Reflections on Spiritual Foundations of Human Values for Global Business Management

Abstract

Recent financial scandals at large multinational corporations such as Enron and WorldCom have brought into focus the need for “ethical” management in multinational corporations. For a deeper understanding of the issues, the spiritual foundation of ethics also need to be included in the academic dialogue and professional practice. In the Western countries, the discussion of spirituality in management is often limited to the Judeo-Christian tradition. With India and China becoming important players in the global economy, their spiritual traditions need to be included in the discourse to make it more comprehensive and relevant. This paper identifies fourteen principles of ethics from the Bhagavad-Gita and argues that it can be assimilated in the management practices of global corporations from a non-sectarian perspective. It identifies the sources of Hindu spirituality relevant to global business management, adumbrates the architecture of spirituality for business ethics, and provides an intellectual justification for a discussion of Hindu spirituality in relation to management.