Spiritual Leadership and its Contribution to Soft Dimensions of Total Quality Management – Relevance to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in India

Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have been the backbone of Indian economy. This is because of their employment potential at low capital cost and also the ability to respond faster to unexpected development in the field of activity. In India, MSMEs contribute nearly 8% of the country’s GDP, 45% of the manufacturing output and 40% of the exports. But, over the past few years their share in GDP, manufacturing output and exports has been slowly declining. Among the various reasons for this downtrend, process inefficiencies have been identified as a major cause of concern and there is a felt need to improve on the same. The philosophy of Total Quality Management (TQM) which governs the process management and control has evolved gradually since evolution. Some of these Quality philosophies like Kaizen, Confucianism and Tao etc. based Spirituality practiced at workplace have come to stay in present day business scenarios. Spirituality contained in texts of Ancient Indian Wisdom has been adopted in various management practices across the globe and out of those the Bhagavad Gita has been a storehouse of sustainable solutions to many organizational challenges over the years. In context, Spirituality contained in the eighteen chapters of the Bhagavad Gita has many insights which could contribute to the dimensions of TQM. Leadership has been a driving dimension for TQM and has been fundamental for the other soft and hard dimensions. This research paper would capture the effect of spiritual leadership based on Bhagavad Gita and its contribution to the soft dimensions of TQM. The conceptual framework is drawn from three streams of literature: Bhagavad Gita, Workplace Spirituality and TQM. Also, this paper would contribute to the existing knowledge base by adding the concepts of Workplace Spirituality from the Bhagavad Gita to TQM literature.