Management Research Paper

Volume 10 Number 4 October 2001

Trends in ethics and styles of leadership in India R.C. Sekhar

A report on the paper read at the 13th Annual Conference of European Business Ethics Net- work, Cambridge 2000.

The broad purpose of the paper

The paper argued that foreign companies working in India would find it not only useful but also necessary to understand the current trends in the ethics and styles of leadership in India. They may also need to understand social and political aspects, as these are inextricably inter-woven with the ethics of organisations both in their internal and external dealings. The paper, while noting much convergence between international trends and those in India, described some of the distinct idioms, institutions and modes of action in India whose appreciation would help in developing trust relationships. Such relationships can help in more carefully building the boundaries of mutually acceptable behavior. Most of all, mutual leaming between industrially developed nations and devel- oping nations can be fostered.

The sources of the collage of descriptive, normative and analytical features

India is a vast country with a history of several thousand years and with great variety of cultures: the sources of its idioms and institutions have tremendous diversity. The sources of its living ethical and leadership traditions are to be found in some very influential philosophic writings, some

explicit writings on statecraft and ethics, a highly popular mythology, the varied tribal lore of those living on the peripheries and now joining the melting pot, the political institutions consciously developed more recently under the influence ofthe American, French and Soviet revolutions, and the more spontaneous movements having similar demo- cratic and egalitarian inspiration. Thus, it would be better if one got into each of these disparate sources rather than see it all as originating from a three-way source of folkways, ancient Indian wisdom and transnational systems (Sinha 2000: 441).

Bhagavad Gita's concept of sthitaprajna and Aristotle's virtue ethics

The Bhagavad Gita is the well-known Indian philosophic tract which most explicitly lays down the criticality of the ethics of the leader in the scheme of things (Chapter III shloka 21 details the concept of a raj rishi the leader who is also a sage). Indian traditions recognise the concepts of uni- versalisation and the deontological approach to ethics, and at the same time see the importance of the teleological approach, i.e. the greatest good for the greatest number. Bhagavad Gita sees the role of the leader as reconciling these contrary approaches. Thus while killing near and dear ones, or the teacher who had nurtured them, is unethical, one may have to resort to it for the preservation of the overall good. But Bhagavad Gita enjoins the person who takes the decision to do so without selfish motives (nishkama karma Chapter III shloka 19), and in a balanced manner {sthitaprajna

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Business Ethics: A European Review

as described in Chapter II shloka 54-55 and Chapter XVIII shloka 63). Very importantly, it details a process of self-discipline through yoga which can enable one to perform this difficult task (Chapter VI and in particular shloka 32). This concept of the wisdom of a virtuous person who can take a balanced view is strongly reminiscent of Aristotle's 'virtue ethics' expounded in the Nicho- machean Ethics (e.g. Bk2 Chapter 2.11: 20-23 which says 'what is destroyed by the excess is preserved by the mean'). We should note that neither the Gita nor Aristotle conceive of the virtues of total democracy which the future developments of humanity considered ethically important. Thus, Aristotle supported slavery, and Gita the caste system. In summary, they supported the status quo and expected the ethics ofthe leader to maintain it.

In spite of this seeming anachronism, Aristotle has recently had a great revival in the West, and many Indian leaders would like to see themselves as followers ofthe precepts of ethical leadership of the Gita. It is by far the most profound influence among the elite in India. It is however very sig- nificant that the Gita has a strong emphasis on action and work-ethics (Chapter II shloka 47 and Chapter III shloka 4-5) and is not solely oriented towards analysis as is Aristotle.

In logical extension of the need for a 'dispassion- ate person' to fit the role of the leader, Indian traditions have a strong reliance on the leadership of the 'Gurus'" and 'ra/ gurus'. Guru is the Sanskrit word for a teacher. A sample of 4000 respondents from a cross-section of Indian society who answered a questionnaire administered by the author ranked the teacher as ethically far ahead of all other classes of professions. Interestingly, a small sample tested by the author in the USA also held teachers in high regard but not to such a great extent as in India. Trainers in business organisations in India can therefore cash in on this goodwill. However, it is important to remember that gurus can be polemical and aggressive - hitherto more common - or they can be reflective and facilitating as was the very ancient tradition of Gautama Budha. This latter stance is now being recognised as more functionally appropriate for the cyber age of knowledge management.

Two contrasting styles of leadership

Two well-known Indian works on statecraft deal with leadership and ethics. Both belong to the pre- Christian era, but they still have a following in India. The first is Kautilya's Arthasastra which has strong resemblance to the ways of the much later European Machiavelli. It propounds a series of techniques and skills that help leaders to get their jobs done. It is pretty close to the way some modern thinkers, especially in business, have thought about leadership. Unlike Kautilya, Thiru- valluvar's Kural, a South Indian ethics classic, propounded an ethics of leadership which created conditions for productive activity in agriculture and trade by ensuring trust relationships between people. Needless to say, in the emerging ethos of democracy in India, the manipulatory philosophy of Kautilya has very little open support, even if in private many believe in it. Kural is without the taint of manipulation, and thus has a greater open following, though it is not a text which in any sense explicitly expounded democracy or even transparency.

Bharthrihari, the Indian poet-king of the 6th century AD (Neetishataka shloka 65), struck a very modern note of realistic ethics administration and recognised that most persons are well-intentioned: it is then the function of the leader to ensure that they are not sorely tempted due to a bad system.

Mythological roots

India is very strongly influenced by mythology, as has been noted by the German Giinter Grass (Tharoor 1989). Cinema, drama and television use mythological themes to achieve box-office success. The precise manner in which mythologies get incorporated in nurturing values in India is not well-researched but can be understood through extensive anecdotes (Dutta 1997) and is common knowledge. We can only present a series of possible explanations.

One of the most profound legends that provides a role model for ethical leadership is the Rama legend which is thousands of centuries old. Rama was compassionate and sensitive to people's

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needs. He cared for every one of his citizens indi- vidually. Mahatma Gandhi used the story to great effect and the last words he used before he fell to an assassin's bullet was 'Ram'. The legend has been modified down the centuries to suit the times, but the basic ethical features have remained more or less the same. Recent empirical work on leader- ship styles shows that this style is still prevalent in India, even though its extent is not firmly estabUshed. Sinha (1995) has labelled this as the 'nurturant task' leadership style.

In contrast to the Rama legend, the Krishna legend depicts a more pragmatic leadership, one which is achieving even in adverse conditions. Again, this style seems to be getting more popular in the environment of current India which is tur- bulent and riddled with confiict. There are echoes here of the Platonic stricture for good leadership to be not only moral but also practical. The Krishna model is likely to become even more widespread in the coming years when competitive forces are re- leased by social upheavals caused by the processes of correcting caste imbalances and inequities.

The pattern of sub-leaders as provided by tribal allies ofthe dominant hegemonistic races is a central part of the legend of the monkey-king Hanuman. Sociologists (Sabharwal 1995) have noted that this phenomenon was not unusual even in recent times. Its popularity will rapidly decrease with change in the old power equations and the rise of democratic ethics.

'Mother goddess' legends have a strong hold in India. When male gods failed mother goddesses have come to the rescue. But different women goddesses have been effusively loving, angry and fierce in establishing ethics, or alternatively whimsically vain. The responses to the author's questionnaire from more than fifty Indian women managers have shown that their behaviour could range over all the three facets. With growing female education and affirmative legislation pro- viding women with positions of authority, women leaders will have a very important say in the future. The perceptions of people conditioned by these legends and the women's own perception of themselves will afTect their behaviour. Research on this issue is inconclusive, and further research is needed.

The emergence of social contract and rights concepts of ethical leadership

The last fifty years after India's independence have seen the rapid advancement of social contract and rights concepts of ethics. These have been inspired by the American, French and Soviet revolutions and are now enshrined in the Indian constitution. Their widespread adoption has been emboldened by trade union activism and other activist move- ments all over the country. Several field studies such as those of Mitra and Singh (1998) and Reddy and Sekhar (1992) have shown that the ethos of democracy has firmly taken root in the country. But the leadership styles described earlier in the paper, even if they are not contractual in nature, have been used in a contingent manner to support democratic processes. Traditional views have helped followers in developing trust in leaders who could be delegated powers which they hope will be used in a fair manner. People are keen to have leaders who would recognise the plural character of their society and would be willing to protect it. Sometimes they may choose the 'outsider' as the leader because he or she is likely to be unbiased in adjudicating between warring groups. Current practice combines the advantages of the 'self-discipline' and 'virtue ethics' leadership traditions commended in the earlier part of the paper with the powerful ethics of the 'social contract'.

Conclusion

I concluded my paper by arguing that India would be in the grand stream of human progress to a global society of the future which maintains the basic universal ethic recognised all over the world. We could call this universal ethic a happy amalgam of virtue and democracy and describe the leadership required to achieve it.

This refiection has an important message for foreign companies working in India who have had problems, particularly in environmental manage- ment, which have sometimes arisen from the unfortunate assumption that such a democratic movement does not exist in India and that social

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contracts have no ethical value. These companies have invariably suffered in consequence.

References

Dutta, Sudipto 1997. Family business in India. New Delhi: Sage-Response.

Mitra, S. and Singh, V.B. 1998. Democracy and social change. New Delhi: Sage.

Reddy, Pratap and Sekhar, R.C. 1992. Civic culture ambience and collective controls. Proceeding of the

International Seminar on Co-operatives, Anand, India.

Sabharwal, Satish 1995. Wages of segmentation. New Delhi: Orient and Longmans.

Sinha, J.B.P. 1995. The cultural context of leadership. New Delhi: Sage.

Sinha, J.B.P. 2000. 'Integrative indigenous manage- ment in India'. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, 35:4.

Tharoor, Sashi 1989. The Great Indian Novel. New Delhi: Penguin.

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