Sometimes when you read an article and you like the same, in fact you like it so much that you read it it time and again and also you want the same to be read by many others. This is exactly what i felt, when i read the article specially the comparison part of Indian management and western management practices in the last para of article. More admirable is the article when it figures the name of an IAS officer as an writer. So without further delay here it goes...
Self-management is at the base of any external management effort. It is an internal process of managing one's body, thoughts, intellect, emotions and spirit. It is a process of trying to overcome emotions like anger, jealousy, greed, ego, and undue attachment. It is a process of developing concentration, equipoise, tolerance, the ability to take calculated risks and plan long term. Yoga aids self-management as it is a philosophy of life, not restricted to just asana and pranayama. It is a path of all-round development of an individual: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Patanjali defined yoga as a technique of mind control. Vashishta said yoga is a skilful strategy to calm down the mind. Both managers and yogis are expected to remain steadfast in situations both favourable and unfavourable. In the most-quoted verse 48 of chapter two of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna advises: “Being steadfast in yoga, O Arjuna, perform actions, abandoning attachment, remaining unconcerned as regards success and failure. This evenness of mind is known as yoga. A manager is required to use autho-rity. But unless authority is combined with dispassion, the result can be contrary to expectation. Today's manager is required to have qualities of a good leader — ability to construct a creative vision and capacity to have trusting relationship with large number of people with whose help this vision is to be fulfilled. External milieu, with all its network and artifacts, is in truth a projection of man's internal milieu. A manager with clarity of personal goals and calmness of mind can only be an able manager. This is where yoga helps. Man is in the first part of the word manager, thereby indicating the need for man-management as the most crucial part of management. As Swami Anubha-vanandji puts it, management is an intuitive art of relating yourself with various stakeholders in a company such as staff, customers and suppliers. Yoga teaches us the art of treating every human being as a form of the divine. Use of higher consciousness in dealing with people is sure to result in better motivation and loyalty among stakeholders. There are certain key differences between western management concepts and yoga-based management. The former starts with the premise that a person remains inactive unless propelled by action through motivation — money, position or recognition. Yoga-based management starts with the belief that every individual is divine by nature and the purpose of yoga is to bring out this divinity. Any individual, by nature, wants to do good work but unsuitable conditioning may prevent him from doing so. Commitment in the true sense can only be inspired for a cause bigger and better than self. Western management philo-sophy puts primary emphasis on competition, while in yoga way, the emphasis is on collaboration and individual creativity. In the West there is greater emphasis on goal achievement for the firm, while in yogic management, success of the firm is an inevitable by-product of the holistic goal of making this world a better place to live in with the spirit of yajna. In the former, karma is an input which can be hired, while Indic philosophy focuses on duty as one's dharma.
2 comments:
The article certainly provides food for the mind but on a few things, I think questioning them would be fair.
"But unless authority is combined with dispassion, the result can be contrary to expectation"
Don't you think for any desirable result to come out of any endeavour, passion should be at the helm of the efforts.
"while in yogic management, success of the firm is an inevitable by-product of the holistic goal of making this world a better place to live in"
I think the firms that really strive for making the world a better place, mostly just manage to qualify for a non profit organisation tag. take for example wikipedia. but since making this world a better place is their aim in the first place, one could as well say that the quoted statement above is right, since they managed to do that pretty well. but if that quoted statement was meant to suggest 'success' as equivalent to great profitable business, I beg to differ again.
By the way, nice blog you've got. Got your link through pg.
All the best for your CAT.
Thanks for comment.
My perception of... "But unless authority is combined with dispassion, the result can be contrary to expectation"
when one have some authority to influence something and power of making decision for wider world, the passionate decision may spell disaster. i stress on "may"
Also the passion is sure to be at the helm of effort but the idea is to be passionate about the path chosen to achieve the goal not to the goal.
"while in yogic management, success of the firm is an inevitable by-product of the holistic goal of making this world a better place to live in"
... here i wud say CSR for any firm is equally important as profit making, A firm can either start working on both these simultaneously one after another but it has to be done to sustain the success. At individual level, once one will develope a sense of serving others and getting pleasure in doing that, you are bound to evolve as a better person. Suppose a hypothetical area where everyone in a particular firm believe in the same phylosphy, no doubt the place will be no less than heaven. And since the world's entropy is incresing, It cant happen overnite :)But you will be agree with me that every revolution begins with a single step.
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