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
surly 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 his swadharma.
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 guna overtaking 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 with bhaktiyoga 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 :
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
ethico-moral fibre 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 Practise
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 valour 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.
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