. The second truth was that the whole universe is
interrelated and that the only law of life was service to others. He
further states that if we work for the good of others then peace and bliss
shall automatically be ours. According to the *Atharvaveda,* an achiever is
one who is not tempted by monetary pleasures of the world. American and
Japanese economies tried to raise their nations with more money and profit.
This ultimately resulted in loss of social fabric further leading to moral
and psychological degradation and loss in purpose of life. He concludes by
saying that India which has genetically intelligent people and is home to
divine cultures had vigorously pursued American and Japanese ethos for a
long time. Now it is India’s turn to become the next destination from where
other nations can derive lessons in management from Indian ethos.
Swami Bodhananda (1994) in his book titled *Gita and the Management
*explains that the term happiness is a spiritual value and is not dependent
on material conditions. According to him, self-control, restraint,
self-abidance, toleration, and selfless work make one happy. It is this
happiness which promotes material prosperity, leading to inner harmony and
creative living. The author thus sees no contradiction in the fact of a
spiritual text being related to the economic sphere of life, especially
since *Artha* has been mentioned as one of the four legitimate aspirations
of the human being. He condemns both religious and cultural fundamentalism
and suggests that in an increasingly global and competitive world market,
it is imperative for us to perform an analysis of our own strengths and
weaknesses. He warns us of not reiterating the mistakes of others and
inspires us to interact more with others. The author suggests a new synergy
of giving wholeheartedly and taking with pride. Swami Bodhananda
emphatically addresses entrepreneurs and managers by stating that as
leaders of a deep and great culture like India they should respond to the
future creatively.
Swami Someswarananda (1996) in his book* Indian wisdom for
management *explores the unique blending of achievement leading to a stress
free life that is offered through the concept of Indian Ethos. He believes
that through Indian Ethos in Management, we can have an appropriate
management style in India as it helps ordinary people to produce
extraordinary results rather than getting work done through others. The
author emphasizes that before setting a company’s objective, it must
research social objectives or problems of the society and then embed its
objective within that. He stresses the importance of *sukshma* (subjective)
factors like the quality of the mind which is more important than *sthula*
(objective) factors like data. Thus, data for decisions may be objective,
but the decision can be subjective. The author states that industries
should go in for service ideals instead of being competitive which will
help them in making more profits in the long run and further, their balance
sheet must be more people oriented than profit oriented. According to the
author, managerial training should be provided through a holistic view
point which should then be followed by a follow-up programme for further
reinforcement of the participants.
S*ubhash Sharma (1999) in his article the Corporate Gita states that The
Bhagavad Gita has gained prominent attention amongst scholars, management
practitioners and social scientists because of its relevance of managing
the self not just at an individual level but also for the psycho-spiritual
environment at the workplace by offering precious lessons for corporates on
areas like leadership, decision making. He explains the model of a
'sacro-civic' or **Loka Sangraha **society wherein the four main ideas of
enlightened collective interest, mutuality and interdependence, positive
action through **nishkam karma** and enlightened leadership have been drawn
upon through careful understanding of select texts in of the Gita. *Subhash
Sharma (2003) in his article *Western enlightenment and Eastern awakening:
Towards a new symbiosis *discusses the various pitfalls of enlightenment
and scientific temperament rooted in Western history in the form of
domination over other cultures, countries and people, environment
degradation and male dominant world views. A new intellectual movement
aimed at correcting the negative impact of the enlightenment project of the
Western world has manifested in the form of Eastern spirituality and
religions. The homo Faber man in the enlightenment project is busy
resolving one conflict or the other as there is no escaping any conflict.
The home sober man on the other hand demonstrates his nonviolent or
conflict dissolution method of resolving conflict. The author has spelled
out the new emerging paradigm known as the *Wisdom equation *which includes
reasoning and intuition. These managers who are willing to see the world
from a different perspective are now known as corporate rishis and can lead
the world towards holistic development. The future will now see a
convergence of religions, science and spirituality metaphorically known as
the nirvana point. The author has beautifully provided a metaphor of
Western windows and eastern doors which means opening the windows to
western enlightenment and the doors to eastern awakening.
G.Surya Prakash Rao(2010) in his research thesis *Principles of
Srimad Bhagavad Gita as tools of management *has studied the relevance of
five major principles of the Gita with five crucial principles of
management i.e. Time management, conflict resolution, leadership,
transactional analysis and circle of influence and based on analysis has
determined that there is noteworthy correlation among the five Gita
principles of inner peace, steady mind, focus on means, mode of goodness
and surrender taken from different chapters of the Gita. Based on the
results of the analysis carried on the five principles of Gita and the five
managerial attributes, the author has further developed the Gita-Management
model which reveals that by believing and practicing the five concerned
principles of the Gita, leaders/managers can excel in their leadership,
conflict resolution and circle of influence.
*Mind is very restless, forceful and strong, O Krishna, it is more
difficult to control the mind than to control the wind. ~ Arjuna to Sri
Krishna ( Extracts from the books) **Management guidelines from the
Bhagavad Gita*There is an important distinction between effectiveness and
efficiency in managing.
Effectiveness is doing the right things.
Efficiency is doing things right.
The general principles of effective management can be applied in every
field, the differences being more in application than in principle. The
Manager's functions can be summed up as:
Forming a vision.
Planning the strategy to realize the vision.
Cultivating the art of leadership.
Establishing institutional excellence.
Building an innovative organization.
Developing human resources.
Building teams and teamwork.
Delegation, motivation, and communication.
Reviewing performance and taking corrective steps when called for.
Thus, management is a process of aligning people and getting them committed
to work for a common goal to the maximum social benefit - in search of
excellence. The critical question in all managers' minds is how to be
effective in their job. The answer to this fundamental question is found in
the *Bhagavad Gita*, which repeatedly proclaims that "you must try to
manage yourself." The reason is that unless a manager reaches a level of
excellence and effectiveness, he or she will be merely a face in the crowd.
*Old truths in a new context *The *Bhagavad Gita*, written thousands of
years ago, enlightens us on all managerial techniques leading us towards a
harmonious and blissful state of affairs in place of the conflict,
tensions, poor productivity, absence of motivation and so on, common in
most of Indian enterprises today and probably in enterprises in many other
countries. The modern (Western) management concepts of vision, leadership,
motivation, excellence in work, achieving goals, giving work meaning,
decision making and planning, are all discussed in the *Bhagavad Gita*.
There is one major difference. While Western management thought too often
deals with problems at material, external and peripheral levels, the *Bhagavad
Gita* tackles the issues from the grass roots level of human thinking. Once
the basic thinking of man is improved, it will automatically enhance the
quality of his actions and their results. The management philosophy
emanating from the West is based on the allure of materialism and on a
perennial thirst for profit, irrespective of the quality of the means
adopted to achieve that goal. This phenomenon has its source in the
abundant wealth of the West and so 'management by materialism' has caught
the fancy of all the countries the world over, India being no exception to
this trend. My country, India, has been in the forefront in importing these
ideas mainly because of its centuries old indoctrination by colonial
rulers, which has inculcated in us a feeling that anything Western is good
and anything Indian, is inferior. The result is that, while huge funds have
been invested in building temples of modem management education, no
perceptible changes are visible in the improvement of the general quality
of life - although the standard of living of a few has gone up. The same
old struggles in almost all sectors of the economy: criminalization of
institutions, social violence, exploitation and other vices are seen deep
in the body politic.
*The source of the problem *The reasons for this sorry state of
affairs are not far to seek. The Western idea of management centers on
making the worker (and the manager) more efficient and more productive.
Companies offer workers more to work more, produce more, sell more and to
stick to the organization without looking for alternatives. The sole aim of
extracting better and more work from the worker is to improve the
bottom-line of the enterprise. The worker has become a hirable commodity,
which can be used, replaced and discarded at will. Western management
philosophy may have created prosperity for some people some of the time at
least - but it has failed in the aim of ensuring betterment of individual
life and social welfare. It has remained by and large a soulless edifice
and an oasis of plenty for a few in the midst of poor quality of life for
many. Hence, there is an urgent need to re-examine prevailing management
disciplines - their objectives, scope and content. Management should be
redefined to underline the development of the worker as a person, as a
human being, and not as a mere wage-earner. With this changed perspective,
management can become an instrument in the process of social, and indeed
national, development. Now let us re-examine some of the modern management
concepts in the light of the*Bhagavad Gita* which is a primer of
management-by-values.
*Utilization of available resources *The first lesson of management
science is to choose wisely and utilize scarce resources optimally. During
the curtain raiser before the Mahabharata War, Duryodhana chose Sri
Krishna's large army for his help while Arjuna selected Sri Krishna's
wisdom for his support. This episode gives us a clue as to the nature of
the effective manager - the former chose numbers, the latter, wisdom.
*Work commitment *A popular verse of the *Gita* advises "detachment"
from the fruits or results of actions performed in the course of one's
duty. Being dedicated to work has to mean "working for the sake of work,
generating excellence for its own sake." If we are always calculating the
date of promotion or the rate of commission before putting in our efforts,
then such work is not detached. It is not "generating excellence for its
own sake" but working only for the extrinsic reward that may (or may not)
result. Working only with an eye to the anticipated benefits, means that
the quality of performance of the current job or duty suffers - through
mental agitation of anxiety for the future. In fact, the way the world
works means that events do not always respond positively to our
calculations and hence expected fruits may not always be forthcoming. So,
the *Gita* tells us not to mortgage present commitment to an uncertain
future. Some people might argue that not seeking the business result of
work and actions, makes one unaccountable. In fact, the *Bhagavad Gita* is
full of advice on the theory of cause and effect, making the doer
responsible for the consequences of his deeds. While advising detachment
from the avarice of selfish gains in discharging one's accepted duty, the
*Gita* does not absolve anybody of the consequences arising from discharge
of his or her responsibilities. Thus the best means of effective
performance management is the work itself. Attaining this state of mind
(called "*nishkama karma*") is the right attitude to work because it
prevents the ego, the mind, from dissipation of attention through
speculation on future gains or losses.
*Motivation self and self-transcendence *It has been presumed for
many years that satisfying lower order needs of workers - adequate food,
clothing and shelter, etc. are key factors in motivation. However, it is a
common experience that the dissatisfaction of the clerk and of the Director
is identical - only their scales and composition vary. It should be true
that once the lower-order needs are more than satisfied, the Director
should have little problem in optimizing his contribution to the
organization and society. But more often than not, it does not happen like
that. ("*The eagle soars high but keeps its eyes firmly fixed on the dead
animal below*.") On the contrary, a lowly paid schoolteacher, or a
self-employed artisan, may well demonstrate higher levels of
self-actualization despite poorer satisfaction of their lower-order needs. This
situation is explained by the theory of self-transcendence propounded in
the *Gita*. Self-transcendence involves renouncing egoism, putting others
before oneself, emphasizing teamwork, dignity, co-operation, harmony and
trust and indeed potentially sacrificing lower needs for higher goals, the
opposite of MASLOW PRINCIPLES. "*Work must be done with detachment*." It
is the ego that spoils work and the ego is the centerpiece of most theories
of motivation. We need not merely a theory of motivation but a theory of
inspiration. The Great Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941, known
as "Gurudev") says working for love is freedom in action. A concept which
is described as "disinterested work" in the *Gita* where Sri Krishna says, "*He
who shares the wealth generated only after serving the people, through work
done as a sacrifice for them, is freed from all sins. On the contrary those
who earn wealth only for themselves, eat sins that lead to frustration and
failure*." Disinterested work finds expression in devotion, surrender and
equipoise. The former two are psychological while the third is
determination to keep the mind free of the dualistic (usually taken to mean
"materialistic") pulls of daily experiences. Detached involvement in work
is the key to mental equanimity or the state of "*nirdwanda*." This
attitude leads to a stage where the worker begins to feel the presence of
the Supreme Intelligence guiding the embodied individual intelligence. Such
de-personified intelligence is best suited for those who sincerely believe
in the supremacy of organizational goals as compared to narrow personal
success and achievement.
*Work culture *An effective work culture is about vigorous and arduous
efforts in pursuit of given or chosen tasks. Sri Krishna elaborates on two
types of work culture "*daivi sampat*" or divine work culture and "*asuri
sampat*" or demonic work culture.
Daivi work culture - involves fearlessness, purity, self-control,
sacrifice, straightforwardness, self-denial, calmness, absence of
fault-finding, absence of greed, gentleness, modesty, absence of envy and
pride.
Asuri work culture - involves egoism, delusion, personal desires, improper
performance, work not oriented towards service.
*Mere work ethic is not enough. The hardened criminal exhibits an excellent
work ethic. What is needed is a work ethic conditioned by ethics in work.*
It is in this light that the counsel, "*yogah karmasu kausalam*" should be
understood. "*Kausalam*" means skill or technique of work which is an
indispensable component of a work ethic. " *Yogah*" is defined in the *Gita*
itself as "*samatvam yogah uchyate*" meaning an unchanging equipoise of
mind (detachment.) Tilak tells us that acting with an equable mind is Yoga.
The principle of reducing our attachment to personal gains from the work
done is the *Gita's* prescription for attaining equanimity. It has been
held that this principle leads to lack of incentive for effort, striking at
the very root of work ethic. To the contrary, concentration on the task for
its own sake leads to the achievement of excellence and indeed to the true
mental happiness of the worker. Thus, while commonplace theories of
motivation may be said to lead us to the bondage or extrinsic rewards, the
*Gita's* principle leads us to the intrinsic rewards of mental, and indeed
moral, satisfaction.
*Work results *The *Gita* further explains the theory of "detachment" from
the extrinsic rewards of work in saying:
If the result of sincere effort is a success, the entire credit should not
be appropriated by the doer alone. If the result of sincere effort is a
failure, then too the entire blame does not accrue to the doer.
*Manager's mental health *Sound mental health is the very goal of any
human activity - more so management. Sound mental health is that state of
mind which can maintain a calm, positive poise, or regain it when
unsettled, in the midst of all the external vagaries of work life and
social existence. Internal consistency and peace are the prerequisites for
a healthy stress-free mind. Some of the impediments to sound mental health
are:
Greed - for power, position, prestige and money.
Envy - regarding others' achievements, success, rewards.
Egotism - about one's own accomplishments.
Suspicion, anger and frustration.
Anguish through comparisons.
The driving forces in today's businesses are speed and competition. There
is a distinct danger that these forces cause erosion of the moral fiber,
that in seeking the end, one permits oneself immoral means - tax evasion,
illegitimate financial holdings, being "economical with the truth",
deliberate oversight in the audit, too-clever financial reporting and so
on. This phenomenon may be called "*yayati syndrome*".In the book, the
*Mahabharata*, we come across a king by the name of Yayati who, in order to
revel in the endless enjoyment of flesh, exchanged his old age with the
youth of his obliging youngest son for a thousand years. However, he found
the pursuit of sensual enjoyment ultimately unsatisfying and came back to
his son pleading with him to take back his youth. This "*yayati syndrome*"
shows the conflict between externally directed acquisitions (extrinsic
motivation) and inner value and conscience (intrinsic motivation.)
*Management needs those who practice what they preach *"Whatever the
excellent and best ones do, the commoners follow," says Sri Krishna in the
*Gita*. The visionary leader must be a missionary, extremely practical,
intensively dynamic and capable of translating dreams into reality. This
dynamism and strength of a true leader flows from an inspired and
spontaneous motivation to help others. "I am the strength of those who are
devoid of personal desire and attachment. O Arjuna, I am the legitimate
desire in those, who are not opposed to righteousness," says Sri Krishna in
the 10th Chapter of the *Gita*.
*In conclusion *The despondency of Arjuna in the first chapter of the *Gita*
is typically human. Sri Krishna, by sheer power of his inspiring words,
changes Arjuna's mind from a state of inertia to one of righteous action,
from the state of what the French philosophers call "anomie" or even
alienation, to a state of self-confidence in the ultimate victory of "
*dharma*" (ethical action.)When Arjuna got over his despondency and stood
ready to fight, Sri Krishna reminded him of the purpose of his new-found
spirit of intense action - not for his own benefit, not for satisfying his
own greed and desire, but for the good of many, with faith in the ultimate
victory of ethics over unethical actions and of truth over untruth.Sri
Krishna's advice with regard to temporary failures is, "No doer of good
ever ends in misery." Every action should produce results. Good action
produces good results and evil begets nothing but evil. Therefore, always
act well and be rewarded. My purport is not to suggest discarding of the
Western model of efficiency, dynamism and striving for excellence but to
tune these ideals to India's holistic attitude of " *lokasangraha*" - for
the welfare of many, for the good of many. There is indeed a moral
dimension to business life. What we do in business is no different, in this
regard, to what we do in our personal lives. The means do not justify the
ends. Pursuit of results for their own sake, is ultimately self-defeating.
KR IRS 13 1 23
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