Managerial Effectiveness from the Perspectives of the Bhagavad-Gita

By

Balakrishnan Muniapan

School of BusinessCurtin University of Technology

Sarawak, MALAYSIA.

Abstract

Managerial effectiveness is predominately culture specific(Sharma, 2001). This means each country and community need to develop their own system of developing managerial effectiveness. Recognizing the important of culture in management practice, this paper attempts to explore managerial effectiveness from the perspectives of the Bhagavad-Gita. The Bhagavad-Gita is an ancient Indian spiritual and philosophical text and is more than 5000 years old. Chinmayananda (2003) asserted that from time to time an ancient philosophy needs intelligent re-interpretation to apply effectively in the context of modern times. Based on text and content analysis of selected verses from the Bhagavad-Gita, some relevance of the Bhagavad-Gita in the development of managerial effectiveness is explored in this paper.

Introduction (1)

People, today is exploring philosophy, transpersonal psychology, meditation, Yoga, Vedanta, Buddhism, Taoism, and many other spiritual schools of thought. There has also been an increasing interest in integrating spirituality and management as the numbers of articles on spirituality in management journals are increasing (Kale and Shrivastava, 2003).

One of the ancient Indian spiritual text is the Bhagavad-Gita or the “Song of the Lord” , which provides the essence of the Vedas, which was delivered by Sri Krishna to Arjuna more than 50 centuries ago in Kurukshestra, India.

The background for the Bhagavad-Gita is the epic Mahabharata. The Mahabharatawas composed by Sri VyasaMuni (son of Parasara Muni) and was written by Sri Ganesamore than 5000 years ago and it has 110,000 verses.

The Bhagavad-Gita appears in 700 verses (of which 575 are uttered by Sri Krishna) in Bhisma Parva of the Mahabharata and consists of 18 chapters.

The Mahabharata narrates the war between two cousins; the 5 Pandavas and 100 Kauravas to claim the kingdom of Hastinapura.

The Bhagavad-Gitawas given on the battlefield before the commencement of the war. The battlefield represent our body where an unending battle is raging between the forces of good and evil.

Introduction (2)

Sri Krishna and Arjuna in the Midst of the Two Armies

Objectives of the Paper

The broad purpose of this paper is to explore the managerial effectiveness from the perspectives of the Bhagavad-Gita, which presents one of the Indian (Vedic) views on managerial effectiveness.

The philosophy of Bhagavad-Gita should not be viewed from spiritual perspectives only but also as a guide in developing managerial effectiveness.

The scope, content and context of managerial effectiveness is wide, however in this paper the author explores three basic principles on improving managerial effectiveness from the selected verses from the Bhagavad-Gita. The three principles are mind management, management of duty and the principles of self management.

Methodology

This paper is based on the qualitative research methodology called hermeneutics, which is the interpretation of ancient or classical literatures.

Hermeneutics is also concerned with the usage of language and the process of using language. The Mahabharatawas written in the Sanskrit language, one of the oldest languages in the world.

The translation of the Bhagavad-Gita requires a good mastery of Sanskrit. As a result the main English translation of the Bhagavad-Gita verses quoted in this paper is based on the authoritative translation of AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Limitations

The Bhagavad-Gita is perceived as a spiritual and philosophical text, as such it is not directly related to managerial effectiveness.

The Bhagavad-Gita is also perceived only as an Hindu scripture, as such foreigners and other Indians who are not Hindu will find it difficult to accept the Bhagavad-Gita

However, there is no doubt that the principles propounded in the Bhagavad-Gita are have universal application and useful for managers to mould their character and strengthen their self to develop their managerial effectiveness

Managerial Effectiveness (ME)Management is an interdisciplinary field with contributions from various fields such as psychology, social psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science, economics and finance (Muniapan, 2005)

Management is an art of getting things done through people, efficiently and effectively

Henry Minzberg (1973), in his book the Nature of Managerial Work (cited in Robbins, 2003) provided ten roles of managers play for increasing managerial effectiveness, which can be divided into interpersonal roles, informational roles and decisional roles

In order to play these roles effectively, managers need some sets of skills; Robbins (2003) also cited Robert Kaltz three types of managerial skills, which includes technical skills, human skills and conceptual skills.

Bhagavad-Gita and ME

The Bhagavad-Gitawas delivered by Sri Krishna to boost Arjuna’s declining morale, motivation, confidence to his (Arjuna) intra-personal conflict, which was to fight or not to fight the war at Kurukshestra

Sri Krishna gave not only spiritual enlightenment to Arjuna( and to all of us) but also the art of self management, conflict management, stress &, anger management, transformational leadership, motivation, goal setting and many others aspects of management which can be used as a guide to increase our managerial effectiveness.

Unlike the western approach to managerial effectiveness, which focuses in exploring the external world of matter and energy, the Bhagavad-Gita recommends a managerial effectiveness approach, which focuses on exploring the inner world of the self.

When Arjuna saw his friends and relatives, he was de-motivated

Sri Krishna, played the role of teacher (management trainer, developer), to revive Arjuna’smotivation

Mind Management & ME (1)

Sri Krishna, embarked on the following sermon:-

“O son of Prtha (Arjuna), do not yield to this degrading impotence. It does not become you. Give up such petty weakness of heart and arise, O chastiser of enemy” (B.G. 2.3)

Sri Krishna desired that Arjuna as well as all the readers of Bhagavad-Gita could cast off weakness of heart in performing duties. Managers who are mentally weak cannot attain the organizational vision and mission. The mind of the manager must be firmin driving the organizational resources (human resources) towards vision and mission.

Arjuna said: For the mind is restless, turbulent, obstinate and very strong, O Krishna, and to subdue it is, it seems to me, more difficult than controlling the wind. (B.G. 6.34)

Sri Krishna said: Omighty-armed son of Kunti (Arjuna), it is undoubtedly very difficult to curb the restless mind, but it is possible by constant practice and by detachment. (B.G.6.35)

Mind Management & ME (2)

Management development programs in organizations should focus in creating and developing managers and organizational members to be strong and be mentally fearless.

An untrained mind is very weak and unstable, as a result even a small obstacle coming in its way may make it lose initiative.

Sri Krishna also mentioned that for one who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends, but for one who has failed to control their mind, the mind will be the greatest enemy. (B.G. 6.6)

In the chariot of the body, the five horses represent the five senses (tongue, eyes, ears, nose and skin). The reins, the driving instrument, symbolize the mind, the driver is the intelligence, and the passenger is the self.

Managers should use their intelligence to control the mind (the driving instrument), they should not let the mind to be controlled by the senses.

The Chariot Model

Duty and ME (1)

Duty is given great importance in the Bhagavad-Gita. Duty in the organizational context goes beyond contractual agreement in the employment relationship. Sri Krishna motivates and encourages Arjuna to do his duty and not to run away from the battlefield.

Perform your prescribed duty, for doing so is better than not working. One cannot even maintain one’s physical body without work (B.G 3.8)

Sri Krishna further stressed that duty needs to be done without attachment and for those who do their duty without attachment will attain the supreme goal (B.G 3.19)

Sri Krishna instructed Arjuna to perform his work (duty) for the sake of educating the people in general.

Duty and ME (2)

The success and failures of any organization can be attributed to leadership

The manager (leader) in the context of organization needs to set example to their followers as whatever the leader does, the followers will follow and whatever standards or example the leader sets people in general will follow. (B.G. 3.21)

This lesson in leadership given by Sri Krishna is not only limited to leaders in the work organization but each and every leader, including kings, ministers, community leaders, fathers or teachers.

Self Management & ME (1)

The Bhagavad-Gita stresses the importance of self management or personal management first before personnel management (HRM). Self management includes all aspects of management of oneself such as managing life, time, stress, anger, fear and self-control

In explaining the position of a self realized person (B.G. 18.51-18.53), among others, Sri Krishna stressed the aspects such as controlling the mind, determination, giving up sense gratification, being free from attachment and hatred, body and mind control, power of speech, free from false ego, false pride and anger as essential part of self management.

Sri Krishna described that from anger, complete delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence will be lost and when intelligence is lost one falls down (B.G. 2.63)

Self Management (2)

In describing qualities of brahmanas (intelligent managers) (B.G. 18.42), Sri Krishna stressed the qualities such as peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, honesty, knowledge, wisdom and religiousness and in describing the qualities of ksatriyas (administrative managers) (B.G. 18.43), Sri Krishna identified qualities such as heroism, power, determination, resourcefulness, courage in battle, generosity and leadership.

The Bhagavad-Gita gives the importance to self (personal) management before any other management especially personnel management (HRM).

Motivation to Succeed & ME

The term “motivation” refers to the driving force (internal and external), which explains behavior.

Motivating employees towards high performance is the task of every manager. Although the level of motivation varies among individuals, the manager firstly must understand the employee’s need.

In many verses of the Bhagavad-Gita, Sri Krishna motivates and energizes Arjuna to do his duty.

Sri Krishna focuses on the internal (intrinsic) motivation more than external (extrinsic) motivation.

Transformational Leadership & ME

After hearing 575 verses from Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita, Arjuna was motivated, energized and acted according to Sri Krishna’s instruction.

This is transformation management (leadership), as quoted by Narayana (1998) who explained what happened after the Bhagavad-Gita – “He (Arjuna) stood steady on the ground with bow and arrow in hand. He lifted his arms ready to fight the war”.

Sri Krishna demonstrated transformational leadership qualities in developing and guiding Arjuna to victory in the war.

Conclusion

Modern managers, can benefit from the philosophy of Bhagavad-Gita, which serves as a guide in developing managerial effectiveness. Mere imitation of western ME approaches may not be appropriate in the Indian (Asian) context due to differences in the cultural environment.

The philosophy of Bhagavad-Gita has remained and will remain as a guide for developing managerial effectiveness, not only in this 21st

century but also for many centuries more to come.

Arjuna's illusion has now gone. He is motivated to win the war for the Pandavas. This is due to Sri Krishna, who became the adviser for Arjunaand transformed him (Arjuna) and the Pandavas to victory.

This is a lesson inME.

Wherever there isSri Krishna andArjuna, there will be Victory

Thank You

BalakrishnanMuniapan

mbalakrsna@yahoo.com