Hari
OM
Application - that is what 'Workings-days' are about!
VEDANTA IN ACTION.
This is the title of a publication from CM which,
whilst it of course has items by Gurudev, also includes selections of writing
from other well-esteemed Gurus from the Vedantic tradition as well as leading
businessmen. Its focus is the working life. We shall be exploring these essays
for the next few weeks on Workings-day as, clearly, they pertain directly to
the premise of this section of AVBlog! As ever, you are encouraged to read back over previous
posts, to ensure full benefit.
Part 1; Vedanta in Management.
A Vedantic Approach to Management Theory. (Sri
Thandaveswara) con'td.
Ethics in Business; One basic task, which has
yet to be done, is to validate business as a socially useful enterprise.
Business has often been criticized as an economic superstructure that benefits
only the wealthy. We need to redefine
business goals and theory to include responsibilities to the society as a
whole. Business assumes a validity only in the context of a unity of
transaction so supply goods and services desired by the community. However this
is contingent on the results it achieves. If a society can achieve these
results through other means, there is no necessity for business. Indeed,
several societies which are looked down upon as primitive carry on comfortably
without the paraphernalia of business as we see it in a free enterprise
economy.
A
new, as yet undefined, concept of social responsibility is being developed in
an attempt to introduce ethical values into business management. Leading exponents such as Peter Drucker* have
developed the theme of business enterprise as society's instrument for wealth
and well-being. However, this does not carry the basic validation of business
much further, because here again, society's 'well-being' is not defined or
examined. Thus, to take an extreme example, if a society decides that it should
live by crime and loot, the organization of this activity in the most efficient
manner renders the enterprise a socially responsible entity! As long as
business provides what society considers to be wealth and well-being, it gains
the status of a socially validated organ. The intricate question of whether
management should be concerned with what is socially desirable in contrast with what is socially desired is conveniently ignored.
The
net result is the emergence of a business as a result-oriented,
expediency-based institution. Society has designed and defined it in this way
and, thus, it is perfectly in order for the community to regard it as nothing
more. Politicians are blamed for making a convenience of big business. Why not,
if they can manage it? Employees are blamed for demanding too much. Why not, if
they can get it? Governments are blamed for over-taxing the businessmen. Why
not, if they can get away with it? Questions of this kind are clearly not
answerable in terms of enterprise theory as it has developed so far.
Alternative Business Models of business
enterprise have been generated by Marxists, mid-socialists and other economic
systems in reaction to, or often in confrontation with, the traditional
capitalist model. At one extreme are
totalitarian systems, where enterprise is an organ of the state rather than of
the society and must function under sheer obedience to political
compulsions. Many of these systems have
note-worthy material achievements to their credit. However, in terms of human
fulfilment, general happiness, and the sense of sharing cherished values, the
results have often been negative. More
moderate deviations, such as socialism, have the experience of falling between
two schools. They have missed the abundance and affluence of capitalistic
systems as well as the equally distributed amenities of totalitarian systems,
with the result that most of them keep swinging between persistent and often
violent pulls from the right or the left.
The
business organisation as it exists today has failed to create and sustain
socially desirable values. This failure can be seen around the world,
regardless of the political or economic system.
A
major advancement in management has been the use of motivation instead of
compulsion. Motivation is the process of
relating incentives to a current need of the individual. Some incentives are at the physical level,
while others are at the psychological. The reason for using certain incentives
at certain times is a function of their achieved need satisfaction at any given
time.
In contrast is the Vedantic view, which views
the human personality as a product of the past, carrying with it
susceptibilities for motivation which are internal, inherent and persistent.
These susceptibilities give rise to self-unfolding impulses, whose fulfilment
then becomes the basis for motivation.
This Vedantic view does not accept the successional visualisation of
motivation as, for example, Maslow's hierarchic model. Maslow postulates that
individuals have universal needs of ascending priority; in other words that all
individuals follow the same predictable chain of needs and desires [thus
negating the concept of 'individual'].
These basic conceptual differences should not be dismissed as merely theoretical,
for their differing logic produces fundamentally different techniques of
motivation. Management practices which are guided by the Western models often
create in the Eastern environment more hostility and conflict than harmony or
achievement. As a result, the doctrine of motivation is regarded in the East
more as a manipulative technique than as an endeavour to draw out, develop and
fulfil the human personality. **
A
harmful consequence of this Western model of material motivation is a dichotomy
of life. Workers as well as managers view their profession merely as a means of
livelihood and they look for fulfilment of life outside their profession. They defer to the values of the industry at
work and cultivate what they consider to be their own true values outside of
work; so much so that to many there seems to be no reason why they should
practice the ethical values in business which they meticulously practice in
personal life. A cynical way of life develops in which success, however
achieved, is the rule at work and the moral code is the rule at home.
[*Drucker taught that
management is “a liberal art,” and he infused his management advice with lessons from history, sociology, psychology, philosophy,
culture and religion. He also believed strongly that all institutions,
including those in the private sector, have a responsibility to the whole of
society. “The fact is,” Drucker wrote,“that in modern society there is no other
leadership group but managers. If the managers of our major institutions, and
especially of business, do not take responsibility for the common good, no one
else can or will.”] Pasted from <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker>
[**...it
could be argued that there are many in 'the West' who feel equally manipulated
by the corporations for whom they work!
