Indian Management Ideas – Part-2: Human Resource Management

Abstract

Christopher Columbus set out on sail to find the sea route to India attracted by her popular wealth and resources. History speaks that he landed in a place and thought that that was India. It came to be known as the United States of America later. Thus America was just an accidental discovery in the quest to reach India. History also speaks that many countries were attracted by the riches of India and later resulted in colonization of India and used her wealth and resources. Thus it is very obvious that it is the wealth, prosperity and resources of India that attracted people from faraway lands. It is also clear that wealth and prosperity are not automatic but are a function of ‘management’ knowledge and skill. India was wealthy and prosperous which attracted many foreign raiders. Therefore India must have had its own knowledge and skill in ‘management’ given the fact that management as a field of specialization came into being in the West only in 19th century. However the great epic Mahabharata stands tall as a management teacher through a composite and complicated case with case-lets galore in it. Also the Panchatantra stand out as an excellent piece of work on management using case-method even 5000 years ago, before the case-method of teaching management was discovered in the West! Moreover it is generally acknowledged that economic ideas originated from two sources namely Hebrew and Hindus. Management is a sub-set of the Economics study-set. Thus it can be said that management ideas originated from India also. The Indian wisdom on management, including human resource management, has long remained ignored. In all areas of human activities, all resources like buildings, machines, policies, rules, regulation, etc. of any organization are only passive factors by their very nature in not only in day-to-day activities but also in the development of the organization. The only factor that is active by their nature is the human resource. It is only this active resource that turns all other passive resources into active resources to carry out the basic functions of an organization. The role of human factor has gained importance only very recently and hence is aptly renamed as human capital. Indian scholars also had recognized the crucial human element ages ago. For instance, in Mahabharata, from the two options of either Lord Krishna’a army or Lord Krishna, Duriyodhan choose the services of Lord Krishna’s army whereas the Yudhistar opted for the human element by choosing the services of Lord Krishna, the army’s leader, and the final victory sided the Pandavas with significant contributions by Lord Krishna. Indian scholars view a human being as a three-in-one entity namely body, mind and soul whereas the Western thought views a human being as ‘body’ only. Thus the western theories and methods are focused on managing the ‘body’ whereas the Indian scholars treat the body as an instrument of the mind and is energized by the soul. They go to the extent of viewing the behavior of body as the behavior of mind. There exist Indian literature rich in principles and methods related to human resource management. These contributions to human resource management practices from India are rich and very effective but long remained ignored by the scholars. For instance, Lord Buddha and recently Mahatma Gandhiji have all proved the effectiveness of Indian human resource practices to the utter disbelief of the rest of the world. This paper presents some of these human resource management ideas from only a few Indian works that date back thousands of years, yet not only consistent with the most modern views but also realistic and relevant for practicing managers.