CONCEPTS OF HUMAN NATURE AND
SOCIAL
ORGANIZATION IN A HINDU MODEL
AND
THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR
HUMAN
RESOURCE ISSUES IN
INDIAN
BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS
MOHAN
R. LIMAYE
Boise State University
Department
of Marketing & Finance
Boise, ID 83725
(W)
208/385-4150
(H)
208/853-2706
(FAX)
208-385-3779
The
author thanks Professor Prabha Unnithan, Professor Jerry Sullivan, and
anonymous reviewers who read for the Western Academy of Management for their
valuable comments on the earlier drafts.
1994
ABSTRACT
CONCEPTS OF HUMAN NATURE
AND
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION IN A HINDU
MODEL
AND THEIR
IMPLICATIONS FOR
HUMAN RESOURCE
ISSUES IN
INDIAN BUSINESS
ORGANIZATIONS
An ancient Hindu model of human nature and
social organization is presented as a proposed explanation for people's
behaviors and management styles in modern Indian organizations. A number of propositions emanating from the
discussion of the model and review of relevant literature are proposed for
future testing. International managers
can use this model to aid them in synergistic cross-cultural management in some
South Asian countries, such as India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
CONCEPTS OF HUMAN NATURE
AND
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION IN A HINDU
MODEL
AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS
FOR
HUMAN RESOURCE
ISSUES IN
INDIAN BUSINESS
ORGANIZATIONS
The purpose of this paper is to help Western managers
(from Europe and North America) to understand better
the sources of motivation of employees, preferred managerial styles, and effective
development of human resources in India. Such understanding is useful and necessary
because of the global nature of many business organizations today. Adler (1991) asserts that work-related
behaviors are not primarily shaped by either task or technology. "At every level, culture profoundly
influences organization behavior" (p.33).
The need to comprehend the causal connection between international
management and host country cultures is sufficiently highlighted (Badawy, 1980;
Staw, 1980) but not adequately researched.
During the last decade or so this situation is, however, being corrected
because management scholars have begun producing a research stream
demonstrating that human motivations are to a great extent culturally
based. It, therefore, follows that
management practices would attempt to accommodate variations in values and
traditions (Hofstede, 1989; Sekaran & Snodgrass, 1988; Tung, 1988), and
that means effective management styles are not universal in orientation, except
in a generic sense. They indeed must be
culturally and contextually shaped.
The variation among subjective cultures or societal
values is an issue multinational corporations must deal with from the time they
decide to enter foreign markets or start operations overseas (Copeland &
Griggs, 1985; Limaye, 1993). Though many
organizations the world over may look alike at the macro level, the behaviors
of people working within organizations (the micro-level) continue to follow
their culturally diverse paths (Child, 1981).
The task of Western managers would be easier if they knew what prompts a
number of Hindus and several Indians to behave the way they do and what
motivates them to achieve in organizational environments.
This paper is divided into five parts:
(1)
A Hindu model, one view of human nature and worldly life, is presented in part
one. The discussion of the model
attempts to clarify how most Hindus view humankind in a certain way which
influences them to hold specific values and beliefs about humans. As an analytical framework, the model offers
another perspective on viewing human organization as tempered by a different
socio-cultural environment.
(2)
From values to behaviors, part two, is a discussion of how these values guide
the organizational behaviors of Hindus in various tasks and work
relationships. Some propositions
emanating from this discussion and literature review are also presented.
(3) These concepts can serve as an applied tool
that sheds light on one important management function, motivation. This forms part three of the paper.
(4)
The limitations on the explanatory power of the model are discussed in part
four.
(5) Suggestions for further research to explore relate
issues and the conclusion form part
five. Because of the breadth and
complexity of the project, this paper focuses
principally on the development and explication of a Hindu
model and, only
secondarily, on postulating how Hindu values and
attitudes lead to certain
microbehaviors in the area of motivation at the
workplace.
A large number of management studies, developed in Europe and the United States, have until recently
ignored non-Western cultural perspectives, and at least by implication, have
regarded Western management concepts as having universal validity (Fayol, 1937;
Herzberg, 1966; Koontz & O'Donnell, 1955; Mintzberg, 1973). Where Asian cultures have been included, the
studies have focused largely on the differences between the Western and the
Japanese cultural values and their impact on management practices (Doi, 1973;
Hayashi, 1988; Maruyama, 1984; Ohmae, 1987; Pascale & Athos, 1981; Yum,
1988). This is quite natural and
understandable, given the size and importance of the Japanese economy and
foreign trade to the United States. Since multilateral trade and management practices
in developing countries like India rarely involved large
European and American multinational corporations until quite recently, those
practices or other human resource issues in that part of the world were of
little strategic and hence scholarly concern to management researchers in
industrially advanced countries. People
study what they regard as relevant, timely, and significant.
But the business environment in India has been changing very
rapidly since 1991 when privatization and a new economic regime began
encouraging foreign investment which has resulted into a larger flow of U.S. multinational
investment in India within a span of only
three years than all the post-independence years put together. This phenomenon by itself provides a strong rationale
for Westerners to study a Hindu model of human nature and social values. Moreover, there has recently been a growing
perception that the universalist view is parochial and cannot explain the
failure of Western managerial concepts when applied in non-Western cultures
(Kanungo & Mendonca, 1994; Laurent, 1983; Maruyama, 1984; Osigweh, 1989;
Triandis, 1983). In a similar context,
T. Fujisawa, co-founder of Honda Motor Corporation, has observed that "Japanese
and American management are 95 percent the same, and differ in all important
respects" (Adler, 1991).
As Sullivan (1986) observes, various kinds of models of
human nature and values need to be developed because they "characterize
the deeply embedded belief structures of organizational life. These theories guide the behavior of managers
and influence the structuring of the organization and the way organizational
members respond to the culture. By
identifying these theories researchers can add to the development of
explanatory theory in the sociology of organizations" (p. 548; see also
Schein, 1984). Hofstede (1980) also
called for research into the "literature of non-Anglo Saxon origins"
(p. 399). This paper is an attempt to
integrate from ancient Hindu sources a model of human nature and work-related
values to shed light on the sources of employee motivation and common
managerial behaviors in India.
If organizations need to adapt to the value systems of
their social environments to achieve success, organizational effectiveness is
then partly a function of harmonizing an organization's mission, structures,
and strategies with the motives, norms, attitudes, and values of its
members. (Gillespie & Mileti, 1976;
Sirota & Greenwood, 1971). The
rationale for presenting a Hindu model of human values and norms is thus
provided by the facts that (a) cultural values exert considerable impact on
management of personnel in firms, and (b) the universalist model of management
does not work universally, and hence a need for the study of non-U.S.
management systems is strongly perceived (Boyacigiller & Adler, 1991;
Haire, Ghiselli & Porter, 1966; Harris & Moran, 1992; Hofstede, 1980;
Jaggi, 1979; Sekaran & Snodgrass, 1989).
Western managers of MNCs operating in India will thus benefit from
studying the model developed in this paper and employing with synergy the
management lessons drawn from it.
1. THE HINDU MODEL
------------------------------------
Insert figure 1 about here
------------------------------------
Research about the cultures of the developing world (in
this case, India) has so far largely
been left to scholars of comparative religion, history, sociology, and cultural
anthropology. A large body of knowledge
about India's subjective culture and human values exists, cultivated by both
Western and Indian researches in social science disciplines, including a very
few management scholars (Child, 1981; England, et al., 1974; Lingat, 1973;
Myrdal, 1970; Pant, 1973; Jaggi, 1979; Chowdhry, 1969; Haire, et al., 1966;
Kakar, 1971; Phatak, 1992; Uppal, 1986; Weber, 1958). Several of these scholars have, however, had
primarily non-business academic interests.
But, as an interdisciplinary project, this paper aims to bring together
various culture-related Hindu concepts, presently compartmentalized in different
social science disciplines, into one cohesive and coherent system that could
shed light on the important question: What motivates the Hindus in present-day
Indian business organizational context?
The source of this model is the ancient Sanskrit writings
of the Hindus who do not have one authoritative scripture like the Bible but
several scriptures which have come to assume doctrinal authority over the
centuries. I am integrating from these
sources a conceptualization which could work as a coherent Hindu model of the
nature of human beings as self-interested but dutiful creatures. For convenience, I have used the words
"Indian" and "Hindu" interchangeably because Hinduism
happens to be the dominant ethos of India, though India is a secular state and
contains the followers of many religions within its borders. This is admittedly a simplification of a
complex environment and not a denial of the fact that Indian culture is a
mosaic of several subcultures. For
instance, there is evidence of a flourishing Dravidian culture in the Indian
sub-continent before the migration of the Aryans to India. Over the three or four millennia up to the
present time, India has witnessed a blend
of values of a host of cultures, such as Greek, Turkish, Mughal, Iranian, and
most recently British. But the fact
remains that Hindu culture and values have been the dominant profile of India. Thus the word "Hindu" serves as a
convenient short form in this paper.
(A) Self-Interest as a Human's Driving Force
The driving force behind all human actions according to
this model is self-love or self-interest.
That is why it occupies the center place in the above figure. It also means that, in the last analysis, one
is on one's own and responsible for cultivating his or her inner self. The original Sanskrit term "Atman"
means not only "self" but "individual soul" which is
qualitatively the same as "universal essence," or the ultimate
reality. On the material plane,
self-interest or ego, however, sufficiently and accurately represents the
concept of Atman. Self-interest (in the
secular sense) is then the force that guides people's behavior in this
world. "Everything becomes
desirable and has value in terms of what one wants. Things become meaningful or dear to the heart
in proportion to the degree of self-interest they evoke." (See Appendix for Sanskrit sources translated
into English).
(B) Dutiful Action as Constraint on Self-Interest
In Figure 1, "Dutiful Action" graphically
illustrates how selfless duty provides a
constraining influence
on an individual's fascination with self-interest. Even though self-interest is attributed as
the reason for human motivation in one text, another influential tract in Hindu
tradition exhorts people to engage in
dutiful action without lusting after the rewards of action. "You have a right to action but not to
its fruits." (See Appendix). One must follow one's vocation (in harmony
with the needs of society) without being attached to the likely results of the
activity. The Hindu doctrine of detached
duty (Nishkam Karma) regulates the impulsiveness behind action which self-love
might engender.
According to this model, the actions and behaviors of
individuals were determined and modified by four factors: the stage of growth
in the life cycle, one's caste or station in society, applicable debt or
obligation, and appropriate goal at that stage in life. The four boxes (clockwise) in Figure 1
represent these four socially sanctioned aspects of individual behavior.
(C) Four Stages of
Life
An individual went through four stages of life:
(1) Studenthood/Celibacy
(2) Householder Stage
(3) Retirement
(4) Renunciation
During the celibate student's life, traditionally,
learning was the chief goal. A rite of
passage marked the entry into this stage with a vow of celibacy and service to
the teacher and to the cause of learning.
After the successful completion of the student stage, the young adult
entered the householder stage, marked by another ritual, marriage. In this second stage of life, the householder
pursued the goals of sex and procreation, and the production and consumption of
wealth.
In the third stage called "forest dwelling," or
"retirement," the adult aimed at withdrawing from the interests and
demands of the material world and gradually delegating power and
responsibilities to grown-up children in anticipation of semi-retirement. The fourth or last stage aimed at total
withdrawal of the person from the affairs of this world and more absorption
into contemplation of the other world.
(D) Four
Castes/Strata of Society
People lived in a hierarchical society with four castes
or strata. Apparently, these fell along
the callings or trades people pursued, but over the years the divisions
fossilized into four principal castes determined by birth. These were as follows:
(1) Priests and scholars (Brahmins)
(2) Administrators and warriors (Kshatriyas)
(3) Merchants and artisans (Vaishyas)
(4) Menial labor or the "untouchables"
(Shudras)
(E) Four Obligations
in Life
People discharged four debts or obligations during life's
stages:
(1) Debt to ancestors
(2) Debt to gods
(3) Debt to teacher/priests
(4) Debt to the other world (non-material world)
Debt to ancestors was discharged through procreation, to
gods through sacrificial rites, to teachers through learning, and to the other
world through meditation and varying degrees of detachment or renunciation from
this world.
(F) Four Goals of
Life
The four goals of life, pursued through various stages of
life, were as follows:
(1) Life cycle rituals and moral law
(2) Creation and consumption of wealth
(3) Sex and procreation
(4) Salvation or Moksha (similar to the Buddhist
concept of Nirvana)
Each obligation and
goal is primarily associated with a specific stage of life as, for
instance, sex, procreation, and acquisition and consumption of wealth are
associated with the householder stage of life.
People were enjoined to show deep respect to their
mother, father, teacher, guest (in that order) in every stage of life. "Let mother be your god, let father be
your god, teacher be your god, and may guest be your god." These four objects of veneration expanded to
include the elders or "seniority," veneration of antiquity, and
warmth or hospitality for the guest, invited or uninvited.
Table 1 visually illustrates a Hindu's four stages of
life, the four castes in society, the four obligations, the four goals in life,
and the four objects of veneration.
-----------------------------------
Insert Table 1 about here
----------------------
(G) Balancing Self-Interest and Dutiful Action
Dutiful action regulates life even though everything is
judged in terms of its relevance to the self (See Fig.1). Self-love, if unregulated, could lead to
greed and unlimited desires, but the exhortation to follow duty is expected to
act as a moderating and stabilizing influence.
The concept of obligations and a network of duties to family and society
serve to temper selfish action. The
injunctions regarding one's duty in a given stage of life act as a self-check
on individual activity, ensuring it to be in societal or public interest.
Figure 1 thus symbolizes a Hindu ideal (not necessarily reality) that
the four stages of life, four obligations, four goals, and four castes should
exert a regulating or constraining influence on the operation of self-interest
in public and private life, in family life and organizational life.
In essence, according to this theory of human nature,
socially determined dutiful action should attempt to strike a balance between
attachment to self-love and detachment from the fruits of action (its rewards
and punishments), between selfish action and altruistic action, between
personal ambition and social good or group harmony. The model sets up a delicate tension between
socially imposed duty on the one hand and self-interest (including interest of
the family) on the other. One might say
that the human instinct of self-interest is the "nature" aspect, while
the socially imposed constraints are the "nurture" aspect of the
longstanding nature-nurture controversy.
The ideal in Indian society is thus a regulated, self-controlled human
being who, guided by detached or desire-free action and working within the
bounds of societal constraints, at the same time optimizes his or her goal
satisfaction. Selfless duty or
"Right Action" is thus expected to serve as the cohesive or
integrative force in the four aspects of human life as Figure 1 illustrates.
2. FROM VALUES TO BEHAVIORS
Literature Review
Many observers of organizational behavior and
international management agree that people's beliefs and values lead them to
certain behaviors. They maintain that
most assumptions behind management practices and many employee behaviors are
culturally determined and that people often act on their beliefs and values
(Adler, 1991; Benson, 1977; Bhagat & McQuaid, 1982; Gordon, 1978; Kelley
& Worthley, 1981; Shenkar & Ronen, 1987; Sullivan, 1986). Hofstede (1989) maintains, "the
assumption that organizations could be culture-free is naive and myopic; it is
based on a misunderstanding of the very act of organizing. Certainly, few people who have ever worked
abroad will make this assumption." (p. ix, foreword). Laurent (1983), found that people from the same
multinational corporation are "marginally more likely to disagree along
cultural lines" (p. 31) than people from different organizations.
Various empirical and theoretical studies are available
which analyze the organizational activities of many South Asians and attribute
them to several values the model proposes.
Chowdhry (1969), mentions how Indian managers are very much aware of
seniority of workers in the organizations they work for--public as well as
private. Veneration of the elders
espoused in the model thus transfers to respect and power given to seniority on
the job. Only rarely is the principle of
seniority as a criterion for promotion ignored.
Proposition 1: Seniority based on age and experience is the
most-used criterion for promotion in Indian organizations.
Pant (1973) cites
several cases of jobs in Indian industrial plants assigned along caste
lines. This is in keeping with the traditional
caste-occupation correlation presented in this model. Ratiu (1985) and David (1977) have referred
to loyalty, deference, and respect demanded by superiors (because of their
rank) as a phenomenon Ratiu came across in Ahmedabad, India, attributable to
hierarchical structure in the Hindu model, and David observed a similar
hierarchical pattern in Sri Lanka. England, Dhingra & Agarwal
(1974) report that Indian managers emphasize obedience and conformity. The slavish fawning of many Indian servants
upon their masters and Indian managers' paternalistic and authoritarian style
toward their subordinates have been ascribed to the rigid hierarchical social
order of the Hindus, their caste system, one of the boxes in Figure 1 (Jaggi,
1979; Kakar, 1971).
Proposition 2: In hierarchically oriented Indian
organizations, personal loyalty and respect for authority are demanded by
superiors and given (often ungrudgingly) by subordinates.
Terpstra and David
(1985) discuss the acquisitive spirit and business acumen displayed by merchant
castes in the Indian subcontinent, such as the Marwaris, Banias, the Jains, and
the Lingayats. In fact, Max Weber
(1958), attributes the acquisitiveness displayed by Hindus of all strata (or
castes) to the goal of creation and consumption of wealth recommended for the
householder stage in one's life (see the "Four Stages of Life" in
Figure 1). Krishna (1969), illustrates
the economically induced behavior of South Asian farmers by reference to the
Punjabi farmers who "switched to new varieties of cotton when they were
convinced that longer staple cotton fetched higher returns than the old varieties"
(p. 31). Wealth creation and accumulation as the goal for a householder as
depicted in the model could be the source of this behavior (Kanungo,
1990). In India, as noted above, a
positive economic motivation is particularly strong among merchant castes, the
"Vaishyas," who have for centuries been entrepreneurs or risk takers
and do not shy away from reasonable chances for profit making. Many of modern India's business
enterprises, small and large, are owned by people in these groups. Two of India's largest private
sector conglomerates were started by Tatas (not Hindus), a Parsi family, and by
Birlas, a Marwari family, respectively.
This example is not meant to encourage casteism but to bring a
long-standing tradition to the reader's attention. Investment seekers can find funds for prudent
projects among these castes.
Proposition 3: One major source of motivation for many
Indian workers, entrepreneurs, and people in general, an appeal to
self-interest, is likely to be even further enhanced as a result of the new
free-enterprise regime in India.
Family bond, or
veneration for parents spurs many Indians to work hard to uplift their family
fortunes. The motivation to work hard is
further enhanced by a desire to avoid bringing shame to one's family. In India (and other South Asian cultures),
veneration for mother and father extends to the whole family and transforms
into closeness to and pride for the family name. Family honor is the mode through which the
obligation to the family operates, and those managers who are successful in
harmonizing the family obligations of the employees with their desire to move
ahead financially will motivate their subordinates to work hard and be loyal to
their company. "Family first,"
however, has an unsavory side to it in this part of the world: Family interest
embroils people from South Asia in bribery, corruption, nepotism, and other
anti-social (particularly, from a Western perspective) behaviors. Family honor will, however, often trigger
many Indians to hard work since they would avoid putting their elders to shame
(Copeland & Griggs, 1985).
Proposition 4: Most Hindus' desire to work hard is
positively related to their need to please parents and family, another
significant Hindu value.
Table 2 depicts how
these culturally determined behaviors are manifested in India's organizational
milieu. The table lists the Hindu views
of human nature (their belief system) and their behaviors in business
organizations, thus suggesting culturally determined causes for their motivation
and behaviors.
----------------------------------
Insert Table 2 about here
----------------------------------
Authoritarian management, based on seniority in India
(Chowdhry, 1969), is at the same time highly personal, paternalistic, and
hierarchical. As mentioned above, the
respect for parents enjoined in the Hindu model, like ancestral worship
recommended by Confucian ethics (transferred to seniority in the organizational
context) places a responsibility on the superiors to mentor and nurture their
subordinates and guide them to their personal goals, while insisting on
obedience in the interest of organizational stability (Kakar, 1971).
Proposition 5: A large majority of Indian and South Asian
employees expect personal and paternalistic treatment from their superiors, who
encourage and attempt to satisfy this expectation.
3. MOTIVATION
Some of the most popular and influential modern American
theories of motivation are exemplified by the following work: Frederick Taylor's linkage of economic
rewards with high performance--the theory of the "Economic Man";
Maslow's (1943) theory of the hierarchy of needs, based on the proposition that
humans are bound to make efforts to fulfill their needs; McClelland's (1961)
extension of Maslow to human needs for achievement, affiliation, and power;
Herzberg's (1966) postulation on people's search for personal growth--the
Two-Factor theory; Vroom's (1964) Expectancy Theory, linking motivation to
expectations of desired outcome; and McGregor's (1960) Theory Y argument about
people's willingness and self-directedness to accept responsibility.
But these motivation theories are implicitly or
explicitly based on the modernist-rationalist view of human nature (Sullivan,
1986) and on the dominant American cultural value, individualism (Staw,
1984). Allegiance to other views of
human nature will endorse the feasibility of different motivation systems
(Boyacigiller & Adler, 1991). As mentioned
previously, attempts by some American organizations to apply U.S. theories of
motivation have failed to produce desired results in non-U.S. business and
socio-cultural environments (Copeland & Griggs, 1985; Harris & Moran,
1992; Ricks, 1983). These failures may
be the result of their differences of values and attitudes from the American
value system.
It is then very likely that the theory as well as the
practice of motivation in organizations is a consequence of the value or belief
system regarding human nature embedded or explicitly held by the society where
the organizations operate. In India,
people are adept in compartmentalizing their life, in juggling the demands of
acquisitive motive and spiritual goals.
Since there is sanction for both (refer to the goals of material
acquisition and salvation in the Hindu model), people live in "two
worlds"--material and spiritual and seem to be tolerant of such
ambiguity. The opportunity to make money
and move into a higher income group serves as powerful motivation because it is
also accompanied by the internalized exhortation to do one's duty and to
perform excellently and devotedly, even in undesirable environments (see the
Appendix for the quote from Bhagvad Gita). Inspirational exhortations for duty also from
leaders or superiors (as part of organizational ritual) have been demonstrated
to lead to higher performance by workers in India (Jaggi, 1979; Uppal,
1986).
According to the Hindu model, people's motivations are
generated, activated, worked through, changed, or finally extinguished during
the four stages of life: In the first (student) stage, the major motivation
generated and encouraged is learning.
The pressure for children from an early age to get good grades and,
generally, a great emphasis put on education and training (at least by the
middle and upper classes) in India have recently been topics of discussion in
the business press of the United States (Yoder, 1986). The phenomenon of large numbers of students
from these countries coming to the United States for education results in part
from this emphasis on education (Kuhn & Morrow, 1989).
One may note in this context how the middle management
and professional personnel from South Asia exhibit a great deal of eclecticism
in absorbing ideas and skills from various sources, from native as well as
foreign traditions. In the early years
of the British rule in India, for instance, many upper caste Hindus were quick
to master the "new" learning offered through the newly established
universities modeled on British pattern.
Similarly, in present-day India, when government jobs
were opened to lower castes and to those hitherto disfranchised from white
collar positions, Brahmins (the uppermost caste) were virtually denied
governmental jobs. They, however,
adapted to the new situation and turned in large numbers to the professions,
such as medicine, architecture, law, and engineering and pursued
self-employment in the professional services and the private sector. This is just one instance of the adaptive
spirit of the people in this region in the pursuit of education and self-interest. Brahmins have not been alone in their
adaptability. As a matter of fact, since
India's independence,
several people from all castes have demonstrated their ability to learn, adapt,
and fight for jobs in modern organizations.
Such behaviors and their sources in Hindu values are summarized in Table
3.
Proposition 6: Education, a highly respected value in South Asia, promotes a trainable
and highly adaptable work force.
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Insert Table 3 about here
-----------------------------------
4. LIMITATIONS OF THE MODEL
The proposed Hindu model suffers from some real and some
apparent limitations. Some data in
today's social, economic, and political life in India contradict the value
system propounded in the model. For
instance, I have claimed that self-interest and the goal for acquisition of
wealth create strongly motivated individuals.
But some researchers have recorded low motivation for material gain
among many Indians (Kapp, 1963; Myrdal, 1970; Nair, 1962). The model also maintains that seniors are
respected and receive homage. Rajiv
Gandhi, a former Prime Minister of India, was however one of the youngest
leaders in the world. I have claimed
that in the fourth stage of life, renunciation, people give up their attachment
to the material world. But in modern day
India, many old people do
not seem to be in a hurry to retire and renounce power and possessions. The intense struggle and greed for prime
ministership in India among the aged opponents of Indira Gandhi during
1978-1979 and the latest jockeying for power have presented a sordid
spectacle. To name one more deviation in
modern India from the ancient Hindu model (though this deviation is to be
admired), people belonging to the now-outlawed untouchable castes are occupying
positions traditionally held by the upper castes. In addition, more and more persons are not
performing their social and economic roles allotted to them in the model.
These are undoubtedly breaches of the model's norm, but a
number of these deviations have rational, logical explanations: (1) The
socio/anthropological concept of "ideal" culture versus
"real" culture may explain some contradictions. The proposed model holds up an ideal,
something that ought to be, not necessarily something that actually
exists. The ideal is still part of the
social psyche and exerts its influence.
(2) The second explanation borrows a concept from
"structuralism," popularized by the French human scientist, Levi
Strauss. Structuralism posits an often apparent
dichotomy between "deep" structure and "surface"
structure. The deep structure is a
unifying coherent schema with a high degree of explanatory power (Lane,
1970). The surface manifestations at
times do not conform with the deep structure, but the latter explains a great
deal more phenomena, has internal coherence, and is more integrative than
simple descriptive analyses. (3) Emery
and Trist (1965) provide a third explanation: Rapid environmental changes have
differential (and, at times, accelerated) consequences for organizational
behavior. Cultures or values are not
static: Ancient Hindu values have been subjected to continual change, to
inroads from other invading civilizations creating turbulent environments. Granting the impact of rapid environmental
change, however, does not negate the continuing influence under the surface of
a society's core values, in this case, the Hindu model, discussed in this
paper. Most modern Indian organizations,
(particularly, business and political institutions) have been patterned on
British models, a non-native transplant of organizational structure from
outside India. Moreover, the explosive and exponential
changes in the socio-political and economic environment of post-independent India may, as stated above, partially explain the deviations from the
model. Notwithstanding these deviations,
the model of social organization and value system proposed here has the merit
of explaining rationally a great deal larger body of data regarding Hindu
behaviors than the small volume of intractable or deviant data. These explanations are not advanced to
underrate the limitations but to emphasize the seriousness of the
conceptualization in this paper and acknowledge that it does not fit perfectly
all the observed phenomena in today's India.
5. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH AND
CONCLUSION
This paper proposes a Hindu model of human nature and
social values. The application of the
model to some aspects of human resource management is also outlined but not
detailed. Further regiocentric
explorations and thick descriptions of sub-cultures in East Asia should be undertaken
to find out whether value similarities (and, consequently, organizational
behavior congruences) among the cultures of this region exist because of the
Hindu-Buddhist-Confucian-Shinto convergences.
They may not only enhance the model proposed here but also may yield
useful practical lessons for Western managers of Asian organizations and aid
them in enhancing the performance, innovation, and flexibility of their firms
(Hofstede, 1980; Ricks, 1983 & 1985; Sekaran, 1983). Illustrating practical applications, however,
lies outside the purview of this article.
Specific directions for future research may include, among others, the
following:
(1) Set up a framework to test for
commonalities and differences among countries/societies which share
Hindu-Buddhist cultural paradigm and within the subcultures of the
societies that are the subject of this study (Ronen & Shenkar, 1985).
(2) Choose a relatively under-researched
area of management and apply a theory in that area to India and the United States by operationalizing
it, and compare the results to develop the implications for cross-cultural or
bi-cultural management practices.
(3) Explore in detail the similarities and
differences among Buddhist, Shinto, Tao, Zen, and Confucian philosophies by
researching Oriental scholars who have written in Chinese, Japanese,
Korean, and Thai languages, thus reducing the possibility of the influence of
Western/Occidental modes of thinking.
In today's context of global business, corporate leaders
and business students alike need management knowledge that keeps pace with
diversity. Various theories of human
nature, values, and behaviors at the workplace, contributed by scholars from
various cultures with differing mindsets and cognitive frames (Fisher, 1988)
and raised in different environments, will enrich the database of management
principles and applications, thus fulfilling a need strongly felt by
organization theorists and practitioners.
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APPENDIX
Sanskrit
sources of the concepts in the Hindu model of human nature
(The
English translations are mine)
1. "Everything
becomes desirable and has value Brihad-Ayanyaka
in
terms of what one wants. Things Upanishad (2-4-5)
become
meaningful or dear to the heart Yadnyavalkya
-
in
proportion to the degree of self- Maitreyi
interest
they evoke." dialogue
2. "You
have a right to action but not to Bhagvad
Gita
its
fruits." 2.47-48
3. The
four stages of life: Celibacy Dange &
Altekar
(studenthood),
householder, forest Vedic
dwelling
(retirement), and Sanskritica
renunciation. Itihas
4. The
four goals of life: Life cycle The Mahabharat
rituals,
wealth, sex (and procreation), (Udyogaparva):
and
salvation 124.34-38
5. The
four debts to ancestors: gods, Taittiriya
teachers,
and the other world Samhita
6,3,10.5
Aitareya
Brahmana
33.1
6. The
four "castes": Priests and scholars, Manusmriti
administrators
and warriors, merchants Mandal:
10.63
and
artisans, and menial laborers
7. "Let
mother be your god....let guest be "Commencement"
your
god."
address,
Upanishad
TABLE
1
Matrix of Life's Stages, Castes,
Obligations,
Goals,
and
Objects
of Veneration
|
Life's
Stages
|
Castes
|
Obligations
|
Goals
|
Objects of
Veneration
|
|
Studenthood
|
Priests
Scholars
|
To Teacher
|
Learning/
Training
|
|
|
Householder
Stage
|
Adminis-
trators
Warriors
Merchants
Artisans
|
To
ancestors,
community,
and gods
|
Sex and
procreation,
production
and
consumption
of wealth,
civic
pursuits
|
Mother
Father
Teacher
Guest
|
|
Semi- or
increasing
Retirement
|
Menial
laborers
Un-
touchables
|
To gods and
community
|
Ritual
pursuits
and
contem-
plation
|
|
|
Renunciation
|
|
To the other
world
|
Salvation
|
|
TABLE
2
Belief - Behavior
Indian
Connection
|
Indian View of
Human Nature
or
Belief System
|
Behavior in Organizations
|
|
Self Interest
|
Competitive
Stance
Profit-seeking,
aggrandizing
behavior
Achievement
orientation
|
|
Four Stages of Life
(See Fig. 1)
|
Pursuit
of Education/Skills
related training in youth
Acquisitive
and Consumptive
behavior in
householder/adult stage
Retiring,
withdrawing in later
life
|
|
Four Castes
(See Fig. 1)
|
Comfortable
in hierarchical,
structured (organizational)
environments
"Bureaucratic"
outlook
|
|
Four
Obligations
(See Fig. 1)
|
Family-first
actions
Conforming
and harmonizing
behavior
Loyalty
to superiors/
organization
|
|
Four Goals
(See Fig. 1)
|
Ritualistic
behavior
Hard
work ("getting ahead"
in the organization)
Willing
acceptance of
retirement
|
TABLE
3
Motivation in the Indian Context
|
Applicable
Concepts from the Hindu Model
|
Management Practices
Acting as Motivators in India
|
|
Self-interest
|
Monetary incentives
|
|
Emphasis on duty
|
Exhortation to
perform excellently (internalized and externalized motivators)
|
|
Acquisition and
consumption of wealth
|
Encouragement of the
entrepreneurial spirit as a strong motivator
|
|
Veneration of the
elders: Transferred to authority and seniority
|
Power and position
associated with seniority in public and private sectors
|
|
|
Mentoring or developmental
supervision (boss as patron)
|
|
Emphasis on education
or pursuit of learning (the first goal in the Hindu model)
|
Trainable personnel,
emphasis on quality training
|
|
Family honor
(reverence for mother and father), the concept of shame
|
Supervisor's appeal
to employees' sense of honor as a prod to accomplishment
|
