Drishtikon: A Management Journal

Karanam Nagaraja Rao ¹, Kumar Mukul ², Ruchi Mishra ³

Affiliations
1 Alliance University, Bengaluru, Karnataka, IN
2 KLE Society's Institute of Management Studies and Research, Hubli, Karnataka, IN
3 NITIE, Mumbai, Maharashtra, IN

Abstract

Importance of spiritual content in managerial education is acknowledged by the scholars of management education. In recent years the idea of integrating spiritualism in management education gained impetus given the increasing incidences of corporate malpractices for personal benefits at the cost of society at large and also because of the sustained economic crisis seeking noble solutions. The scholastic community acknowledges the need of integrating spirituality in work places as well as in the academics. However, they have been disassociating spirituality from the concept of religion with attempts to project spirituality as something independent of religion. It is true that spirituality is something which operates on a higher plane and the religion operates on belief systems and names & forms. But, man, as a product of his social environment and religion being an integral part of it, cant ignore the decisive impact religion has on the conscious and subconscious mind frame and its spiritual constituents. While acknowledging the importance of religion, care needs to be taken that religion portrays aspects which are of universal appeal rather than those which are divisive in nature. The paper emphasizes the need of management education ingrained with sarva dharma samabhava (respect for religious traits) instead of sarva dharma abhava (ignoring the values of religion) and searches for religious ischolar_mains for a meaningful comprehensive education.

Keywords

Management Education, Religion, Spirituality

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Karanam Nagaraja Rao ¹, Aswathi Nair ¹

Affiliations
1 School of Business, Alliance University, Anekal, Bangalore, Karnataka, IN

Abstract

Corporations are legal entities operating within the boundaries of society. They have social responsibility both for business and moral reasons. The responsibility encompasses economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic aspects and in the context of deterritorialised global business environment, the responsibility assumes wider ramifications especially in the context of diminishing role of governments and ascending role of corporations. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is now an offshoot of the realization that corporation is answerable for the consequences of its operations. Ethical way of doing business for social and economic sustainability is inherent in the thinking of seers of ancient India who proclaimed for universal peace and happiness. The essence of CSR can be traced to Rig Veda which pronounced that a person who enjoys himself being totally oblivious of society is taken over by sin. The sense of charity, sacrifice, dharmic way of doing business and the ideas of live and let live permeate throughout the literature of ancient India. The search for spiritual routes strengthens the convictions towards CSR and for preserving the planet for future generations. An attempt is made in this article to discuss the nature of CSR in the global perspective and try to search for the ischolar_mains in the cultural milieu of ancient India and trying to integrate the ancient Indian spiritual thoughts for the modern arguments favoring corporate responsibility. The intention here is to strengthen the theoretical thought structure with spiritual inputs for better appreciation and promotion of CSR. The aim of the article is to get insights in to ancient wisdom for connecting spiritual linkage to the theoretical edifice of the CSR and hence the methodology is exploratory in nature aiming to understand the concepts in a better way.

Keywords

CSR, Sustainability, Ancient Wisdom, Social Good, Environment.

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