Management concepts from bhagbat Gita

Most of us consider and look up to Gita as Spiritual book. For the Hindus it holds the same position as Bible is for Christians. Although there is not an iota of doubt of Gita as a spiritual guide of very high order, but looking towards Gita only as a spiritual guide will be underestimating its other dimensions. Gita can also be viewed as agreat management guide where the great management Guru Krishna advices today’s managers on how to deal with difficult situations.

In this view point Arjuna can be considered as a highly skilled worker who is overwhelmed by seeing the task at hand and begins to doubt his own abilities. How Lord Krishna re-motivates Arjuna to do his job gives us a glimpse of his leadership qualities. The concepts of management that we get from Gita are;-

Utilization of available resources

The first lesson of management science is to choose wisely and utilize scarce resources optimally. During the curtain raiser before the Mahabharata War, Duryodhana chose Sri Krishna's large army for his help while Arjuna selected Sri Krishna's wisdom for his support. This episode gives us a clue as to the nature of the effective manager ‐ the former chose numbers, the latter, wisdom.

Work commitment

A popular verse of the Gita advises "detachment" from the fruits or results of actions performed in the course of one's duty. Being dedicated work has to mean "working for the sake of work, generating excellence for its own sake." If we are always calculating the date of promotion or the rate of commission before putting in our efforts, then such work is not detached. It is not "generating excellence for its own sake" but working only for the extrinsic reward that may (or may not) result.

Work culture

An effective work culture is about vigorous and arduous efforts in pursuit of given or chosen tasks.

Sri Krishna elaborates on two types of work culture – "daivi sampat" or divine work culture and "asuri sampat" or demonic work culture.

Daivi work culture ‐ involves fearlessness, purity, self‐control, sacrifice, straightforwardness, self denial, calmness, absence of fault‐finding, absence of greed, gentleness, modesty, absence of envy and pride.

Asuri work culture ‐ involves egoism, delusion, personal desires, improper performance, work not oriented towards service.

Mere work ethic is not enough. The hardened criminal exhibits an excellent work ethic. What is needed is a work ethic conditioned by ethics in work.

It is in this light that the counsel, "yogah karmasu kausalam" should be understood. "Kausalam" means skill or technique of work which is an indispensable component of a work ethic. “Yogah" isdefined in the Gita itself as "samatvam yogah uchyate" meaning an unchanging equipoise of mind (detachment.) Tilak tells us that acting with an equable mind is Yoga.

Manager should not look at the background of workers but only at their skill

Lord Krishna advices in chapter 5 verse 18 that the “sage look evenly at a Brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and even the most despicable of men are blessed with the highest degree of knowledge.” Here the sage can be a taken as a synonym for perfect manager.

Manager always helps the workers focus on their strong points to overcome their weakness

Lord Krishna motivates Arjuna in Gita by telling him that all your weakness are result of your sensory attachments and you shouldnot forget that “Above senses there is the mind and above mind there is the intellect, and the one which lies above all of them is the Soul within, supremely powerful and yet subtle.’’(ch3 verse 43)

The manager should Practice what he preaches

"Whatever the excellent and best ones do, the commoners follow," says Sri Krishna in the Gita. So he says “Although, O Parth, there is no task in all the three worlds which I have to do, and neither is there any worthwhile object which I have not achieved, I am yet engaged in action.’’(chapter 3 verse 22).....