Evolution of Management Thought

Although I have been a long-time student of Management Thoughts, there have been a few specific occasions, which gave me opportunities to give expression to my studies of Management Thoughts.

(1) In 1979 at the Silver Jubilee Convention of Bombay Productivity Council, the theme of the convention was "Management Perspectives for the '80's". The first session was devoted to "Management of Men". During the discussions, I put forth an observation as follows -

• In the context of Industrial productivity, it is generally considered that in an industry there are two classes of people - the workers and the Management staff.
• It is also generally considered that the workers are not as motivated to Corporate goals as the management staff is.
• Responsibility of motivation of the workers vests or should vest with the management.
• The episode of गीतोपदेश arose, because Arjuna all of a sudden lost his motivation to fight. As the manager on the spot it became Lord Krishna's responsibility to motivate Arjuna. This being so, गीतोपदेश can be considered as the digest of the science and philosophy of Motivation !
• Although गीतोपदेश seems to be a case-study in one-to-one motivation, Lokamanya Tilak saw in it the capability to provide Motivation of the masses, motivating the masses to rise against foreign rule, motivating the masses to act. Hence he wrote his commentary on गीता the title गीतारहस्य i.e. कर्मयोगशास्त्र

(2) In 1989, I was invited to speak at the Silver Jubilee Convention of Indian Institute of Industrial Managers. I opted to speak on "Management Challenges in the Third Millenium"

• At the outset, I submitted a confession that I cannot credit myself with any astrological faculties to make predictions of the future, certainly not for predicting what the Management Challenges would be, certainly not for a period of one Millenium, one thousand years !
• While preparing my speech, I based it upon a technique of statistical extrapolation. To extrapolate what the Management Challenges would be over another one thousand years, one needs to have a database of Management Thought 100, 500, 1000 years or more old.
• I landed upon two verses in गीता, which seem to present a gist of an old enough Management Thought. गीता itself is at least 3500 years old. Let me quote the verses -

पञ्चैतानि महाबाहो कारणानि निबोध मे ।
साङ्ख्ये कृतान्ते प्रोक्तानि सिद्धये सर्वकर्मणाम् ।।१८-१३।।
अधिष्ठानं तथा कर्ता करणम् च पृथग्विधम् ।
विविधाश्च पृथक्चेष्टाः दैवं चैवात्र पञ्चमम् ।।१८-१४।।

• The phrase सिद्धये सर्वकर्मणाम् means for fulfillment of tasks. We can appreciate that fulfillment of tasks is Management. And detailed here are five elements पञ्चैतानि कारणानि necessary for fulfillment of tasks, i.e. for Management.
• The phrase साङ्ख्ये कृतान्ते प्रोक्तानि endorses that the five-elemental analysis is quoted from साङ्ख्य philosophy which emerged towards कृतान्त i.e. end of कृत era. Chronologically, the sequence of eras is कृत, त्रेता, द्वापार, कलि. Mahabharata and गीतोपदेश are said to belong to द्वापार era. So this five-elemental analysis belonging to end of कृत era and quoted in गीतोपदेश of द्वापार era is so old that whole of त्रेता era had passed in-between.
• This justifies taking reference of this Management Thought for statistical extrapolation to another one thousand years.
• For the next database item of Management Thought what comes to mind is the theory of Four Factors of Production detailed in classical Economics. The Four Factors of Production detailed there are - Land, Labour, Capital and Organisation.
• In Modern Management Thought, mention is made of 6 M's of Management, viz. of
  1. Men
  2. Machines
  3. Materials
  4. Methods
  5. Money and
  6. Markets
  
  It becomes interesting to tabulate these elements of Management to see one-to-one correspondence.
  
  

  No.	from साङ्ख्य philosophy	Factors of Production	6 M's of Modern Management Thought
  1	अधिष्ठानम्	Land	?
  2	कर्ता	Labour	Men
  3	पृथग्विधम् करणम्	Capital	Machines, Materials, Money
  4	विविधा: पृथक्चेष्टाः	?	Methods, Markets
  5	दैवम्	Organization	?

  
  Some observations -

• The word करणम् is interesting. Considering that by the word पृथग्विधम् it would also includes many tools उपकरणानि, it corresponds well with Machines, Materials, Money and in turn corresponds well with “Capital” among Factors of Production.
• English translation of दैवम् is providence or providential coincidence. The word “coincidence” is derived from co+in+cidence, meaning going together, putting together, “Organising” to coincide in right proportion, in right time !
• By statistical extrapolation one can guess that in evolution of Management Thought, possibly no new element will be identified. But weightages of different elements may change.
• In a world of great influence of Information technology, there is not much difference in the intellectual acumen or in information and knowledge available to people. So, Management becomes a challenge of managing among equals. One can manage a herd of sheep riding on a camel’s back. But it is challenging to manage a herd of sheep by being among sheep.
• In conclusion, Management of Men, there again Management among Equals always becomes the most daunting challenge.

-o-O-o-