Pedagogical Contextualisation and Integration Challenges for Organisation Development in India: Cultural Wisdom and Rational Modernity in Organisations

Abstract

Since the 1970s, Indian organisations adopted the new and imported thrust of management knowledge, orientations, practices and systems. But much of what was imported did not take root, as it did not take into account the latent level of emotional and social universe of Indian managers in which their manifest behaviour is grounded. The role design is based on a picture of the organisation that is drawn from the West, and worse still, its models were colonial. It is dysfunctional for the individual, untenable for society and disempowering for the organisation. Indic wisdom has venerated the quintessential Arjuna. In reawakening and valuing this cultural heritage of ours lies our ability to shape a future free of colonial hangovers and envy of Western ways of being. It is only by awakening the Arjuna power and fostering a deep dialogue that we are going to be able to find creative and regenerative ways of living.