THE RELEVANCE AND CONTRIBUTION OF VEDANTA IN MANAGEMENT

KEYWORDS 
Spirituality, religion at work, Vedanta, management, Indian Management, Indian Culture, Management Philosophy.

This paper explores the Vedanta, ancient Indian spirituality and religious philosophy; its contribution and relevance to management. Although several studies have been done to integrate other schools of thought such as Christianity, Islamic, Confucianism into management, Vedanta is yet to be fully explored in management literature. Chinmayananda (2003) asserted that from time to time ancient philosophies like Vedanta needs intelligent re-interpretation to apply effectively in the context of modern times. Vedanta reveals several lessons in management, which focuses on exploring the external world of matter and energy, the Vedanta recommends a management approach, which focuses on exploring the inner world of the self. This paper is based on a qualitative research methodology called hermeneutics, which involves the interpretation of ancient or classical literature and the content analysis of selected verses from the Vedanta (Vedic literature) especially from the Bhagavad Gita in management. This paper is expected to provide a framework to study the Indian management from a spiritual, religious, philosophical and cultural perspective. This will be relevant to Indian managers and foreign managers managing in the Indian context.

Dr. Balakrishnan Munipan
The author is a Professor of the Swinburne University of Technology, Sarawak Campus, Malaysia. He is also considered by scholars as a pioneer in the development and promotion of Vedic HRM approach in Malaysia. He may be reached at bala.hrm@gmail.com