Requisites, Elements, Role of Indian Ethos in Managerial Practices

Requisites

• Humanising the Organisation: Looking at the three aspects of humane organisations, i.e., inter personal relations, man-machine equation where man is the prime concern and inner management through mental and spiritual growth of individuals.
• Management Attitude: Top management having firm belief in value-oriented holistic management. Profit is earned through service and satisfaction of all stakeholders employees, customers, shareholders and citizens. Fulfillment of social responsibility must be ensured.
• Interiorising Management: Self-management or management by consciousness. When the soul manages the other four members of the human being, namely, the body, mind, intellect and the heart, the conflict these four have amongst themselves can be resolved. This is called management by consciousness. The objective of self management is to first know and manage oneself and then manage others.
• Brain-Stilling: For rational and enduring decisions, silent mind is a necessity. A perfect Mounum(calm mind enjoying tranquillity) is necessary. Brain-stilling or meditative silence is the most reliable method to discover solutions to problems which seem to be difficult to tackle by reason and intellect, because through this, one can come into contact with the inner mind or higher consciousness, called Chetana.
• Self-Introspection: Embark upon self-study, self analysis and selfcriticism to locate areas of friction and disharmony, a self examination of one’s own feelings, thoughts, emotions, sensations and passions and a desire to reduce and subdue the ego.
• Stepping-back (For a While): Never decide anything, never speak a word and never throw yourself into action without stepping-back. The stepping-back from a situation for a while enables one to control and master a situation.
• Role of Intuition: Intuition is the act of coming to direct knowledge or certainty without reasoning or inferring. It is immediate cognition by the inner mind and when fully developed, is efficient and effective for taking prompt and sound decisions. Intuition skills enable one to cope with confidence the fluctuating environment and rapid changes. Faith is a prerequisite to develop and realise the power of intuition.
• Self-Dynamising Meditation: A dynamic meditation helps in transformation of lower consciousness into higher consciousness and hence is called transforming meditation. Through meditation, one reaches a higher level of consciousness with a silent and calm mind, which offers guidance in the form of intuitions to tackle a multitude of problems. This is called consciousness approach to management.

Elements

1. Focus on the permanent: In real life fashions change, concepts change, situations change, environments change, however, certain things do not change. These are the values of the good, truth and beautiful. The recent experience in the 90s and the early part of this century shows, that the world is re-discovering the principle of ‘honesty is the best policy’. After all, honesty is linked to truth and that is the first principle which perhaps underlines human existence.
2. Quest for Perfection: It has been immortalised in the shloka:

“Om poornamada poornamidam poornathpurana mudachyate poornasya poornamadaya poornameva vashistate”

Out of perfection comes perfection. This quest for perfection ultimately, is the quest for quality. When it comes to quality, the concepts like total quality management, etc., have only once again underlined this principle of the fact that quality products and services cannot come out of an organisation unless the principle of quality pervades every function of that organisation.

3. Joy in Performing One’s Function: It was Deming who said that ’quality’ is the pride, which an artisan takes in his craft. It is the pride which an artist takes in his art. If one is enjoying what one is doing, automatically, he is bound to do extremely well; and while excellence becomes a by-product or a spin of the benefit of happiness, it also leads to success. After all, every excellent organisation has excellent morale.

Excellence, in terms of enjoyment through doing is the third aspect of Indian ethos. It is found that this aspect is not only restricted to India, but is universally applicable.

Role

Indian Ethos in Management refers to the values and practices that the culture of India (Bharatheeya Sanskriti) can contribute to service, leadership and management. These values and practices are rooted in Sanathana Dharma (the eternal essence), and have been influenced by various strands of Indian philosophy.

Indian ethos for management means the application of principles of management as revealed in our ancient wisdom brought forth in our sacred books like our Gita, Upanishads, Bible and Kuran.

The ancient Indian Education was basically aimed at personal growth of individual. Our education system is the oldest in the world and is having some qualities which are not there anywhere else in the world and we are proud of this. The aim of ancient Indian Education System was not only to give theoretical knowledge but to make an individual humble so that he can get ‘Mukti’. The ultimate aim of human society of that age was the achievement of absolute i.e. ‘Brahma’ it was prevailing in the entire visible world. A man should engage himself in ‘Karmopasna’ i.e. work is worship and thus purity his inner senses and gain the absolute. The main aim of all the education during ancient period was to make the student useful and pious member of society. This was the second aim of education. This was achieved by proper development of moral feelings. It was believed that mere intellectual knowledge was not enough to become a learned fellow; in addition, the student must be pure in his life, thoughts and habits. This was the third main characteristic of Hindu Educational System. This was realized by encouraging self- confidence, fostering self-respect and self-restraint. Graduate students were highly inspired during convocation address to be useful member of the society. A graduate student was not to lead a self-centered life rather he was constantly remained of his obligations to the society. Social life in villages was very stable and well-ordered as education transformed people and made them conscious of their social duties and civic responsibilities. During the ancient period, Aryans evolved a peculiar system for promoting the progress of different art forms and professions. In the society, a particular caste was restricted to a particular occupation. Eventually, this system has resulted in general progress and happiness of society. In the ancient system of education this was one of the most important aims. People were very much conscious of their culture.

• Inward considerations: Indian ethos focuses on ‘if a person is good then the whole world is good’. Any organization which follows the above ethical thought automatically get converted into an ethical organization with less conflicts and hindrances.
• Creates strong relation: Organizations following Indian ethos consider humanity as supreme. This provides a strong bond with internal as well as external customers, resulting in an improved performance.
• Avoids unethical aspects: As Indian ethos is a principle derived from Upanishads, Bhagwat Gita and Puranas, where the performance is always ethical
• Improves performance: Indian ethos impacts the performance of business by emphasising on the concept like sacrificing individual desires in favour of social benefits, preferring long-term benefits.
• Balanced values: Indian ethos promotes a person to live a life of materialism and spirituality by maintaining a balance between spiritual values and secular values.
• Improves quality: Self-motivation and self-development helps a lot in development of business and its quality
• Develops self-reliability
• Helps in problem solving

Basic Principles of Indian Ethos for Management (IEM):

1. Immense potential, energy and talents for perfection as human being has the spirit within his heart.
2. Holistic approach indicating unity between the Divine (the Divine means perfection in knowledge, wisdom and power), individual self and the universe.
3. Subtle, intangible subject and gross tangible objects are equally important. One must develop one’s Third Eye, Jnana Chaksu, the Eye of Wisdom, Vision, Insight and Foresight. Inner resources are much more powerful than outer resources. Divine virtues are inner resources. Capital, materials and plant & machinery are outer resources.
4. Karma Yoga (selfless work) offers double benefits, private benefit in the form of self Purification and public benefit.
5. Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam: Excellence at work through self-motivation and

Self development with devotion and without attachment. Co-operation is a powerful instrument for team work and success in any enterprise involving collective work. Principles of IEM are universally applicable. IEM can help develop an effective and holistic management pattern which will assure all round growth in productivity, marketing and profitability. This will help in synchronizing private and public benefits and encourage individuals to lead an enriched quality of life together with worldly achievements. The best form of management has to be holistic and value driven which is the objective of IEM.