The Bhagavad Gita, written thousands
of years ago, enlightens us on all managerial
techniques leading us towards a harmonious
and blissful state of affairs in place
of the conflict, tensions, poor productivity,
absence of motivation and so on, common
in most of Indian enterprises today –
and probably in enterprises in many other
countries.
The modern (Western) management concepts
of vision, leadership, motivation, excellence
in work, achieving goals, giving work
meaning, decision making and planning,
are all discussed in the Bhagavad
Gita. There is one major difference.
While Western management thought too often
deals with problems at material, external
and peripheral levels, the Bhagavad
Gita tackles the issues from the
grass roots level of human thinking. Once
the basic thinking of man is improved,
it will automatically enhance the quality
of his actions and their results.
The management philosophy emanating from
the West is based on the lure of materialism
and on a perennial thirst for profit,
irrespective of the quality of the means
adopted to achieve that goal. This phenomenon
has its source in the abundant wealth
of the West and so 'management by materialism'
has caught the fancy of all the countries
the world over, India being no exception
to this trend. My country, India, has
been in the forefront in importing these
ideas mainly because of its centuries
old indoctrination by colonial rulers,
which has inculcated in us a feeling that
anything Western is good and anything
Indian, is inferior.
The result is that, while huge funds have
been invested in building temples of modem
management education, no perceptible changes
are visible in the improvement of the
general quality of life - although the
standards of living of a few has gone
up. The same old struggles in almost all
sectors of the economy, criminalization
of institutions, social violence, exploitation
and other vices are seen deep in the body
politic.
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