1. SPIRITUALISATION OF MANAGEMENT
Business is like a spiritual journey.” Don’t be surprised if you hear these words,
not from a seer, but a B-school graduate set to enter the corporate world. These
prospective managers and entrepreneurs see an essential connect between
spirituality and business in today’s world. Students of IIM and other B-schools
may not be following a particular spiritual guru, but they acknowledge the
advantages the world of spiritualism has. The followers of management
philosophy do not shun the parallels drawn between Mahabharata and business
world. In fact, they feel there are “several lessons that can be learnt by adopting
a spiritual approach to managing corporations” . Following a lecture by the 14th
Dalai Lama at IIM-Ahmadabad, the students say spirituality has a significant
role to play in the corporate world. According to some, a session on spirituality
can do wonders considering the increasing levels of stress in today’s world. Said
professor Anil Gupta, IIMA, “Spirituality cannot be taught. It means
understanding the deeper meaning to your life. And nobody can teach you that if
you refuse to see the mirror yourself. Though a dialogue can certainly help.”
Incidentally, their counterparts in IIMBangalore have taken lessons from the
Mahabharata. Professor Ramnath Narayanaswamy, IIM-Bangalore , through his
elective course—Spirituality for Global Managers—has made students look at
Krishna as the CEO, Yudhishthir as the one who binds together values, Bhima
for the outcomes, Arjun for learning, Karna for legitimacy , Nakul for process
and Sahdev for purpose. He says spirituality enables students “develop life skills
and negotiate the world better” .Praveen Krishnan, a second-year PGP student at
IIM-B , is a staunch believer in the concept of spirituality. “The company that
chases short-term goals lives and perishes in the short term. What the Gita
advocates, is an expansion of this measure of time to extend beyond just a few
decades. It discusses eternal existence, much similar to the accountant’s
principle of a going concern ,” he says. Spiritual awakening is not restricted to
IIMs. At the SP Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) in Mumbai,
first-year students can volunteer for a three-day workshop at a spiritual ashram.
Anirudh Pawa, final year student of Jamnalal Bajaj Institute Of Management
Studies, Mumbai, says, “Spirituality can play an important role in shaping a
student’s personality and way of handling stress or negativity . We would love
to have such sessions in our college.” With increasing stress on corporate social
responsibility (CSR) by businesses, spirituality is a common topic for the HR
department in most organizations. The corporate world is encouraging
spirituality as a way to boost loyalty and enhance employee morale. Ethics and
spiritual values into the workplace can lead to increased productivity and
profitability as well as employee retention. It also generates better emotional
bonding among employees.”When management students take self-realization
seriously, spirituality might become an elixir for the corporate world’s critical
problems, the most important of them being stress.