Indian Ethos as Humanistic Management Principles: A Case Study of a Family Business Organization

Abstract

Indian ethos in management draws heavily from Vedantic wisdom. Rigveda (ancient Indian text) says ‘let noble thoughts come to us from every side’. This implies that new ideas can be generated through interaction, assimilation, and transformation processes. Indian culture is a confluence of different cultures due to its long heritage and historical developments. Thus, there is a two-way flow of ideas and an ‘integrative indigenization’ (Sinha 1992) of various social and management theories. This trend has lately been extended to the cultural confluence of Western and Eastern ideas. In Indian tradition there is a holistic view of life; the following five principles constitute Indian ethos and Indian thought which can be observed in various forms of individual and social behaviour.