35 Indian Thought and Management

Pooja Malhotra

1. Learning Outcome:

After completing this module the students will be able to:

• Understand the concept of management thoughts
• Understand the management thoughts developed in Ancient India
• Understand the development of management education and thoughts in modern India.

2. Introduction

Management is the concerned with getting things done through others. It is an important function of an organization. Management is practiced in every facet of life. Besides in organizations, whether corporate or non-corporate, it is applied in our personal lives also. One makes plans for his/her future, organizes the resources, motivates and directs himself towards the achievement of his goals and also controls his actions. Similarly, a housewife manages her house very well. Hence, management is a universal concept. The evolution of management dates back to the time when civilization was developed. Many well accepted principles of management of today can be found in historical records of various civilizations, may it be the one of the oldest civilizations, the Sumerian Civilization (around 5000 B.C.). In Sumerian civilization, the temple priests used to collect taxes and manage estate. The ancient Egyptian civilization (5000 to 525 B.C.) also reported to have used many sophisticated techniques of planning, organizing and controlling in the construction of pyramids and buildings. The ancient Indian civilization is also reported to have knowledge of management principles. The extracts of cities of Harappa and Mohen-jo-daro, show the evidence of presence of management skill in the ancient India.
The holy Vedas, the Ramayana and the Gita are the main Indian epics which highlight the practice of managerial principles.

Kautilya’s Arthashastra written in about 321 B.C. by Kautilya also named as Vishnu Gupta and is popularly known as Chanakya. This work mainly describes the principles and practices of economics and politics but it also drives ideas concerned with management. The book covers the various aspects of operations of a State like duties of a ruler, his ministers, etc. it also states about the meetings, departments of government, diplomats, war and peace. It also covers the organization and management of trade and commerce. Thus, Chanakya has written on all aspects of management. Chanakya is considered to be the earliest or the first writer on management in India.

Hence, development of management thoughts in India has been categorized into two main parts: Ancient India and Modern India.

3. Management thoughts in Ancient India

Management thoughts in ancient India can be traced in the Vedas, Hindu Epics, religious books, books of Buddhists and Jains, etc. Indian management thoughts can be studied in the context of three major historical aspects: the holy Ramayana, Bhagvad Gita and the earliest writer on management in India, Chanakya.

3.1 Ramayana and Management:

The morals and lessons from the epic Ramayana can be applied to the management. In Ramayana, when Lord Rama along with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana were sent to forests unfortunately Ravana kidnapped Sita. Ravana was a very strong and powerful king. The main challenge for Lord Rama was to defeat Ravana and rescue his wife Sita from Lanka. Lord Rama was a good leader with various traits like confidence, visionary, positive attitude, good organizer, ambitious, patience, elegance and empathy. Now, we can compare the personality traits of Lord Rama and events from the great Ramayana with modern concepts and principles of management.

Ramayana Events and Traits of Lord Rama and Shri Hanuman	Management Concepts and Principles
The determination and bravery of Lord Rama to accept all kinds of risks in order to protect the promise of his father, King Dasharatha.	Change Management
His mission was to defeat Ravana and his army and rescue Sita	Clarity in Vision
As against Ravana’s powerful army, army of Rama was weak. Rama prepared and strengthens his army under his leadership	Believe and strengthen your abilities to achieve your objectives
Proper planning and strategy was prepared by Lord Rama to rescue Sita. A number of activities were taken like sending search parties including Shri Hanuman, building an overseas bridge and sending a direct challenge to Ravana for fight.	Planning to achieve objectives
Lord Rama took the help of vanara army of king Sugriva. He also taught them the fighting skills in war and also motivated them for the war mission.	Organizing resources
Lord Rama divided the Vanara army into four groups to search Sita. One such group was headed by Jambavanta in which Shri Hanuman was a team player. Lord Rama directed all the groups to lead the march. The Jambavanta group succeeded in the mission and Shri Hanuman found Sita in Lanka.	Directing as per the plans and objectives
Lord Rama directed his army to build overseas bridge to Lanka to rescue Sita. It resulted into less life risk to the vanara army and it became easy to connect to Lanka and defeat Ravana	Management control, motivation, communication and risk management along with decision making
Lord Rama along with Lakshmana, Shri Hanuman and vanara army attacked Lankan army and defeated Ravana and rescued Sita.	Team spirit, team work and coordination
After reaching Lanka, Shri Hanuman did a complete analysis of Lanka to assess the Lankan’s strengths, weaknesses and various threats and opportunities provided by Lankan army.	SWOT analysis
Shri Hanuman was very strong physically as well as with his moral thoughts. The leader of his group, Jambvant motivated Hanuman to go Lanka and locate Sita. Hanauman took initiative and got ready for the challenge.	Motivation and Initiative
During his search operations, Hanuman might have killed Ravana because he had all the abilities to kill Ravana. But he chose to abide by the directions given by Lord Rama.	Abiding the rules and regulations as directed by management
On the first day of fight, Ravana was left weaponless by Rama, but he was allowed to return to his fortress because the code of conduct followed by Rama stipulated that an unarmed enemy not be attacked.	Following a code of conduct and ethics
Lord Rama interacted freely with the people of his kingdom. He developed good relations with people regardless of their status and treated everybody with politeness and respect.	Interaction and building harmonious relations
Lord Rama took Vibhishan under his protection. He then consulted with various army chiefs, some of whom disagreed with Rama. But Lord Rama removed their suspicions and got them ready to accept his decision.	Consultation with subordinates

3.2  Bhagvad Gita and Management

In the war field of Kurukshetra, king Arjuna got mentally disturbed after realizing that he had to fight with his relatives. To motivate him, Lord Krishna did his counseling and preached the holy Bhagvad Gita. Bhagvad Gita teaches us all the management tactics and strategies to solve any critical situation and achieve mental peace. It can also be used as a powerful means for transformation of one’s life. Following are the management guidelines or principles or excerpts from Bhagvad Gita:

Efficiency and Effectiveness: Management is a process of organizing and coordinating people and getting them ready to do work for a common goal i.e. the maximum social benefit. Now the question arises, how managers can be effective and efficient in their jobs. The answer lies in Bhagavad Gita, which repeatedly states that you must try to manage yourself’ because unless a manager reaches a level of excellence and effectiveness, he will not be able to manage the things. Once an individual improves his/her thinking, it will automatically enhance the quality of his/her actions and the ultimate results.

Utilization of available resources: the essence of management is to choose and utilize the available resources wisely and optimally. Before the Mahabharata war began, Duryodhana selected Lord Krishna’s army while Arjuna chose Lord Krishna’s wisdom. This also reflects the nature of effective manager, where Duryodhana selected numbers while Arjuna selected wisdom.

Work Commitment: Bhagvad Gita advises us to work with commitment without expecting the fruits or results of the actions performed during the course of our duty. If our main concern is to calculate the date of promotion or commissions before putting our sincere efforts, it will lead to unrest in our mind and more materialistic. The best way for effective performance management is the developing the state of mind for ‘nishkama karma.’

Motivation: Satisfaction of employees is a major aspect of performance management. However, in reality, from level employee to upper level manager all show their dissatisfaction. Self-transcendence theory as propounded by Bhagvad Gita can solve this problem. This is a state when one moves ahead and beyond his ordinary limitations. This state can be developed by removing egoism, subordinating personal interests to others, team work, co-operation, harmony and trust and sacrificing the lower needs for achieving higher goals.

Work Culture: Lord Krishna stated about two types of work cultures, ‘`daivi sampat’ or divine work culture and `asuri sampat’ or demonic work culture. Divine work culture involves purity, fearlessness, self-control, honesty, absence of fault-finding, sacrifice, absence of greed, calmness, politeness, gentleness, modesty, absence of envy and pride. On the other hand, the demonic work culture involves egoism, fantasy, personal desires and ambitions and improper performance. The former work culture results in improvement of results and performance while, the later may give short run gains but ruins the long run and future performance of the organization. Hence, ethics in work should be applied.

Work Results: as already stated, Bhagvad Gita explains the theory of detachment of expecting results or rewards of work; it also states that the results of a job or work should not be appropriated by the doer only. For example, in case, the results of a sincere effort are a success, the entire credit should not be taken by the doer alone. Similarly, if the result is a failure, even then the entire blame should not be made to the doer only. The former attitude will not result into arrogance and pride while the latter attitude will prevent de-motivation and depression. Both these temperaments will protect the doer against psychological vulnerability, the reason behind modern mangers various health issues like high blood pressure, diabetes, stress etc.

Goal Orientation: as inspired by Lord Krishna’s lessons, Arjuna got ready to fight the battle. He changed his apathetic mind to the state of virtuous mind. Lord Krishna also reminded him for the goal for which he is fighting. He has to fight not for his own desire or greed or benefit but for the good of many, with the faith of victory of good or ethics over the evil or unethical actions and truth over untruth. Hence, a manager should also focus on his goals where organizational goals are supreme to his personal goals.

Accountability: Bhagvad Gita states that every work, job or action comes with certain results and accountability. Good actions bring good results while bad actions results in evil.

The modern management concepts of vision, motivation, leadership, excellence, goal orientation, decision making and planning, are all discussed in the Bhagavad Gita. The one major difference lies where modern management tackles the problems of men, money, materials and other resources, Bhagvad Gita studies the issues from human thinking point of view. The functions of a manager can be summed up as follows which result from the lessons of Bhagvad Gita:

• Form vision and mission.

• Plan the policies and strategies to achieve the vision and the mission.

• Develop the art of leadership.

• Establish institutional excellence.

• Lead to innovation.

• Develop human resources.

• Build teams and teamwork.

• Delegation, motivation, and communication.

• Review the performance and take corrective actions when necessary.

3.3  Chanakya’s Principles of Management

Chanakya is known as the world’s first economist, strategist and management guru. His management thoughts and ideas guided rulers and kings for centuries. His book Kautilya’s Arthashastra and his 6000 sutras presents some of the key principles, guidelines and strategies for sound management and governance, which are relevant even in today’s scenario and would be in future also. The construct for governance from his book also called ‘saptangas’ reveals the seven pillars of a successful kingdom. These seven pillars are applicable to present times also. With the help of these pillars, an organization can work efficiently and effectively.

Seven Pillars for Business Success

The seven pillars for business success are as follows:

SWAMI – SWAMI means The King (The Leader). The leader is the visionary and the captain, the man who sets the vision and the direction. In present corporate world he is known as the Director, CEO, etc.

AMATYA – AMATYA means The Minister (The Manager). The manager is the person who is the second-in-command. His job is to take the ship in the right direction to achieve the vision as set out by the leader.

JANAPADA – JANAPADA means The Country (Market). Businesses exist to serve markets. Markets represent the area of operations. It is the market to whom one sells his product or service and from where revenue is generated.

DURGA – DURGA means The Fortified City (Infrastructure). Infrastructure is the center of any organization. With the help of the infrastructure, central administrative work is done. Present times, it is both physical as well as digital.

KOSHA – KOSHA means The Treasury (Finance). Finance is the lifeblood of any organization. Every organization must have a strong and well-managed treasury or finance department.

DANDA – DANDA means The Army (Team). The Army comprises the team members. The team includes persons from lower section to upper level like executive, managers, the salesmen, the accountant, foremen, workers, even the driver and the peon.

MITRA – MITRA means The Ally (Mentor). The Ally is the friend, philosopher and the guide, who guides and gives solution to problems. He works as the mentor.

As per the thoughts of great thinkers, ‘The Arthashastra’ is a book about the management of the ‘human mind’. Human beings require self control, discipline and management to empty their minds which are filled with evils of ego, jealousy and hatred.

4. Development of Management in Modern India

Management education has its evolution since the time of development of education in India. Education system was founded in India in medieval period with the entry of muslim rulers. Traders coming to India from all over the world also brought their cultures and also impact the education system. The muslim rulers established elementary and secondary schools in eleventh century. With passage of time, universities were established at Delhi, Lucknow and Allahabad. Madrassas were also set up. It paved the way for progress of education system in India which lasted till 1848. With the establishment of British Rule in India a new education system was started which became the base for the education in independent India and even in modern times also.

After independence, there was a need to integrate and transfer resources around the world for growth in capital and markets in India. This integration and exchange also affected education system in India. The first business school at college level was founded in 1913 in Mumbai, Sydenham College. Till then there has been a tremendous increase in establishment of management institutes in India. The management education in India mostly is based on western management education system. After the globalization of business, the management education in India is also undergoing changes. After the early twentieth century, management education is playing a major role to improve the skills and efficiency of the organization.

The growth of management education has also developed management theory over time. During the last three decades, the western concepts of management are widely adopted in Indian organizational settings. The concepts ranged from the Taylor’s scientific management, Management by objective (MBO), Fayols’s fourteen principles of management, Management by Exceptions, business process reengineering (BPR) to Japanese Management concepts etc. Indian Universities and Institutes have framed and designed courses in management based on western education models to develop the requisite qualities in a modern managerial person.

5. Summary

The evolution of management dates back to the time when civilization was developed. Many well accepted principles of management of today can be found in historical records of various civilizations. The ancient Indian civilization is also reported to have knowledge of management principles. The cities of Harappa and Mohen-jo-daro, found in excavations, show the evidence of presence of management skill in the ancient India. The holy Vedas, the Ramayana and the Gita are the main Indian epics which highlight the practice of managerial principles. Kautilya’s Arthashastra by Chanakya describes the principles and practices of economics and politics but it also drives ideas concerned with management.

The modern growth of management education and institutes in India has been driven by the growth of globalization and establishment of MNCs in India, which require professional and qualified managerial personnel. The management concepts in India are derived from western concepts and theories of management. The principles of management, as laid down by Henry Fayol, Principles of Scientific Management as laid down by F.W. Taylor, Management by Objectives, Management by Exception, Japanese Management Concepts etc. are being adopted by organizations in India for the efficient and effective working of its operations. Indian Universities and Institutes have framed and designed courses in management based on western education models to develop the requisite qualities in a modern managerial person.

References:

• Virmani B.R, and Mahurkar, P., “Dualism in Indian Management”, Working Paper, Centre for Organization Research & Development in Management (CORD-M), Hyderabad.

• Kumari, T. (2012), “Management’s Origin and Development: A Historical Perspective,” proceedings of paper at International Conference on History, Literature and Management (ICHLM’), Dubai (UAE), Oct. 6-7.