Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Mangerial Effectiveness and Human Values - I

A course in ’Managerial Effectiveness and Human Values’ requires us to write a diary everyday for the next few weeks. Some sort of reflective note on what’s going through my head and how I’m perceiving the world around, with a view of human values. Yesterday was spent in writing the tale of a messy episode that might land me an F grade in my summer internship, thanks to a professor’s obstinacy. Keeping the story part out of it, human values would seem essential in a civil society. The question arises when you are dealing with uncivil people. How long can you go on being stuck to your principles and allow them to be your shortcoming in the battle field when they go all out to cause you trouble. To the extent that it doesn’t inflict damage upon you, perhaps you could let them indulge in all the foolery. But then, to defend yourself, to protect your honor, if you have to tweak a thing or two here and there, there’s no harm done, as long as the tweaking doesn’t become a part of your nature and you don’t start using it all the time.

The concepts given by Krishna or Chanakya’s philosophy of Saam, Daam, Dand and Bhed seems to have a slight clash with contemporary conventional morality. I don’t feel inclined to go the Gandhian way much, perhaps because it’s the tougher way. But then it might just be worth a shot. It would be useful to have a Gandhian Munnabhai around, who could tell what would be the Gandhian solution to the situation at any time.

wanderer

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