Hindu Holy Book

1. Managerial Effectiveness from
the Perspectives of the Bhagavad-Gita
By
Balakrishnan Muniapan
School of Business
Curtin University of similar
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Technology
Sarawak, MALAYSIA.
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2. 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.
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3. 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 inintegrating 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 50centuries ago in Kurukshestra, India.
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4. Introduction (2)
The background for the Bhagavad-Gita is the epic Mahabharata. The
Mahabharata was composed by Sri Vyasa Muni (son of Parasara Muni) and
was written by Sri Ganesa more 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-Gita was 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.
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5. Sri Krishna and Arjuna in the Midst
of the Two Armies
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6. 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.
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7. 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 Mahabharata was 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.
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8. 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.
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9. 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.
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10. Bhagavad-Gita and ME (Managerial Effectiveness )
The Bhagavad-Gita was 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.
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11. Bhagavad-Gita and ME (Managerial Effectiveness )
When Arjuna saw
his friends and
relatives, he was
de-motivated.
Sri Krishna, played
the role of teacher
(management
trainer, developer),
to revive Arjuna’s
motivation
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12. 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 firm
in driving the organizational resources (human resources) towards
vision and mission.
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13. 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: O
mighty-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)
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14. 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)
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15. 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.
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16. 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.
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17. 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.
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18. 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)
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19. Self Management & ME (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).
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20. 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).
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21. 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.
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22. Conclusion
Modern managers, can benefit from thephilosophy of Bhagavad-Gita,
which serves as aguide 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.
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23. 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 Arjuna
and transformed him
(Arjuna) and the
Pandavas to victory.
This is a lesson in ME.
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24. Wherever there is
Sri Krishna and
Arjuna, there will
be Victory
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