Teachings from Indian Management: The Spirit of Selﬂess Service

Increasingly , a need has emerged to justify the relevance of Indian Management in today’s organisational context and the search to explore how the Indian shastras , containing the universal and spiritual values of mankind , can help in creating the value based Managers and enlightened leaders who can shape the environment, systems and organisations, where people can work together in joy, oﬀering their best for the good of the society , not in competition and tension but in the spirit of camaraderie and bonhomie. The author has clearly tried to bring out that according to Indian Management the concept of work does not merely revolve around meeting our basic needs (food, clothing and shelter) but also it is our opportunity to grow towards inﬁnite perfection and joy. Through attending various conferences and seminars, the author is of the conviction that Indian Shastras have a lot to contribute for managerial processes like Human Resource Management, Leadership, productivity, motivation, self -development, organisational eﬀectiveness, corporate governance etc. The author is of the opinion that understanding the Indian behaviour and ethos will help us to come out with an approach and right kind of Management style to create harmony and industrial peace. Through this research paper the author has tried to establish relevance of Indian Management and tried to explain how the work ideals can be applied and have been successfully applied for improved individual productivity and organisational eﬀectiveness. The author feels privileged to present this bouquet of universal values and ideals to the practising modern Managers and industry leaders, marked with a a ﬂavour of Indian Wisdom so that in and through excellence in our work , we may develop and grow and achieve the penultimate goal of our personal and professional life. Design/methodology/approach: Based on literature review and the contemporary work done the most critical need today in business leadership is a new kind of leader: authentic leader-and the Indian Management approach can serve as a platform in evaluating the leadership traits and competencies. The eﬀorts involved in evolving and implementing the Indian Management strategies are outlined that can be used in developing and inculcating a new culture for leader development and leadership readiness. Findings: The Indian Management approach can pave a new pathway to the corporate culture and is depicted as a means for gauging and evaluating the existing leadership pipeline in an organisation revolving around the scope of this work. Practical implications: Indian Management concepts can help organisations achieve the mission critical goals-helping its leaders to sustain and succeed in uncertain business environment leveraging through the organisational competencies – unleashing the unlimited potential. Originality/value: An original piece of work, this research paper can be of immense value not only for the academicians but also for the HR and Talent Development professionals, more in terms of identifying, nurturing and developing vibrant business leaders and thinkers of tomorrow.


Introduction
If there can be American style in Management, Japanese style, British style then why should not be there an Indian Style of Management?Or to be more specific: is there any Indian Style of Management?Today it is increasingly recognised that managerial and leadership styles, to be more effective, need to be ingrained with Indian cultural ethos.Culture is totality, a fabric woven with attitudes, beliefs, mores, attitudes and habits.Our priceless ingredients of culture.They have been the essence of our glorious traditions and often stressed by Adi Sankara in the ninth century , literary works like Thirukural , by Gokhale, Tilak, Aurobindo, Vivekananda, Radhakrishnan and Mahatma Gandhi in modern India and also includes western scholars such as Max Muller, Mathew Arnold and Romain Rolland.

Literature Review
While reviewing the literature, the author has observed that over the years there has been lot of curiosity and questions to know the details about tenets of Indian management, Indian spirituality (IS) and Indian ways of management.It is pertinent to mention that works done on Indian Management by Cappelli, Harbir, Jitendra and Michael (2010) has created lot of interest at the global level.Another powerful insight is resonated through the work of Philip Goldberg's (2010) book, American Veda: From Emerson and Beatles to Yoga & Meditation-How Indian Spirituality Changed the West.The detailed work done by him documents the impact of Indian management on developed nations where he emphasised to a great extent about USA.Besides, the work done on new models by Nankervis, Cooke and Chatterjee (2012), (New Models of HRM in China & India), generates a discussion on some of the Indian models of human resource management (HRM) that is deeply rooted in Indian culture and practices.Undoubtedly, all these are indicative of the evolution of internationalisation of Indian thoughts resonated through Indian Management.
The very theme of this research paper is to justify the legacy of the existence of Indian management and its unexplored potential that is yet to be fully recognised at the international level.The search has been to see how Indian ethos depicted in our shastras and Vedanta can help in shaping value based managers and corporate captains , offering their best for the good of society with precision of the Indian worldview of "oneness" in contrast to worldview of " separateness" and finally to present the bouquet of universal values and ideals to give the modern day corporate executives and managers a flavour of Indian wisdom that acts as a springboard for leadership and managerial effectiveness resulting in better productivity and greater profitability in addition to a better and smooth human relationships.

Contributions towards development of Indian Management:
Relevance of Indian Management-drawing reference from Gita, Upanishad and shastras -in today's scenario have attracted attention of many scholars from time to time.It includes Swami Ranganathananda (1982), Swami Jitatmananda (1992), Swami Bodhananda (1994) and Swami Someshwarananda (1996).Going by a structured approach, the various writings and initiatives by Management scholars, thoughts and thinkers can be depicted through the four approaches.(Sharma: Corporate Mantras: 2007) The empirical testing: S.K. Chakraborty has been a stalwart to glorify Indian Management concepts.Through his detailed studies and analytical insights, Chakraborty provides us varied empirical information on corporate applications drawn up from several concepts of Gita.At the same time, Chakraborty could justify the practical implementation of several ideas at the corporate entities through organisation development interventions based on several concepts from Gita and Mahabharata.

The corporate slokas:
The thinkers and philosophers have contemplated from time to time to decode the inner meaning of Gita Shlokas and have interpreted and compiled them to help explore the business leaders and industry captains their relevance.This approach could be referred to as compilations and interpretations of Gita slokas relevant for managers and corporate leaders.Thinkers and practitioners from diverse field have interpreted relevant slokas and ideas from Gita and shastras and could establish linkages in the corporate and social contexts.Some of the noteworthy names are M.B.Athreya ( 1995) , Chakravarty Ajanta ( 1995) , K.K. Chopra ( 1996) , Prof Sunil Kumar ( 1996) Brig Najib ( 1997) .Worth mentioning that similar collections have also been published by Ahmedabad Management Association, Chinmaya mission and by Sri Sringeri Sharda Institute of Management.At a normative level all these thoughts and thinkers also emphasised on "Karma Yoga" which were to a great extent marked with their personal beliefs and experiences.

Revisioning Gita and Shastras:
In this phase Gita and shastras were delved deeply and was re-interpreted in a manner that was acceptable.It is worth highlighting that Ranchan while working on the Gita could throw light on how Gita can be used as an impeccable tool for psychotherapy and imagined lord Krishna as a Psychotherapist (Ranchman, 1991).R a n c h a n a d v o c a t e s t h a t G i t a i s m o r e t h a n Psychotherapy and provide us foundation for a novel concept better known as psycho -spiritual analysis and therapy.From a perspective of Managerial decision making process and its utility in corporate entities and society also re-explored Gita and narrated his views , with justifications.

New Age Management model:
With a view to developing new management models tracing its origins from Gita, Dr Subhash Sharma has done pioneering work that surfaced through blending of eastern -western ideas and Dr Sharma through this model could justify its applicability for the corporate entities.This phase also includes OSHA model ( 1995), negergy-synergy grid ( 1996), MBA( Manas-Buddhi-Ahankar model) , a model on enlightened leadership ( 1995), TOQM -Total quality of Management ( 1996) , PARIKRAMA model ( 2016) and so on.The rudiments and tenets of views and ideas that have been expressed through these models have been applied in the corporate sectors and government undertakings marked with positive impact.A model related to mother leadership was conceptualised by R.P. Banerjee.It is rooted deeply through Gita (Banerjee, 1998).Debashis Chatterjee's work on Timeless leadership -18 sutras from Bhagwat Gita (2012) is a very Indian approach to Management.He could cover each of Gita's eighteen chapters into a meaningful message for the leaders at all levels."Invincible Arjuna" is another memorable contribution by Chatterjee (2016) where he describes that Arjuna's most powerful weapon was not his bow "Gandiva" but unflinching commitment.Chatterjee could depict clearly that just like Arjuna the modern day managers can achieve success when the head and the heart comes together.All these above approaches paved the pathway to the growing literature of corporate applications of ideas from Gita, Shastras and ancient scriptures.Some of the plethora of thinkers on Indian Management who made notable contributions include Panduranga Bhatta, Sanjoy Mukherjee, Nalini Dave, Hasmukh Adhia, Ashish Pandey, Sunita Singh-Sengupta, G.P. Rao, Radha Sharma, R. Parthasarathy, Surya Prakash Rao, Venkat Krishnan, Pawan Kumar Singh, Biswajit Satpathy and others.Another group of thinkers whose projection of views have been extensively through symposiums , seminars and learning conferences are Professors Maitreyi Kollegal ,Sangeetha Menon, Daniel Albuquerque, Sorab Sadri, Siddharth Shastri, Mala Kapadia, Meera Chakraborty, Shiv Tripathi, B.V.K. Sastry and others.
The Indian Management thinkers and proponents such as S.K. Chakraborty and Subhash Sharma have gone a step ahead and emerged as a critique of Western ideas.They came out with a different version and perspectives on management and leadership.They strongly advocated that western management philosophy is confined to a limited sphere and revolves around issues of self-interest (Adam Smith), survival of the fittest (Darwin) and self-actualization (Maslow).They strongly opined that the Indian philosophy of Management and leadership is based on more enlightened vision that resonates around ADM (Artha, Dharma, and Moksha) philosophy of life more with a view to survive and sustain for peaceful enjoyment (Kama).In this context, It is also worth mentioning a pioneering work done by Abinash Panda and Rajen K. Gupta (2007).Both Gupta and Panda through their pioneering work on "Call for Developing Organizational Theories in India: Setting Agenda for Future" could throw insights on the relevance of a meta-review of organizational research in India conducted since 1960 and pleaded in favour of developing organizational theories based on the Indian cultural norms, values and ethos.These two thinkers could also come out with lists of intellectual leads that was designed and developed by thoughts and thinkers from India.
In the year 2007, Chatterjee and Nankervis could curve out a masterpiece on "Asian Management in Transition".Through this work they could trace out some emerging themes and conceptualised the new ideas on management that has been emanating from Asian countries and they could draw attention on Indian With all kudos to several thoughts and thinkers on Indian Management, we need to specifically highlight about the landmark contributions of Professor S.K. Chakraborty and Professor Subhash Sharma towards the development of Indian management thoughts and thinking.Isha Gamlath through her work in 2011 on "Subhashism in Indian Management" could draw our attention about Dr Sharma's pioneering work in the sphere of Indian Management.Pratima Verma in 2011 through her article 'Two Gurus Shaping Indian M a n a g e m e n t : L e s s o n s o f L C M -S E E D ' , h a s documented the significant contributions made by Prof S.K.Chakraborty and Dr Subhash Sharma.

Does this concept really work-evidences:
The rudiments of Indian management were observed in the ancient period, Mauryan rule, Gupta rule, Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal period and under British empire.Besides, Indian ethos and Management principles have been applied in many companies and the results have been encouraging.It is heartening to note that more and more teachers, professors and management consultants are joining this movement and organisations are also showing keen interest.Suresh Pandit taught and applied Indian Management in companies like MTNL, Yash paper mills, Crompton Greaves, OTIS, Burroughs welcome, Air India etc. Prof S.K. Swami Sukhabodhananda is today popularly known as 'corporate Guru 'is frequently invited by the corporate houses to conduct the in house workshop for their executives.His talks and workshops have influenced the decision makers to adopt inclusive growth, focus on developing skills to bring forth attitudinal change, foster multidimensional growth in individuals and times.Subhash Sharma taught in Indian Institute of Plantation Management, Banasthali Vidyapith, Indus Business School, IIM -Shillong, Zürich university etc. Frequently he is on a globetrotting mode and delivers his discourses on Indian Management globally across business schools and universities.

Why Indian Management?
As we revisit the glory that was India we can identify that in ancient India merchants and traders flocked from across the globe for trading.These people did not come to India because Indians are poor and lackadaisical in their approach.The merchants and traders came to India because Indians offered unique products.Indian Workmen were known for their skills be it artists, craftsmen, carpenters, ironsmiths, goldsmiths and weavers.History chronicles that India produced world's Teachings from Indian Management: The Spirit of Selfless Service Management Insight Vol.19, No.1; 2023 best textiles, ships, irrigation, architectures, Muslin, silk clothes and above all mathematics and astronomy.Thornton while recording his memoirs of ancient India gives a following vivid description "A busy population has covered the land with marks of industry; skill artisans converted the rude products of soil into fabrics of unrivalled delicacy and beauty.Architects and sculptors joined in constructing works the solidity of which has not, in some cases, been overcome by the evolution of thousands of years.The ancient state of India must have been one extraordinary magnificence."Robertson in his work A Historical Disquisition Concerning Ancient India records "In all ages gold and silver have been commodities exported with the greatest profit in India" The art of spinning and weaving was very much advanced in ancient India.The Greek word for cotton textiles 'Sindon' is derived from 'Sindhu'.The famous muslin cloth is known to the Greek as 'Gangatika'.Calicut in Kerala was famous for exporting clothes across the world.
To ensure that Industrial revolution of Britain remain sustainable, the British destroyed the weaving industry of India and subsequently ruined the handmade textile.Thereafter, they destroyed the roots of self -managed organisations concept.They also broke down the traditional Indian system of education (gurukula).In 1931, during the round table conference in London Mahatma Gandhi raised his voice and openly criticised the British for breaking down the beautiful tree of Indian Systems and exposing its roots to die and decay.Worst of all the British workers were brought to India to learn the secrets of Indian excellence.The members of British parliament were involved in crafting strategies to sell the British textiles to India and in destroying the Indian textile industry.Sir Thomas Munroe, who was in India for a long time, in the early nineteenth century, reported the following to the Lords committee: "Those articles that the Indian wishes for his food his own country supplies, there is much greater beauty and variety for the clothing it supplies than anything we can furnish him with.I never knew a native who did not have a large piece of coarse woollen of their own manufacture.It is so much cheaper than our manufacture, that i am afraid our woollens can never come into competition with it.They are fully competent to supply all the demands that can arise among themselves and the chief cause of our difficulty of exporting our manufacture to advantage for sale in that country (India) is that we as a manufacturing people are still far behind them.About Indian workers, Thomas Munroe observes: "are not the people of India more sober and diligent and as much employed and skilful in manufacture as inhabitants of any country you are acquainted with?"Further Munroe observes that there can be no human beings more patient, or more industrious or more sober than the Hindus and they derive their knowledge of the arts from the object immediately before them.

The search and quest
The very concept of Management evolved and has developed with the civilizations of the world.India is treasured as a civilization that has been shaping the world for thousands of years.The concept 'management' is not new to India.Contrary to the popular belief that the topic 'management', the way it is being known and practiced today, originated in the west and progressed to the east; the subject management has always been preached and practiced in India since the time of the puranas.Indian Management reflects the ethos, beliefs and intellect of ancient Indian culture.The tradition of Indian ethos goes back to more than 3500 years, way before the days when modern management took root.Indian Management had its strong foothold since ancient Harrapan period, and has been a continuous process and is still in its development stage.The basic tenets of Indian management were observed in the ancient period, Mauryan rule, Gupta rule, Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal period and under the British Empire.Organisations, communities and countries across the globe are now trying to discover and explore their own style and system of management.
Himadri Barman (2013) has compared the modern management concepts with that of ancient, Indian ethos in management, which can be summarized as follows: Teachings from Indian Management: The Spirit of Selfless Service they do not have the English speaking managers.They continue to export their products.
We go to Japan to learn the latest techniques of 'Kaizen'.
Have we ever tried to notice how our wives manage the kitchen?When you got married, on the first day, you preferred to order food through Swiggy or Zomato.The reason being she was novice, not much exposed to cooking.But just within a month she improved a lot and as a year pass by you find her no less than a good cook, how could she do this?She never went to Japan to learn Kaizen -daily improvement to attain the zero defect state was not known to her.
To justify the relevance of Indian Management Swami Someswarananda, the then President of Vivekananda centre for Indian Management, Indore along with his team initiated a battery of experiments in different Private and public sector enterprises.As and when he approached different public and private sector companies, doors were opened and he was allowed to conduct experiments.Through their studies and results of experiments Swami Someswarananda and team could convince that a new approach is needed in industries and organisations to come out with desirable results.The team could discover Indianness; the Indian way to excellence, higher productivity, growth, customer's satisfaction that can always be treated as the Indian version of management and Kaizen.Furthermore, studies and experiments were conducted with many company workers both in public and private sector undertakings.And in places like Pune, Trivendrum, Delhi, Baroda and Chennai the responses were very encouraging.
It would be prudent to share here some of the salient features of these findings.It was found that at the workers level there was lack of self-confidence and selfrespect.There was dearth of self-respect and autonomy.There were not many contributions of unions in this respect.An interesting finding came to light that in public sector, to give importance to concern for workers, the customer centric issues were neglected.While the powerful union members created stubbornness and arrogance, they could not inculcate self-respect .Equally important to point out that autonomy was never practised as it is the leaders, not workers, who have a voice in management.The Vedanta gospel of "Aham Brahmasmi" (I am full of immense potential) played a pivotal role in their studies and experiments.When Swami Someswarananda and team spoke to the workers they thought of themselves as ordinary human beings -a smelter, a fitter, a driver, a crane operator etc.It was equally disheartening to note that their supervisors and bosses do not want them to have any brain or heart.After all, the workers are supposed to follow orders only.When the team was made to realise that each and every one of them had infinite potential it worked miracles.The purpose was to develop in them self-respect and they should start seeing themselves as dignified human beings.It is indeed unfortunate that in the present system an extra ordinary human being is made ordinary.A sweeper is always a sweeper and a watchman remains a watchman throughout life.The discussions, role playing and exercises led to impactful results.The target group became aware of hidden potential that they have and yet to tapped.Swami Someswarananda and team in one such experiment, after the first workshop could achieve fantastic results produced by the workers.Next month, while conducting the second workshop, the trainees expressed their gratitude to the trainer.When Swami Someswarananda praised them for achieving their results, the workers commented " Sir hamne sab kuch banaya yah baat to sahi hai, lekin aapne hamko aadmi banaya.".This indeed speaks what self-respect and autonomy means.The team came to the conclusion that workers are intelligent enough to monitor a project or a job.However the question is how could Swami Someswarananda and team achieved it?They tried to discover the salient features of vedantic principles starting from "Aham Brahmasmi" Thereafter they could churn out more ideas from Gita and karma yoga and put these all in a system.(Swami Someswarananda, 1998).
One of the areas of Management better known as Job enrichment is another debatable concept while Herzberg has already propounded it with Herzberg's hygiene factor and is accepted by the corporations.Can I always get a job of my liking?Shall I have to depend always on external stimuli to get myself motivated from time to time?While Transactional Analysis has its own justifications do i always require positive strokes?If I have to depend on positive strokes, it will make me psychologically dependent.This is where Vedanta comes in and talks about "mind enrichment".The million dollar question is "can I make any job whatever I do, interesting?And that is karma yoga.Let us agree this is what a homemaker practices unknowingly.
Another area that draws our attention is the modern day corporate training programmes.Majority of the training initiatives revolve around preparing a performance oriented employee and manager.The focus is to churn out skilled managers and executives who would be the future ready and market ready leaders.The issue is that in all these Management Development Programs the participants are considered as Managers and Executives only.The facilitator rarely understands that the participant is also a parent, a friend, a relative and above all a citizen.If a training program is to be unified, systematic, comprehensive and integrated then there is a need for all these aspects to be integrated .Else it will remain one sided.From the teachings of Vedanta we have come to know about the concept of 'advaita' that suggests us to see the person in totality.
Emotional Intelligence of late has gained lot of popularity.The theme is to give importance not only to the intellect but also to the emotions, values, beliefs and actions.The roots of the same can be traced through Vedanta that suggests the path of jnana, bhakti and karma.To be successful one need to coordinate the intellect (jnana), emotions (bhakti) and action ( karma).
From Indian Management perspectives in training programs one must involve the participants in discussions (this help them to grow intellectually and be creative), next step is to adopt techniques of meditation to translate the intellectual concept into the feeling level and to remove the mental blocks.Finally, the action steps.Thus when all these three are integrated -jnana, bhakti and karma, the learning from the workshops generate impactful results.
One of the burning issues of the day is job hopping.The employers keep on complaining that the employees are no more committed to their organisations.And this is because money is the sole criteria and job is considered to earn money.Unless a philosophy does not guide people the trend will continue.Vedanta has an answer to the same.The teachings of Vedanta clearly state that work is a means to grow.In Karma yoga Lord Krishna preached that unless there is a deeper meaning to work, efforts are in vain.Vivekananda also chronicles the same through his lectures and discourses.Indian Management and wisdom suggests an alternative concept than the current western concept.According to Indian ethos effective supervision is supervise the growth of people in their workplace.More autonomy and creative opportunities will not only make them more productive but equally motivated and committed.
In motivation two things are more important.First how a manager remains motivated and continues to motivate self in spite of all obstacles.This self-motivation is the most important factor.The second thing is the manager should know how to motivate the subordinate.It is not motivation but inspiration is more important.Sharing of success stories and best practices by the leadership team can be more impactful.
Today India is seen as a dream destination for investors and businessmen.Moreover, business organisations across the world are looking at the East, with more emphasis on values based management models from India.
India is a nation having its fundamental base as truth and non-violence.Being a land of great history, diverse culture, wealth and wisdom, the seers, saints and leaders preached and practiced the essence of love for all -living and non-living beings and to follow the patch of dharma -ethics and values.India's ancient wisdom always attach major importance to certain values like humility, non-violence, tolerance, simplicity, service to teacher, cleanliness, steadfastness, self-control, renunciation, absence of ego, nonattachment etc. (Murali, 2009).The Vedic era has witnessed a strict code of conduct where the duties of the kings, the heads and subjects were stipulated and any deviation was considered sin (Viramani, 2000).The multinational companies and big business houses are equivalent to kingdoms, thus the principles applied in organising the kingdoms can be applied in corporate governance (Govindarajan, 2008).

Conclusion
Finally, Indian insights through concepts of Indian Management can cater through the roots of holistic development of tremendous human potential that lies untapped.They give us intellectual conviction that the ultimate aim and goal of work is perfection and autonomy and not merely monitory benefits and profits.
If we can inculcate the Indian values and in ethos our executives, managers and corporate captains that unselfishness is the path to achieve the goal.
Indian society has a great and glorious background and it had a global impact.Today, however, India is not in the forefront.It is, therefore, necessary to retrospect and delve what was it that made India a great civilization and then using the tenets, principles and approaches for our managerial and leadership practices.As we explore through the shastras, we find that they have clearly understood the human behaviour and interactions and have dealt with all the complicated problems of life with very consummate skills and consideration.The intellectual modern scientists and thinkers are now realising that they were perhaps dealing with things, which are only peripheral and they have not yet been able to go deep into the crux, core and essential.A compartmentalised approach to any problem is bound to lead to incomplete theories.Thus it is only a holistic view and approach which can give us a satisfactory solution and out of that will come joy and happiness, not in competition and tension but in the spirit of cooperation and equanimity.
thinking during the course of their discussions.The cultural comparisons between the East and West have been a subject of debate till.In 2007 Chakraborty could lucidly highlight the differences.While the work done by Daniel Albuquerque in 2009 revolves around the principles of consciousness largely based on the philosophy propagated by Sri Aurobindo, influenced by the Indian Ethos Himadri Barman articulated on value based management in 2013.While Mala Kapadia in 2009 could explore the application of heartskills in management and leadership, it is Interesting to note that Sangeeta Menon in 2010 was drawn towards learning from Upanishads lucidly linking them with leadership skills.Worth mentioning is the work done by Meera Chakraborty in 2011 on the impact of colours in human minds to Management and society.
Chakraborty taught in TELCO, TISCO, BHEL, RBI, BEL, Bhilwara Group of industries, Oil India etc. Mrs Gita Patil in Reliance Group of Industries.

Table : Comparative analysis: Western management vs. Indian and Eastern values
Source: Adapted from IndianEthos and Values in Modern Management, Himadri Barman (2013)management studies we do not give much importance to these examples in our textbooks.And thus we miss the salient features of Indian style of Management.Let us visit Moradabad.It is famous for brasswares;