Learning management the Bhagvad Gita way in Gujarat

Published: Saturday, Apr 30, 2011, 14:51 IST | Updated: Saturday, Apr 30, 2011, 14:51 IST By DNA Correspondent | Place: Gujarat | Agency: DNA

Explaining the connection between Bhagvad Gita and management, Brahmachari Atharvana Chaitanya of Chinmay Mission said, "There are many episodes in Gita which clearly explain pure management concepts. Such topics are, in fact, taught in many top management schools like IIM."

He was speaking at a seminar on 'Management lessons through Bhagvad Gita' in the city on Friday organized by ICFAI.

He further said that many people believe management is a modern concept and Bhagvad Gita is centuries old and find it difficult to relate the two.

He asserted, "It is important to understand that both Gita and management deal and revolve around ways to channelise a person's hidden capacities in the right way."

Citing another situation from the Gita when Gandharva was trying to defeat Duryodhana of Kauravas, Yudhisthira comes and says, 'Though we fight against each other, when any third party interferes and attacks us, we stand together against the outsiders.'

Atharvana stressed, "This is quintessential team work. Management lessons teach that despite internal and personal differences, team work and standing united is important."

Highlighting the role of Lord Krishna in the Mahabharata as the one who guided the Pandavas in utilising resources in the right manner, he termed this 'optimum utilisation of resources'.

Atharvana stressed how Arjun fought with the inner self on the battlefield. He stated, "In the beginning and end of the Gita, Arjun's condition is the same, waiting at the battlefield for the battle to begin.

The changes that take place are within him. Krishna makes him identify his goal, his resources and asks him to work towards attaining the goal. This is what event management is all about, setting a goal and working hard towards achieving it."

Bhagavad Gita: Ideas for Modern ManagementThis entry was posted by sai.susarla l, j F, Y Read the rest of this entry »

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Author: Prof. B Mahadevan, Dean (Administration), Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.

This is based on a talk delivered by Prof. Mahadevan  in a seminar on “Towards a New Paradigm of Business management – Alternative Perspectives from Ancient Indian Wisdom”, held at IIM Bangalore on December 12, 2009.

IntroductionBhagavad Gita is one of the most popular of the ancient texts not only among the Indians but also among the westerners. In fact Robert Oppenheimer who successfully exploded the first atom bomb on July 16, 1945, at Alamogordo, New Mexico was greatly attracted by Gita. Watching this event from a

distance, he was supposedly uttering a phrase from Bhagavad Gita[2]. Bhagavad Gita has inspired many of our national leaders and provided them strength, moral courage and clarity of thought with which they have led the country in its struggle. Arguably, these are important elements of making a good manager or a leader today. Herein lies the motivation for this article. But what is really interesting is that these ideas are available not only in the Bhagavad Gita but also in the ten Upanishads and for that matter in several ancient Indian texts.

Before we look at one or two interesting aspects of management from Gita, it is important for us to appreciate the multi-faceted nature of ancient Indian texts. We need to get this aspect abundantly clear so that the real value of the ancient Indian texts is fully understood. Further it also informs us that only if we approach the ancient Indian texts with such a perspective we will be able to gainfully understand its usefulness to solve today’s problems.

Ancient Indian texts – Multi-faceted perspectivesFirst of all we must understand that the Ancient Indian texts could be read with different purposes. For example, a true bhakta of Lord Krishna may want to read Gita as it is a matter of religion to him. He may do a daily paraayana of some of the verses.  Many of us can identify with this role. On the other hand, a student of philosophy or a person with a deep desire to search the inner truth or meaning of “self” or a spiritual seeker may view Gita as a spiritual text. Again some of us may fit into this role. But there is a third aspect to Gita and other such texts, which many of us are not aware of. Many of us perhaps did not also think of such a possibility. This is what I call as “secular” or a “material” perspective. By that we mean a set of ideas that help us conduct our life sensibly more from a day to day, working perspective. This is referred to as secular because in this perspective there is no need to bring in the notion of religion or spirituality.

Therefore all these ancient texts provide three distinctive perspectives.  It all depends on how we want to read it.  Let me look at one or two examples from Gita to understand this point clearly.

Is Gita a Religious text or a Secular text?Let us look at a pair of famous shlokas – famous because it was a title song for the Mahabharata serial.

यदा� यदा� हि� धर्मस्य ग्ला�हि र्भवहि� र्भ�र� । अभ्य�त्था� र्मधर्मस्य �दा�त्र्म� � सृ�जा�म्य�र्म� ॥ 4.7 ॥ परिरत्रा�णा�य सृ�ध$ �� हिव �शा�य च दुष्कृ� ��र्म� । धर्मसृ�स्था�प �र्था�य सृ�र्भव�मिर्म य�गे. य�गे. ॥ 4.8. ॥

For the first time in Bhagavad Gita Krishna manifests himself as God through these two shlokas. In the first three chapters he has been engaging in conversation with Arjuna more from a level of a “cousin”. That is what we implicitly infer from a reading of the Gita. Quintessentially this is the “Avathaara Purusha” dimension brought through this shloka.  At a first reading one can easily detect the religious angle.

Whenever there is a deterioration of dharma the God takes one more incarnation (Avathaara) to uphold the dharma. The incarnation of God, as the next shloka suggests, is to protect the good people, destroy the evil ones and restore Dharma in the society once again. That is how the cardinal principle of incarnation manifests here in terms of the context, motivation and purpose.

This is one way of looking at it.  However, the same set of shlokas could be understood as a profound management concept because that is what you will find in the instructions of many engineering and management schools. Let us understand this perspective with respect to these shlokas.

Stability and long term sustainability of the system happens because there are regenerative points. 

When the system attains disequilibrium and shows signs of being unstable and going out of control measures have to be taken to restore the equilibrium in the system.  This is a classical systems engineering idea according to which there are regenerative points in the system.  If the regenerative points are not there, the system will go unstable.

One can easily relate this to well-known concepts in Economics & Management. The demand – supply equilibrium, pricing decisions in alternative market structures, the way in which organizations continue to root out bad CEOs or Managers over time, the mechanisms to prevent opportunistic behaviours in the long run (and variations of this such as Prisoner’s Dilemma) could all be explained by this basic axiom laid out in this shloka.

Is Gita a Spiritual text or a Secular text?Let us look at one more example.  In chapter 2 of Gita, when Lord Krishna begins his set of arguments to convince Arjuna the need to fight against the Kaurava army, the first idea he brings into focus is the notion of time. What strikes you is that this idea is in stark contrast to modern day pre-occupations with quarter-to-quarter guidance ritual that investment bankers are going after. However that is not the point of our discussion now. Let us look at one of the shlokas from this argument of time and its impact.

व�सृ��सिसृ जा0णा�हि  यर्था� हिव��य  व�हि  गे�ह्णा�हि�  र2ऽपर�णिणा ।

�र्था� शार0र�णिणा हिव��य जा0णा� अन्य�हि सृ�य�हि� व�हि दा.�0 ॥  2.22. ॥

The easy and direct meaning to this shloka runs as follows:

Just as a person discards an old and a torn shirt and wears a new one, the soul (Atma) also discards an old body and acquires a new one. What a simple way to explain a complex idea of a chain of birth and death events! There is a spiritual angle to it. It is a profound spiritual thought here and true seekers of knowledge will revel on this idea and deeply contemplate.

Now we shall look at an alternative perspective of this shloka.

In order to be successful and sustainable organizations need to continuously engage themselves in discarding old ideas (mind set!) & embrace new ones. This is the fundamental building block of innovation and creating competitive advantage.

This shloka echoes and reinforces the recent work by Joseph Schumpeter[3] on creative destruction and innovation followed by a number of other researchers. The most important issue in management of change is one of mind set.  The biggest challenge in organizations is mind set inertia.  You can discard many things but mindset is very difficult to discard. This puts realistic limits to creating better organizations over time.

Another example can be found in a paper titled “May the Whole Earth be Happy: Lokaa Samstaa Sukhino Bhavnatu” written by a Canadian, Stafford Beer in 1994[4] in an Operations Research Journal. In this paper, Beer shows how a shloka in Chapter 3 of Gita (3.27: अ�ङ्�कृ�र-हिवर्म$ढा�त्र्म� कृ���मिर्महि� र्मन्य�.) indeed relates to some of the issues that arise in cybernetics and control theory. He also mentioned several other concepts from the Ancient Indian wisdom in the same paper relating them to certain management principles.

Relevant thoughts for ManagementIf we develop the skill, orientation and attitude to draw upon the repository of knowledge for our day to day living issues (such as Business Management), then we will realize that the world of ancient Indian

wisdom opens up. One may locate a number of direct and relevant thoughts in these texts. Let us look at one or two examples from Gita on the issue of relevant thoughts for today. The following shloka from Gita, chapter 3 is a case in point:

अर्था कृ. प्रय�क्तो2ऽय� प�प� चरहि� प$रुषः< ।

अहि च्छन्नहिप व�ष्णा?य बला�दिदाव हि य2जिजा�< ॥ 3.36.

In this shloka, Arjuna raises a question which is very pertinent to most of us. We have had several occasions in our personal and professional life during which we would have internally asked the same question.

Who is behind all these bad or wrong things that people do? Although I am not interested it appears I am forcibly involved into this.

In fact you ask managers who have erred in their decisions or committed some blunder, you ask fathers who have made blunders of scolding their children or taken wrong decisions about their daughter or son. They will always say something similar to this shloka.  There is this feeling – I have become a victim of a  situation as though somebody is pushing me to do wrong things.  We have gone through this frame of mind in our daily life.  We are going through this frame of mind every now and then in Management. Krishna offers some explanation as to why this is happening in the shlokas that follow.

Gita also offers perspectives on how to manage certain things in life, understand complex things that we go through in simple terms (just as the example of birth and death). It also offers direct ideas and sets us in a state of contemplation. One example will help drive this point.

र्म�त्रा�स्पशास्�� कृDन्�.य शा0�2ष्णासृ�खदु<खदा�< ।

आगेर्म�प�मिय 2ऽहि त्य�< ���स्तिस्��0क्षस्व र्भ�र� ॥ 2.14.

The meaning of the shloka is as follows:

As long as the five senses are active in gathering the signals that come into contact with them, we will experience the world of dualities – hot and cold, peace and sorrow etc. You cannot run away from the world of dualities as they happen continuously and are also impermanent. Learning to handle them is important.

Stress management is a big issue today. Most of the knowledge and help we get from the modern day thinking is to suppress or divert our attention from the issue of stress. They implicitly operate with an assumption that stress will be inevitably generated and the solution lies in doing something about it once we are stressed. “Let us kill it or run away from it by some means after it happens” is the basis for stress management. We do not seem to address why one should get stressed in the first place.

On the other hand, this shloka addresses this issue and truly provides us an idea for “managing” stress. It is all about signal processing.  We have to differentiate between signals and noise.  That is the idea here. We don’t do so because we don’t have the capability of signal processing. That does not mean we can turn off the apparatus and stop receiving the signals. That happens only when we are in a state of coma.  That is not what Lord Krishna is saying.  Gita never recommends running away from problems.  On the other hand it seems to suggest that understanding problems in the right perspective is key to managing them.  That is the greatest management lesson that one can learn. The idea of managing the world of duality (सृर्मत्व� य2गे उच्य�.) has been one of the key messages in the Gita and it has been repeatedly emphasized not only in chapter 2, but also in several other chapters.  This could very well be the cornerstone of developing superior self- and people management skills and leadership traits.

Basic approach to work in GitaManagement is all about doing work, doing it efficiently and ensuring that results follow. Viewed from this perspective, Gita offers counter-intuitive ideas on these issues (see figure for a basic framework depicting this).

The nature of work according to Bhagavad Gita

Work & Its effectiveness as the Core

Often people comment that the central message in Bhagavad Gita is about the notion of karma yoga. Of relevance to management is the notion of karma yoga and its essence in terms of work.  It will be very useful to understand how this issue is laid out in the Gita. First of all Lord Krishna establishes a paradigm that there is nothing called “the state of inaction”.  He clearly says in chapter 3 that there is nothing like akarma (no action or inaction) (3:5 क्स्श्चिLस्Mत्क्षणार्महिप जा��� हि�ष्ठत्यकृर्मकृ� ��).  There is nothing like a state of inaction.  Why did he say that? Because only then we will focus on the issue of how to do work correctly.  It is natural then for us to ask how to do work.  He says enjoy complete degree of freedom (3:9 यज्ञा�र्था�त्कृर्मणा2ऽन्यत्रा ला2कृ2ऽय� कृर्मबन्ध <, 3:31 श्रद्धा�वन्�2ऽ सृ$यन्�< र्म�च्यन्�. �.ऽहिप कृर्मणिर्भ<) and total joy while engaging in work. That is the idea.  While we are in the thick of work can we enjoy? Gita emphatically replies in the affirmative. Krishna goes to the extent of saying that with such a perspective to work, we may realize that even when we do a lot of work, we do not feel like indeed engaging in any work (4:20 कृर्मण्यणिर्भप्रव�त्तो2ऽहिप Uव हिकृक्स्श्चिVचत्कृर2हि� सृ<).

If you think that this is a utopian idea simply ask a mother tending to her child with great love and dedication. She will relate herself to this shloka. If only we could ask some of the greatest social workers and inspiring leaders that this society has produced they might have replied in the affirmative.

This is again in contrast with our understanding of work and its effects on us today. One of the biggest problems that we are facing in our daily life, professional work and personal life is that we don’t seem to enjoy what we are doing.  Swami Ranganathananda mentions that there was no word like boredom in the dictionary about 400 years – 600 years ago[5].  Today the children say “I am bored”.  Young professionals want to adopt the western model of “weekend getaway”. We need weekend getaways if work is perceived as drudgery and an avoidable aspect of our life. Such a perspective can never get the best from work place that modern business management is worried about. What is this boredom?  Why does it happen? Because we don’t enjoy what we are doing, we get bored.

The basic tenet of Gita is antithesis to this idea that work could be drudgery. First understand there is nothing like state of no work. We cannot run away from work as there is nothing called “no work”.

Further if you enjoy complete freedom of doing work result has to follow.  That is the basic line of argument that I see in Gita.  Lord Krishna says that it is possible that you can have complete degree of freedom and enjoy work. This is the basic thread of argument I see in the text which I think is very relevant for management.

Axioms of work

As we have already seen, there is no escaping from work. Therefore, let us understand how the axioms of work have been proposed in Gita. There are four aspects to this, which is very well brought out in this famous shloka in Gita:

कृर्मण्य.व�मिधकृ�रस्�. र्म� फला.षः� कृदा�च ।

र्म� कृर्मफला�.��र्भ$< र्म� �. सृङ्गो2स्त्वकृर्मणिणा ॥ . 2.47.

A direct translation of this shloka is as follows:

You have the right to work but never to the fruits of the action. Further you do not have the right to the root cause of the fruits of action. You also do not have the right to remain in the society without performing any work.

As we notice from the above translation, there are four components of the axiom of work defined in Gita. It is much easier to explain the rationale of the last component. When one is told that he/she has to do the work, he/she does not ask for results or bother about what causes these results, the normal tendency in some cases is to say, “well in that case, I am not interested in doing the work”. The last component takes away that possibility. Since in Gita, the notion of non-work or inaction is not a feasible alternative, the last component makes sense. The most difficult part is the second and the third component. How can someone do the work and yet not have the right for results? This requires some more articulation and understanding of the idea.

Let us see it from the management perspective.  The current day thinking and this are in loggerheads. We are told that we need to work for results. Why is then Lord Krishna advocating the antithesis of this? In order to get this clear, let us trace some side effects of working for results. Many of us with some work experience will be able to relate to these side effects:

Result orientation can make one wary of failures, we may refuse to undertake great activities (modern risk management issue comes into play). Yesterday I read in the paper that an 8th standard student ended her life because she did not clear the exam. What a tragedy and what a side effect that we need to face?

We have a tendency to excessively focus on ends instead of means. This is what most working in Multi-National Companies are busy doing. Modern day managers spend significant time to manager “performance reports” rather than “performance” itself.

In order to be good in managing the performance report, “process orientation” must  give way for “result orientation”

What are results at the end of the day? They are issues of the future about which we spend our time in the present. Therefore, we may tend to escape the dynamics of “present” and go after “future”

The apparent confusion that we have in understanding this shloka is that when we say you have no right to the results, it merely suggests that take off your pre-occupation with results and have a process orientation. Results must follow automatically. Is it not what the total quality management (TQM) philosophy is also arguing about? Further, you may ask, why do we want to take the fixation from results and instead concentrate on the work itself? The simple answer to it is that by doing do it lets you

literally “get lost in work”. When one gets lost into work, the traditional barriers of efficiency and motivation are broken and the individual treads into extraordinary performance born out of inspiration. Perhaps, that is how a Nobel Laureate or a great scientist or a visionary leader would have spent several years of his/her time.

We often say when we do very interesting things in life, “I never knew how time passed” That is a good indication of our ability to practice कृर्मण्य.व�मिधकृ�रस्�. र्म� फला.षः� कृदा�च . This is neither an unknown or impossible idea to mankind. Every day we all practice this when we have deep sleep. We rise from the deep sleep and remark that we had a sound sleep. By that what it means is no matter what sound others made in the vicinity I continued to sleep. Try to sleep with an objective of having a 6 hour sound sleep and work for the result, you will not get sound sleep.  Your mind will work very hard to find out how to ensure 6 hours of deep sleep and in the process you will get tired. Maybe after some time when the analytical and result-oriented mind gets fatigued, you will slip into deep sleep.

The ancient Indian texts such as Bhagavad Gita are profound and are meant to open up the horizon in the minds of the people. Therefore it is hardly surprising that we can draw such alternative ideas and thoughts from such texts. However, in order to benefit from this immensely, in the domain of management, we need to step out of the world of rationality and tread into unknown areas. Perhaps a nearest reference to this idea in modern day is “out of the box” thinking or thinking “without” the box. This in itself is a paradigm shift in perception that we need to make in our own mind.

ConclusionsThere are several other useful ideas in Gita for management. There are specific ideas for management that address issues pertaining to self, self-mastery and self-assessment. There are also specific suggestions on the leadership traits.

Bhagavad Gita and for that matter in several other ancient Indian texts offer a unique value proposition. We can have spiritual progress, we can have material progress too in a very balanced way.  We can have happiness, not only success.  This could be one of the good reasons for us to look at some of these and make our own notes. There is a greater promise and potential for much larger perspectives in ancient Indian wisdom and much greater propensity to draw out of it and apply in a variety of situations.

[1] This is based on a talk delivered by Professor B Mahadevan, Dean (Administration), Indian Institute of Management Bangalore in a seminar on “Towards a New Paradigm of Business management – Alternative Perspectives from Ancient Indian Wisdom”, held at IIM Bangalore on December 12, 2009. mahadev@iimb.ernet.in

[2] http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/ai/aboutopp.htm

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Schumpeter

[4] Beer, S. (1994). “May the Whole Earth be Happy: Lokaasamastaa Sukhino Bhavantu”, Interfaces, Vol. 24, No. 4, 83 – 93.

[5] Swami Ranganthananda, (2000). “The Universal Message of Gita”, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkatta, Vol. 1, pp. 430 – 437.

Explaining the connection between Bhagvad Gita and management, Brahmachari Atharvana Chaitanya of Chinmay Mission said, "There are many episodes in Gita which clearly explain pure management concepts. Such topics are, in fact, taught in many top management schools like IIM."

He was speaking at a seminar on 'Management lessons through Bhagvad Gita' in the city on Friday organized by ICFAI.

He further said that many people believe management is a modern concept and Bhagvad Gita is centuries old and find it difficult to relate the two.

He asserted, "It is important to understand that both Gita and management deal and revolve around ways to channelise a person's hidden capacities in the right way."

Citing another situation from the Gita when Gandharva was trying to defeat Duryodhana of Kauravas, Yudhisthira comes and says, 'Though we fight against each other, when any third party interferes and attacks us, we stand together against the outsiders.'

Atharvana stressed, "This is quintessential team work. Management lessons teach that despite internal and personal differences, team work and standing united is important."

Highlighting the role of Lord Krishna in the Mahabharata as the one who guided the Pandavas in utilising resources in the right manner, he termed this 'optimum utilisation of resources'.

Atharvana stressed how Arjun fought with the inner self on the battlefield. He stated, "In the beginning and end of the Gita, Arjun's condition is the same, waiting at the battlefield for the battle to begin.

The changes that take place are within him. Krishna makes him identify his goal, his resources and asks him to work towards attaining the goal. This is what event management is all about, setting a goal and working hard towards

Bhagavad Gita: Ideas for Modern ManagementThis entry was posted by sai.susarla l, j F, Y Read the rest of this entry »

Print PDF

Author: Prof. B Mahadevan, Dean (Administration), Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.

This is based on a talk delivered by Prof. Mahadevan  in a seminar on “Towards a New Paradigm of Business management – Alternative Perspectives from Ancient Indian Wisdom”, held at IIM Bangalore on December 12, 2009.

IntroductionBhagavad Gita is one of the most popular of the ancient texts not only among the Indians but also among the westerners. In fact Robert Oppenheimer who successfully exploded the first atom bomb on July 16, 1945, at Alamogordo, New Mexico was greatly attracted by Gita. Watching this event from a distance, he was supposedly uttering a phrase from Bhagavad Gita[2]. Bhagavad Gita has inspired many of our national leaders and provided them strength, moral courage and clarity of thought with which they have led the country in its struggle. Arguably, these are important elements of making a good manager or a leader today. Herein lies the motivation for this article. But what is really interesting is that these ideas are available not only in the Bhagavad Gita but also in the ten Upanishads and for that matter in several ancient Indian texts.

Before we look at one or two interesting aspects of management from Gita, it is important for us to appreciate the multi-faceted nature of ancient Indian texts. We need to get this aspect abundantly clear so that the real value of the ancient Indian texts is fully understood. Further it also informs us that only

if we approach the ancient Indian texts with such a perspective we will be able to gainfully understand its usefulness to solve today’s problems.

Ancient Indian texts – Multi-faceted perspectivesFirst of all we must understand that the Ancient Indian texts could be read with different purposes. For example, a true bhakta of Lord Krishna may want to read Gita as it is a matter of religion to him. He may do a daily paraayana of some of the verses.  Many of us can identify with this role. On the other hand, a student of philosophy or a person with a deep desire to search the inner truth or meaning of “self” or a spiritual seeker may view Gita as a spiritual text. Again some of us may fit into this role. But there is a third aspect to Gita and other such texts, which many of us are not aware of. Many of us perhaps did not also think of such a possibility. This is what I call as “secular” or a “material” perspective. By that we mean a set of ideas that help us conduct our life sensibly more from a day to day, working perspective. This is referred to as secular because in this perspective there is no need to bring in the notion of religion or spirituality.

Therefore all these ancient texts provide three distinctive perspectives.  It all depends on how we want to read it.  Let me look at one or two examples from Gita to understand this point clearly.

Is Gita a Religious text or a Secular text?Let us look at a pair of famous shlokas – famous because it was a title song for the Mahabharata serial.

यदा� यदा� हि� धर्मस्य ग्ला�हि र्भवहि� र्भ�र� । अभ्य�त्था� र्मधर्मस्य �दा�त्र्म� � सृ�जा�म्य�र्म� ॥ 4.7 ॥ परिरत्रा�णा�य सृ�ध$ �� हिव �शा�य च दुष्कृ� ��र्म� । धर्मसृ�स्था�प �र्था�य सृ�र्भव�मिर्म य�गे. य�गे. ॥ 4.8. ॥

For the first time in Bhagavad Gita Krishna manifests himself as God through these two shlokas. In the first three chapters he has been engaging in conversation with Arjuna more from a level of a “cousin”. That is what we implicitly infer from a reading of the Gita. Quintessentially this is the “Avathaara Purusha” dimension brought through this shloka.  At a first reading one can easily detect the religious angle.

Whenever there is a deterioration of dharma the God takes one more incarnation (Avathaara) to uphold the dharma. The incarnation of God, as the next shloka suggests, is to protect the good people, destroy the evil ones and restore Dharma in the society once again. That is how the cardinal principle of incarnation manifests here in terms of the context, motivation and purpose.

This is one way of looking at it.  However, the same set of shlokas could be understood as a profound management concept because that is what you will find in the instructions of many engineering and management schools. Let us understand this perspective with respect to these shlokas.

Stability and long term sustainability of the system happens because there are regenerative points.  When the system attains disequilibrium and shows signs of being unstable and going out of control measures have to be taken to restore the equilibrium in the system.  This is a classical systems engineering idea according to which there are regenerative points in the system.  If the regenerative points are not there, the system will go unstable.

One can easily relate this to well-known concepts in Economics & Management. The demand – supply equilibrium, pricing decisions in alternative market structures, the way in which organizations continue to root out bad CEOs or Managers over time, the mechanisms to prevent opportunistic behaviours in the long run (and variations of this such as Prisoner’s Dilemma) could all be explained by this basic axiom laid out in this shloka.

Is Gita a Spiritual text or a Secular text?Let us look at one more example.  In chapter 2 of Gita, when Lord Krishna begins his set of arguments to convince Arjuna the need to fight against the Kaurava army, the first idea he brings into focus is the notion of time. What strikes you is that this idea is in stark contrast to modern day pre-occupations with quarter-to-quarter guidance ritual that investment bankers are going after. However that is not the point of our discussion now. Let us look at one of the shlokas from this argument of time and its impact.

व�सृ��सिसृ जा0णा�हि  यर्था� हिव��य  व�हि  गे�ह्णा�हि�  र2ऽपर�णिणा ।

�र्था� शार0र�णिणा हिव��य जा0णा� अन्य�हि सृ�य�हि� व�हि दा.�0 ॥  2.22. ॥

The easy and direct meaning to this shloka runs as follows:

Just as a person discards an old and a torn shirt and wears a new one, the soul (Atma) also discards an old body and acquires a new one. What a simple way to explain a complex idea of a chain of birth and death events! There is a spiritual angle to it. It is a profound spiritual thought here and true seekers of knowledge will revel on this idea and deeply contemplate.

Now we shall look at an alternative perspective of this shloka.

In order to be successful and sustainable organizations need to continuously engage themselves in discarding old ideas (mind set!) & embrace new ones. This is the fundamental building block of innovation and creating competitive advantage.

This shloka echoes and reinforces the recent work by Joseph Schumpeter[3] on creative destruction and innovation followed by a number of other researchers. The most important issue in management of change is one of mind set.  The biggest challenge in organizations is mind set inertia.  You can discard many things but mindset is very difficult to discard. This puts realistic limits to creating better organizations over time.

Another example can be found in a paper titled “May the Whole Earth be Happy: Lokaa Samstaa Sukhino Bhavnatu” written by a Canadian, Stafford Beer in 1994[4] in an Operations Research Journal. In this paper, Beer shows how a shloka in Chapter 3 of Gita (3.27: अ�ङ्�कृ�र-हिवर्म$ढा�त्र्म� कृ���मिर्महि� र्मन्य�.) indeed relates to some of the issues that arise in cybernetics and control theory. He also mentioned several other concepts from the Ancient Indian wisdom in the same paper relating them to certain management principles.

Relevant thoughts for ManagementIf we develop the skill, orientation and attitude to draw upon the repository of knowledge for our day to day living issues (such as Business Management), then we will realize that the world of ancient Indian wisdom opens up. One may locate a number of direct and relevant thoughts in these texts. Let us look at one or two examples from Gita on the issue of relevant thoughts for today. The following shloka from Gita, chapter 3 is a case in point:

अर्था कृ. प्रय�क्तो2ऽय� प�प� चरहि� प$रुषः< ।

अहि च्छन्नहिप व�ष्णा?य बला�दिदाव हि य2जिजा�< ॥ 3.36.

In this shloka, Arjuna raises a question which is very pertinent to most of us. We have had several occasions in our personal and professional life during which we would have internally asked the same question.

Who is behind all these bad or wrong things that people do? Although I am not interested it appears I am forcibly involved into this.

In fact you ask managers who have erred in their decisions or committed some blunder, you ask fathers who have made blunders of scolding their children or taken wrong decisions about their daughter or son. They will always say something similar to this shloka.  There is this feeling – I have become a victim of a  situation as though somebody is pushing me to do wrong things.  We have gone through this frame of mind in our daily life.  We are going through this frame of mind every now and then in Management. Krishna offers some explanation as to why this is happening in the shlokas that follow.

Gita also offers perspectives on how to manage certain things in life, understand complex things that we go through in simple terms (just as the example of birth and death). It also offers direct ideas and sets us in a state of contemplation. One example will help drive this point.

र्म�त्रा�स्पशास्�� कृDन्�.य शा0�2ष्णासृ�खदु<खदा�< ।

आगेर्म�प�मिय 2ऽहि त्य�< ���स्तिस्��0क्षस्व र्भ�र� ॥ 2.14.

The meaning of the shloka is as follows:

As long as the five senses are active in gathering the signals that come into contact with them, we will experience the world of dualities – hot and cold, peace and sorrow etc. You cannot run away from the world of dualities as they happen continuously and are also impermanent. Learning to handle them is important.

Stress management is a big issue today. Most of the knowledge and help we get from the modern day thinking is to suppress or divert our attention from the issue of stress. They implicitly operate with an assumption that stress will be inevitably generated and the solution lies in doing something about it once we are stressed. “Let us kill it or run away from it by some means after it happens” is the basis for stress management. We do not seem to address why one should get stressed in the first place.

On the other hand, this shloka addresses this issue and truly provides us an idea for “managing” stress. It is all about signal processing.  We have to differentiate between signals and noise.  That is the idea here. We don’t do so because we don’t have the capability of signal processing. That does not mean we can turn off the apparatus and stop receiving the signals. That happens only when we are in a state of coma.  That is not what Lord Krishna is saying.  Gita never recommends running away from problems.  On the other hand it seems to suggest that understanding problems in the right perspective is key to managing them.  That is the greatest management lesson that one can learn. The idea of managing the world of duality (सृर्मत्व� य2गे उच्य�.) has been one of the key messages in the Gita and it has been repeatedly emphasized not only in chapter 2, but also in several other chapters.  This could very well be the cornerstone of developing superior self- and people management skills and leadership traits.

Basic approach to work in GitaManagement is all about doing work, doing it efficiently and ensuring that results follow. Viewed from this perspective, Gita offers counter-intuitive ideas on these issues (see figure for a basic framework depicting this).

The nature of work according to Bhagavad Gita

Work & Its effectiveness as the Core

Often people comment that the central message in Bhagavad Gita is about the notion of karma yoga. Of relevance to management is the notion of karma yoga and its essence in terms of work.  It will be very useful to understand how this issue is laid out in the Gita. First of all Lord Krishna establishes a paradigm that there is nothing called “the state of inaction”.  He clearly says in chapter 3 that there is nothing like akarma (no action or inaction) (3:5 क्स्श्चिLस्Mत्क्षणार्महिप जा��� हि�ष्ठत्यकृर्मकृ� ��).  There is nothing like a state of inaction.  Why did he say that? Because only then we will focus on the issue of how to do work correctly.  It is natural then for us to ask how to do work.  He says enjoy complete degree of freedom (3:9 यज्ञा�र्था�त्कृर्मणा2ऽन्यत्रा ला2कृ2ऽय� कृर्मबन्ध <, 3:31 श्रद्धा�वन्�2ऽ सृ$यन्�< र्म�च्यन्�. �.ऽहिप कृर्मणिर्भ<) and total joy while engaging in work. That is the idea.  While we are in the thick of work can we enjoy? Gita emphatically replies in the affirmative. Krishna goes to the extent of saying that with such a perspective to work, we may realize that even when we do a lot of work, we do not feel like indeed engaging in any work (4:20 कृर्मण्यणिर्भप्रव�त्तो2ऽहिप Uव हिकृक्स्श्चिVचत्कृर2हि� सृ<).

If you think that this is a utopian idea simply ask a mother tending to her child with great love and dedication. She will relate herself to this shloka. If only we could ask some of the greatest social workers and inspiring leaders that this society has produced they might have replied in the affirmative.

This is again in contrast with our understanding of work and its effects on us today. One of the biggest problems that we are facing in our daily life, professional work and personal life is that we don’t seem to enjoy what we are doing.  Swami Ranganathananda mentions that there was no word like boredom in the dictionary about 400 years – 600 years ago[5].  Today the children say “I am bored”.  Young professionals want to adopt the western model of “weekend getaway”. We need weekend getaways if work is perceived as drudgery and an avoidable aspect of our life. Such a perspective can never get the best from work place that modern business management is worried about. What is this boredom?  Why does it happen? Because we don’t enjoy what we are doing, we get bored.

The basic tenet of Gita is antithesis to this idea that work could be drudgery. First understand there is nothing like state of no work. We cannot run away from work as there is nothing called “no work”. Further if you enjoy complete freedom of doing work result has to follow.  That is the basic line of argument that I see in Gita.  Lord Krishna says that it is possible that you can have complete degree of freedom and enjoy work. This is the basic thread of argument I see in the text which I think is very relevant for management.

Axioms of work

As we have already seen, there is no escaping from work. Therefore, let us understand how the axioms of work have been proposed in Gita. There are four aspects to this, which is very well brought out in this famous shloka in Gita:

कृर्मण्य.व�मिधकृ�रस्�. र्म� फला.षः� कृदा�च ।

र्म� कृर्मफला�.��र्भ$< र्म� �. सृङ्गो2स्त्वकृर्मणिणा ॥ . 2.47.

A direct translation of this shloka is as follows:

You have the right to work but never to the fruits of the action. Further you do not have the right to the root cause of the fruits of action. You also do not have the right to remain in the society without performing any work.

As we notice from the above translation, there are four components of the axiom of work defined in Gita. It is much easier to explain the rationale of the last component. When one is told that he/she has to do the work, he/she does not ask for results or bother about what causes these results, the normal tendency in some cases is to say, “well in that case, I am not interested in doing the work”. The last component takes away that possibility. Since in Gita, the notion of non-work or inaction is not a feasible alternative, the last component makes sense. The most difficult part is the second and the third component. How can someone do the work and yet not have the right for results? This requires some more articulation and understanding of the idea.

Let us see it from the management perspective.  The current day thinking and this are in loggerheads. We are told that we need to work for results. Why is then Lord Krishna advocating the antithesis of this? In order to get this clear, let us trace some side effects of working for results. Many of us with some work experience will be able to relate to these side effects:

Result orientation can make one wary of failures, we may refuse to undertake great activities (modern risk management issue comes into play). Yesterday I read in the paper that an 8th standard student ended her life because she did not clear the exam. What a tragedy and what a side effect that we need to face?

We have a tendency to excessively focus on ends instead of means. This is what most working in Multi-National Companies are busy doing. Modern day managers spend significant time to manager “performance reports” rather than “performance” itself.

In order to be good in managing the performance report, “process orientation” must  give way for “result orientation”

What are results at the end of the day? They are issues of the future about which we spend our time in the present. Therefore, we may tend to escape the dynamics of “present” and go after “future”

The apparent confusion that we have in understanding this shloka is that when we say you have no right to the results, it merely suggests that take off your pre-occupation with results and have a process orientation. Results must follow automatically. Is it not what the total quality management (TQM) philosophy is also arguing about? Further, you may ask, why do we want to take the fixation from results and instead concentrate on the work itself? The simple answer to it is that by doing do it lets you literally “get lost in work”. When one gets lost into work, the traditional barriers of efficiency and motivation are broken and the individual treads into extraordinary performance born out of inspiration. Perhaps, that is how a Nobel Laureate or a great scientist or a visionary leader would have spent several years of his/her time.

We often say when we do very interesting things in life, “I never knew how time passed” That is a good indication of our ability to practice कृर्मण्य.व�मिधकृ�रस्�. र्म� फला.षः� कृदा�च . This is neither an unknown or impossible idea to mankind. Every day we all practice this when we have deep sleep. We rise from the deep sleep and remark that we had a sound sleep. By that what it means is no matter what sound others made in the vicinity I continued to sleep. Try to sleep with an objective of having a 6 hour sound sleep and work for the result, you will not get sound sleep.  Your mind will work very hard to find out how to ensure 6 hours of deep sleep and in the process you will get tired. Maybe after some time when the analytical and result-oriented mind gets fatigued, you will slip into deep sleep.

The ancient Indian texts such as Bhagavad Gita are profound and are meant to open up the horizon in the minds of the people. Therefore it is hardly surprising that we can draw such alternative ideas and thoughts from such texts. However, in order to benefit from this immensely, in the domain of management, we need to step out of the world of rationality and tread into unknown areas. Perhaps a nearest reference to this idea in modern day is “out of the box” thinking or thinking “without” the box. This in itself is a paradigm shift in perception that we need to make in our own mind.

ConclusionsThere are several other useful ideas in Gita for management. There are specific ideas for management that address issues pertaining to self, self-mastery and self-assessment. There are also specific suggestions on the leadership traits.

Bhagavad Gita and for that matter in several other ancient Indian texts offer a unique value proposition. We can have spiritual progress, we can have material progress too in a very balanced way.  We can have happiness, not only success.  This could be one of the good reasons for us to look at some of these and make our own notes. There is a greater promise and potential for much larger perspectives in ancient Indian wisdom and much greater propensity to draw out of it and apply in a variety of situations.

[1] This is based on a talk delivered by Professor B Mahadevan, Dean (Administration), Indian Institute of Management Bangalore in a seminar on “Towards a New Paradigm of Business management – Alternative Perspectives from Ancient Indian Wisdom”, held at IIM Bangalore on December 12, 2009. mahadev@iimb.ernet.in

[2] http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/ai/aboutopp.htm

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Schumpeter

[4] Beer, S. (1994). “May the Whole Earth be Happy: Lokaasamastaa Sukhino Bhavantu”, Interfaces, Vol. 24, No. 4, 83 – 93.

[5] Swami Ranganthananda, (2000). “The Universal Message of Gita”, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkatta, Vol. 1, pp. 430 – 437.

Bhagavad Gita and Management by M. P. Bhattathiry

  

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Introduction

Management has become a part and parcel in everyday life, be it at home, office, factory, Government, or in any other organization where a group of human beings assemble for a common purpose, management principles come into play through their various facets like management of time, resources, personnel, materials, machinery, finance, planning, priorities, policies and practice. 

Management is a systematic way of doing all activities in any field of human effort. It is about keeping oneself engaged in interactive relationship with other human beings in the course of performing one's duty. Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their weaknesses irrelevant -so says the Management Guru Peter Drucker. 

It strikes harmony in working - equilibrium in thoughts and actions, goals and achievements, plans and performance, products and markets. It resolves situations of scarcities be they in the physical, technical or human fields through maximum

utilization with the minimum available processes to achieve the goal 

The lack of management will cause disorder, confusion, wastage, delay, destruction and even depression. Managing men, money and material in the best possible way according to circumstances and environment is the most important and essential factor for a successful management. Managing men is supposed have the best tactics. Man is the first syllable in management which speaks volumes on the role and significance of man in a scheme of management practices. From the pre-historic days of aborigines to the present day of robots and computers the ideas of managing available resources have been in existence in some form or other. When the world has become a big global village now, management practices have become more complex and what was once considered a golden rule is now thought to be an anachronism. 

Management Guidelines from the Bhagavad Gita 

There is an important distinction between effectiveness and efficiency in managing.Effectiveness is doing the right things and Efficiency is doing things right. The general principles of effective management can be applied in every fields the differences being mainly in the application than in principles. Again, effective management is not limited in its application only to business or industrial enterprises but to all organizations where the aim is to reach a given goal through a Chief Executive or a Manager with the help of a group of workers. 

The Manager's functions can be briefly summed up as under :

Forming a vision and planning the strategy to realize such vision. Cultivating the art of leadership. Establishing the institutional excellence and building an innovative organization. Developing human resources. Team building and teamwork. Delegation, motivation, and communication and 

Reviewing performance and taking corrective steps whenever called for.

Thus Management is a process in search of excellence to align people and get them committed to work for a common goal to the maximum social benefit. 

The critical question in every Manager's mind is how to be effective in his job. The answer to this fundamental question is found in the Bhagavad Gita which repeatedly proclaims that 'you try to manage yourself'. The reason is that unless the Manager reaches a level of excellence and effectiveness that sets him apart from the others whom he is managing, he will be merely a face in the crowd and not an achiever. 

In this context the Bhagavad Gita expounded thousands of years ago by the Super Management Guru Bhagawan Sri Krishna enlightens us on all managerial techniques leading to a harmonious and blissful state of affairs as against conflicts, tensions, lowest efficiency and least productivity, absence of motivation and lack of work culture etc common to most of the Indian enterprises today. 

The modern management concepts like vision, leadership, motivation, excellence in work, achieving goals, meaning of work, attitude towards work, nature of individual, decision making, planning etc., are all discussed in the Bhagavad Gita with a sharp insight and finest analysis to drive through our confused grey matter making it highly eligible to become a part of the modem management syllabus. 

It may be noted that while Western design on management deals with the problems at superficial, material, external and peripheral levels, the ideas contained in the Bhagavad Gita tackle the issues from the grass roots level of human thinking because once the basic thinking of man is improved it will automatically enhance the quality of his actions and their results. 

The management thoughts emanating from the Western countries particularly the U.S.A. are based mostly on the lure for materialism and a perennial thirst for profit irrespective of the quality of the means adopted to achieve that goal. This phenomenon has its source in abundance in the West particularly the U.S.A. Management by materialism caught the fancy of all the countries the world over, India being no exception to this trend. 

Our country has been in the forefront in importing those ideas mainly because of its centuries old indoctrination by the colonial rulers which inculcated in us a feeling that anything Western is always good and anything Indian is always inferior. Hence our management schools have sprung up on the foundations of materialistic approach wherein no place of importance was given to a holistic view. 

The result is while huge funds have been invested in building these temples of modem management education, no perceptible changes are visible in the improvement of the

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, more and more social violence, exploitation and such other vices have gone deep in the body politic. 

The reasons for this sorry state of affairs are not far to seek. The western idea of management has placed utmost reliance on the worker (which includes Managers also) -to make him more efficient, to increase his productivity. They pay him more so that he may work more, produce more, sell more and will stick to the organization without looking for alternatives. The sole aim of extracting better and more work from him is for improving the bottom-line of the enterprise. Worker has become a hireable commodity, which can be used, replaced and discarded at will. 

The workers have also seen through the game plan of their paymasters who have reduced them to the state of a mercantile product. They changed their attitude to work and started adopting such measures as uncalled for strikes, Gheraos, sit-ins,dharnas, go-slows, work-to-rule etc to get maximum benefit for themselves from the organizations without caring the least for the adverse impact that such coercive methods will cause to the society at large. 

Thus we have reached a situation where management and workers have become separate and contradictory entities wherein their approaches are different and interests are conflicting. There is no common goal or understanding which predictably leads to constant suspicion, friction, disillusions and mistrust because of working at cross purposes. The absence of human values and erosion of human touch in the organizational structure resulted in a permanent crisis of confidence. 

The western management thoughts although acquired prosperity to some for some time has absolutely failed in their aim to ensure betterment of individual life and social welfare. It has remained by and large a soulless management edifice and an oasis of plenty for a chosen few in the midst of poor quality of life to many. Hence there is an urgent need to have a re-look at the prevalent management discipline on its objectives, scope and content. 

It should be redefined so as to underline the development of the worker as a man, as a human being with all his positive and negative characteristics and not as a mere wage-earner. In this changed perspective, management ceases to be a career-agent but becomes an instrument in the process of national development in all its segments. 

Bhagavad Gita And Managerial Effectiveness 

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 in the management science is to choose wisely and utilise optimally the scarce resources if one has to succeed in his venture. 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 who is an Effective Manager.

Attitude Towards Work 

Three stone-cutters were engaged in erecting a temple. As usual a H.R.D. Consultant asked them what they were doing. The response of the three workers to this innocent-looking question is illuminating.

'I am a poor man. I have to maintain my family. I am making a living here,' said the first stone-cutter with a dejected face. 'Well, I work because I want to show that I am the best stone-cutter in the country,' said the second one with a sense of pride.'Oh, I want to build the most beautiful temple in the country,' said the third one with a visionary gleam.

Their jobs were identical but their perspectives were different. What Gita tells us is to develop the visionary perspective in the work we do. It tells us to develop a sense of larger vision in one's work for the common good. 

Work Commitment 

The popular verse 2.47 of the Gita cited above advises non-attachment to the fruits or results of actions performed in the course of one's duty. Dedicated work has to mean 'work for the sake of work'. If we are always calculating the date of promotion for putting in our efforts, then such work cannot be commitment-oriented causing excellence in the results but it will be promotion-oriented resulting in inevitable disappointments. By tilting the performance towards the anticipated benefits, the quality of performance of the present duty suffers on account of the mental agitations caused by the anxieties of the future. Another reason for non-attachment to results is the fact that workings of the world are not designed to positively respond to our calculations and hence expected fruits may not always be forthcoming . 

So, the Gita tells us not to mortgage the present commitment to an uncertain future. If we are not able to measure up to this height, then surely the fault lies with us and not with the teaching. 

Some people argue that being unattached to the consequences of one's action would make one un-accountable as accountability is a much touted word these days with the vigilance department sitting on our shoulders. However, we have to understand that the entire second chapter has arisen as a sequel to the temporarily lost sense of accountability on the part of Arjuna in the first chapter of the Gita in performing hisswadharma. 

Bhagavad Gita is full of advice on the theory of cause and effect, making the doer responsible for the consequences of his deeds. The Gita, while advising detachment from the avarice of selfish gains by discharging one's accepted duty, does not absolve anybody of the consequences arising from discharge of his responsibilities. 

This verse is a brilliant guide to the operating Manager for psychological energy conservation and a preventive method against stress and burn-outs in the work situations. Learning managerial stress prevention methods is quite costly now days and if only we understand the Gita we get the required cure free of cost. 

Thus the best means for effective work performance is to become the work itself. Attaining this state of nishkama karma is the right attitude to work because it prevents the ego, the mind from dissipation through speculation on future gains or losses. 

It has been presumed for long that satisfying lower needs of a worker like adequate food, clothing and shelter, recognition, appreciation, status, personality development etc are the key factors in the motivational theory of personnel management. 

It is the common experience that the spirit of grievances from the clerk to the Director is identical and only their scales and composition vary. It should have been that once

the lower-order needs are more than satisfied, the Director should have no problem in optimizing his contribution to the organization. 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 school teacher, a self-employed artisan, ordinary artistes demonstrate higher levels of self- realization despite poor satisfaction of their lower- order needs. 

This situation is explained by the theory of Self-transcendence or Self-realization propounded in the Gita. Self-transcendence is overcoming insuperable obstacles in one's path. It involves renouncing egoism, putting others before oneself, team work, dignity, sharing, co-operation, harmony, trust, sacrificing lower needs for higher goals, seeing others in you and yourself in others etc. The portrait of a self-realizing person is that he is a man who aims at his own position and underrates everything else. On the other hand the Self-transcenders are the visionaries and innovators. Their resolute efforts enable them to achieve the apparently impossible. They overcome all barriers to reach their goal. 

The work must be done with detachment.' This is because it is the Ego which spoils the work. If this is not the backbone of the Theory of Motivation which the modern scholars talk about what else is it? I would say that this is not merely a theory of Motivation but it is a theory of Inspiration. 

The Gita further advises to perform action with loving attention to the Divine which implies redirection of the empirical self away from its egocentric needs, desires, and passions for creating suitable conditions to perform actions in pursuit of excellence. Tagore says working for love is freedom in action which is described as disinterested work in the Gita. It is on the basis of the holistic vision that Indians have developed the work-ethos of life. They found that all work irrespective of its nature have to be directed towards a single purpose that is the manifestation of essential divinity in man by working for the good of all beings -lokasangraha. This vision was presented to us in the very first mantra of lsopanishad which says that whatever exists in the Universe is enveloped by God. How shall we enjoy this life then, if all are one? The answer it provides is enjoy and strengthen life by sacrificing your selfishness by not coveting other's wealth. The same motivation is given by Sri Krishna in the Third Chapter of Gita when He says that 'He who shares the wealth generated only after serving the people, through work done as a sacrifice for them, is freed from all the sins. On the contrary those who earn wealth only for themselves, eat sins that lead to frustration and failure.' 

The disinterested work finds expression in devotion, surrender and equipoise. The former two are psychological while the third is the strong-willed determination to keep the mind free of and above the dualistic 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 empirical 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 means vigorous and arduous effort in pursuit of a given or chosen task. When Bhagawan Sri Krishna rebukes Arjuna in the strongest words for his unmanliness and imbecility in recoiling from his righteous duty it is nothing but a clarion call for the highest work culture. Poor work culture is the result of tamo gunaovertaking one's mindset. Bhagawan's stinging rebuke is to bring out the temporarily dormant rajo guna in Arjuna. In Chapter 16 of the Gita Sri Krishna elaborates on two types of Work Ethic viz. daivi sampat or divine work culture and asuri sampat or demonic work culture. 

Daivi work culture - means 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 - means egoism, delusion, desire-centric, improper performance, work which is not oriented towards service. It is to be noted that mere work ethic is not enough in as much as a hardened criminal has also a very good work culture. 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 method or technique of work which is an indispensable component of work ethic. Yogah is defined in the Gita itself as 'samatvam yogah uchyate' meaning unchanging equipoise of mind. Tilak tells us that performing actions with the special device of an equable mind is Yoga. By making the equable mind as the bed-rock of all actions Gita evolved the goal of unification of work ethic with ethics in work, for without ethical process no mind can attain equipoise. Adi Sankara says that the skill in performance of one's duty consists in maintaining the evenness of mind in success and failure because the calm mind in failure will lead him to deeper introspection and see clearly where the process went wrong so that corrective steps could be taken to avoid such shortcomings in future. 

The principle of reducing our attachment to personal gains from the work done or controlling the aversion to personal losses enunciated in Ch.2 Verse 47 of the Gita is the foolproof prescription for attaining equanimity. The common apprehension about this principle that it will lead to lack of incentive for effort and work, striking at the very root of work ethic, is not valid because the advice is to be judged as relevant to man's overriding quest for true mental happiness. Thus while the common place

theories on motivation lead us to bondage, the Gita theory takes us to freedom and real happiness. 

Work Results 

The Gita further explains the theory of non- attachment to the results of work in Ch.18 Verses 13-15 the import of which is as under: 

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. 

The former attitude mollifies arrogance and conceit while the latter prevents excessive despondency, de-motivation and self-pity. Thus both these dispositions safeguard the doer against psychological vulnerability which is the cause for the Modem Managers' companions like Diabetes, High B.P. Ulcers etc. 

Assimilation of the ideas behind 2.47 and 18.13-15 of the Gita leads us to the wider spectrum of lokasamgraha or general welfare. 

There is also another dimension in the work ethic. If the karmayoga is blended withbhaktiyoga then the work itself becomes worship, a seva yoga. 

Manager's Mental Health 

The ideas mentioned above have a close bearing on the end-state of a manager which is his mental health. Sound mental health is the very goal of any human activity more so management. An expert describes sound mental health as 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 constancy and peace are the pre- requisites 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 rat-race are speed and greed as well as ambition and competition. The natural fallout from these forces is erosion of one's ethics-moral fiber

which supersedes the value system as a means in the entrepreneurial path like tax evasion, undercutting, spreading canards against the competitors, entrepreneurial spying, instigating industrial strife in the business rivals' establishments etc. Although these practices are taken as normal business hazards for achieving progress, they always end up as a pursuit of mirage -the more the needs the more the disappointments. This phenomenon may be called as yayati-syndrome. 

In Mahabharata we come across a king called 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 mythical thousand years. However, he lost himself in the pursuit of sensual enjoyments and felt penitent. He came back to his son pleading to take back his youth. This yayati syndrome shows the conflict between externally directed acquisitions, motivations and inner reasoning, emotions and conscience. 

Gita tells us how to get out of this universal phenomenon by prescribing the following capsules:

Cultivate sound philosophy of life. Identify with inner core of self-sufficiency. Get out of the habitual mindset towards the pairs of opposites. Strive for excellence through work is worship. Build up an internal integrated reference point to face contrary impulses, and

emotions. Pursue ethico-moral rectitude.

Cultivating this understanding by a manager would lead him to emancipation from falsifying ego-conscious state of confusion and distortion, to a state of pure and free mind i.e. universal, supreme consciousness wherefrom he can prove his effectiveness in discharging whatever duties that have fallen to his domain. 

Bhagawan's advice is relevant here :

"tasmaat sarveshu kaaleshu mamanusmarah yuddha cha" 'Therefore under all circumstances remember Me and then fight' (Fight means perform your duties) 

Management Needs those Who Practice what they Preach 

Whatever the excellent and best ones do, the commoners follow, so says Sri Krishna in the Gita. This is the leadership quality prescribed in the Gita. The visionary leader must also 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. 

The Ultimate Message of Gita for Managers 

The despondent position of Arjuna in the first chapter of the Gita is a typical human situation which may come in the life of all men of action some time or other. Sri Krishna by sheer power of his inspiring words raised the level of Arjuna's mind from the state of inertia to the state of righteous action, from the state of faithlessness to the state of faith and self-confidence in the ultimate victory of Dharma (ethical action). They are the powerful words of courage of strength, of self confidence, of faith in one's own infinite power, of the glory, of valor in the life of active people and of the need for intense calmness in the midst of intense action. 

When Arjuna got over his despondency and stood ready to fight, Sri Krishna gave him the gospel for using his spirit of intense action not for his own benefit, not for satisfying his own greed and desire, but for using his action for the good of many, with faith in the ultimate victory of ethics over unethical actions and truth over untruth. Arjuna responds by emphatically declaring that all his delusions were removed and that he is ready to do what is expected of him in the given situation. 

Sri Krishna's advice with regard to temporary failures in actions 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.

And finally the Gita's consoling message for all men of action is : He who follows My ideal in all walks of life without losing faith in the ideal or never deviating from it, I provide him with all that he needs (Yoga) and protect what he has already got (Kshema). 

In conclusion the purport of this essay is not to suggest discarding of the Western model of efficiency, dynamism and striving for excellence but to make these ideals tuned to the India's holistic attitude of lokasangraha -for the welfare of many, for the good of many. The idea is that these management skills should be India-centric and not America-centric. Swami Vivekananda says a combination of both these approaches will certainly create future leaders of India who will be far superior to any that have ever been in the world.

1-Feb-2004 More by :  M. P. Bhattathiry

The need to have an Indian Style of Management How often has one heard of an American organization adopting the Japanese management style to surge ahead? How often has one heard of the reverse? Probably never. However, I do remember reading somewhere that when IBM-USA was making losses while IBM-Japan was making profits, IBM-USA tried to adopt the Japanese management style to turn around. The result was increased losses.

Predictable? Should be. It is most likely that a style that is successful in Japan would not be as successful in the US and vice versa. People are different, the cultures are different and so is the life-style. That is the reason why Japan has developed its own management style and the US its own. If we take a deep look into the American management style, we realise that it is absolutely fine tuned to the American culture and way of living. The people in the west grow up, mostly, with very less emotional security due to factors like high divorce rates, single parent families etc. As they grow up they do tend to find a sense of stability in this seemingly unstable and insecure atmosphere. Thus, when they enter into their job lives and see a management culture prevalent, which is contractual in nature with hire and fire style of management, they don't get disturbed. In fact, this motivates them to work harder and a typical American would say, "we are tough guys and as long as we are good the company keeps us, else we go out". The bottom line is that the fine-tuning between the cultures at home and at job works wonders and enhances productivity and motivation.

Looking at the Japanese companies one finds concepts of lifetime employment working wonders out there. A Japanese finds a bonded culture in his organisation, unlike the American contract culture. If we look into the Japanese life style and culture we would find the importance of bonds being very high. The Japanese have strong family ties and a strong sense of community. From such an upbringing, they feel at home when they see a bonded style of management on the job. The typical Japanese would say, "I am a Honda man (and not that I work for Honda)" displaying the bond that he shares with his company. The point that gets highlighted again is that a management style, which flows out of your own culture and roots would any day, motivates your people much more than one, which is adopted from somewhere else.

The basics of "Theory 'i' Management"Like Theory 'X' which tried to define a worker in its own manner as a mindless lazy rascal who loves shirking responsibilities and the Theory "Y" which tried to define the worker as an ambitious responsible citizen looking for the right environment to contribute constructively, Theory 'I' is an attempt to understand and define the Indian worker just like the Japanese had tried to do with their Theory "Z".

In spite of India having some of the best management schools of the world and the best reservoir of skilled human talent, our organizations have not been able to do well. Amongst other reasons one of the most important reasons for the failure of Indian management has been our failure to develop an indigenous management style, which revolves around our cultural roots and upbringing. An Indian grows up in a system, where family ties and a sense of belongingness get an absolute top priority. Coming from this environment, he gets a shock, when he sees the job environment practicing American philosophies of contractual style of management. He is not able to adjust productively to this cultural mismatch and thus, very often, fails to be as productive as his Japanese or American counterpart.

An Indian worker is perhaps looking at a system without ruthless management practices and inhuman work pressure even if the job security is a little less. Instead of the system (specially in PSU's) giving them near 100% job security, it could give them some fear of job security, since Indians culturally like to take life easy and tend to become complacent in such situations. While, the job security aspect could be reduced the human touch in managing them could be increased. They should be made to feel that the company cares for them through regular training programmes, family welfare schemes etc. They should be made to feel that they matter in the organization through programmes, which involve them directly or indirectly into various decision-making processes. This would increase their level of commitment for the organizations and perhaps tomorrow we would

also see people telling, "I am a Bajaj man" instead of "I am working for Bajaj scooters". In one of my workshops Sr. Manager - Corporate Planning of NTPC, P. Purukayastha could not agree more and cited two beautiful examples. The first related to NTPC spending up to Rs. 5 crore on the medical expenses in US for one of its drivers and his wife who were affected by incurable diseases. This incident of humanity has been a motivating factor for all employees for years. The second related to his own experience where he made flexi timing for one of his workers whose wife was ill. This not only removed the troubled look from his face but also made him one of the most motivated workers who was always ready to give more than 100% to his job once his wife became alright. These two incidents can explain how human touch can do wonders on an average Indian psyche. I would even go up to the extent of suggesting that professional studies could be made a part of on the job training like in Japan and not that people first get trained and then wander around for jobs like in the US. It has to be kept in mind that the Japanese without a single business school of repute have produced some of the most successful corporations in the last 50 years, while with so many reputed management schools the US has not been able to stop the entry of one after another of the Japanese organisations into the Fortune 500 list. Again out here I might add that Mr. Purakayastha himself went through a training program after which the company, based upon the results of the test, decided to shift him from industrial relations to corporate planning which has been one of the most motivating aspects of his job.

The idea that I want to suggest is that it is high time Indian companies thought sincerely about their people and developed "Indian - people friendly management" practices. They might have some American touch or some Japanese touch but the thought essentially has to be given on what will suit the Indians. The sad part is that successful Indian managers who have developed indigenous styles of management don't end up theoreotising their styles and propagating them through books or articles. In the US almost every semi-successful manager ends up writing a book and thus, today one does know how IBM is managed, but one doesn't know about how an Indian corporation like, may be, the Reliance Group is managed. So, when it comes to learning management the only option is to refer to foreign books and learn foreign management styles.

The Principles of "Theory 'i' Management"

Most Indians value bonds emotions and long-term relationships. Most Indians value growth opportunities and commitment. Our cultural roots (of tolerance etc.) often make us complacent. Lack of patriotism at a macro level leaves us aimless.

What do these principles prove?

These principles have been arrived at after a thorough research that we conducted on more than 3000 managers across the country. The managers were asked to talk about their colleagues across functions and levels. The most important revelation from this survey is about the uniqueness of today's Indian psyche. On one hand as expected, the first two points go on to prove our cultural values and a lot of similarities can be drawn with the Japanese value systems. On the other hand when faced with the fact that everything Indian is so cool outside India, Bhangra and Indipop find place in the US pop charts, the global IT revolution has been fuelled by homegrown geeks, in Ohio the Wright State University College of Business and Administration gets renamed after an NRI businessman, our B-school graduates are becoming global leaders, NASA has top Indian scientists, yet Indians have time and again failed to perform in India ; Indian's like to blame it on complacency, a characteristic that they like attributing to our culture ! It seems Indian's look for the first opportunity to become complacent; something that they are unable to become in the western world of competition and hire and fire system. Not only this, when faced with the question about the lack of patriotic instincts and decaying values; they love to blame it on their leaders. Somebody says if our Prime Minister can be bribed Rs 1 crore by a stock broker, what's wrong in taking bribes; somebody else says if my general manager can take a bribe from the company's travel agent what's wrong if I get some account through corrupt practices? One might argue that even in Japan there is corruption. The reality however is that in Japan corruption doesn't touch everyday human existence the way it does in India and moreover they have a more effective judicial system, which even their presidents can't escape. The other day I read that in Uttar Pradesh fire brigade people have started to ask for bribes before starting to put off the fire! Criminalization of daily life is to such an extent that every individual is actually being turned into a criminal.The socio - cultural and geo-political environment in India has today resulted into a mixed breed of Indians who on one hand retain family values and a longing for emotional touch and on the other hand are complacent (given

the first opportunity to be) and unashamed of being morally bankrupt.

Thus, Indians need an India centric management theory.