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New paradigms in science and in management are recognizing that consciousness pervades the evolving order of the natural world and is the essential foundation for organizational transformation. We describe seven properties of a consciousness‐based organization: efficiency on a par with nature’s principle of least action; spontaneous and frictionless coordination; creative inspiration akin to artistic genius; doing well by doing good: prosperity and social value; harmony with the natural environment; spontaneous change in an evolutionary direction; and leadership which promotes full human development. Specific practices to develop consciousness in organizations are identified. These qualities and practices are illustrated through a fictional story of a manufacturer of top quality, environmentally friendly solar energy technologies.

Despite today’s accelerating rate and extent of change, the needed improvements within many areas of performance and quality of life have not taken place. Posits that productivity is remaining the same or even going down in many areas. Infers that learning and change have not been effective. Change involves a subject or self, who is acting, and an object which is acted on. Until now there has been an imbalanced focus on the object. In order to achieve more effective learning ‐ through a synergy of objective and subjective approaches to change ‐ suggests a comprehensive model of change where the emphasis is shifted from the object to the subject. In higher stages of human development, the subject increasingly experiences an enhanced capacity for accomplishment. Argues that this transformation of the actor provides the stable premiss for overcoming many of the shortcomings of contemporary learning and change strategies. In order to implement in practice the expanded change conception, introduces a mental technique ‐ transcendental meditation ‐ which systematically fosters human growth to higher stages of development, as shown by scientific research.

Today, there is a global need for more effective leaders. The purpose of this paper is to present a model of human development which covers the psychological, physiological, and sociological dimensions of leadership.

The authors review three research studies in which they have investigated the relationships between consciousness, psycho‐physiological integration, and leadership performance using physiological measures, psychological tests, and self‐reports.

These studies support the model that leadership ability is closely related to psycho‐physiological refinement – the authors found that higher integration of the electrical brain activity, more mature moral reasoning, and more frequent peak experiences are found in top performers compared to average performers.

The high frequency of peak experiences among top performers reveals the importance of such gratifying inner experiences for the business community.

The research suggests that practical methods for psycho‐physiological refinement – such as the widely researched Transcendental Meditation technique – can be useful in developing more effective leadership. The brain integration scale presented here may be a reliable objective instrument for assessing an individual's leadership and performance capacity.

A unique contribution of the authors' research is to recognize that integrity – an essential requisite for leadership – has a physiological counterpart in the integration seen in the functioning of the brain through electroencephalography.

Time is the most precious resource in business and society. Unlike other resources, like people and capital, time is often considered fixed. However, the way people subjectively experience and utilize time varies substantially between people. Human development provides the basis for breakthrough improvements in time management. In particular, in higher states of consciousness it may be possible to transcend the limitations of time so that time ceases to be a factor limiting our accomplishments in life. In order to realize in practice a transformation to improved time management, we introduce an effective technique for personal evolution ‐ the Maharishi Transcendental Meditation program.

Progressive stages in the evolution of organizations correspond to progressively deeper aspects of the mind. The stage of task‐based management emphasized the more superficial sensorimotor and concrete thinking capacities; this approach of rigid rules and structures is now unsuited for an increasingly knowledge‐based economy. The next stage, process‐based management, makes greater use of the intellect of organizational members to design, implement, and evaluate systemic productivity improvements. A few organizations today demonstrate the lasting success of values‐based organizing, managing on the level of feelings and ego. The new millennium will see organizations that utilize the deepest level of human consciousness, connecting the human mind to the intelligence of natural law which spontaneously organizes for optimal simplicity, synergy, and holistic progress.

Values, meanings, and attitudes are deep motivators and controllers of human feelings, thinking, speech and action. In management by values, the primary focus is on developing, maintaining, and ensuring that the organization members have healthy and productive values. In other words the pivotal strategy is to ensure that the culture is strong. The idea is that once this criterion has been satisfied, the empowered employees will be self‐managing and intrinsically motivated to make sure they serve the customers well, productivity and quality are high, and the economic results are sound. Presents a case study of the service company Manpower Scandinavia, where this concept has been implemented practically since 1984. Shows this has led to sustainable practical benefits in terms of a considerable long‐term growth in gross turnover, high customer satisfaction, low employee turnover, virtually nil control in the traditional sense, and high market share. Several of these factors have a direct positive bearing on productivity.

Points out that while most companies are lucky to survive even 15 years, there are some that exist and develop for a hundred years or more. Suggests that the reason for this contrast is to be found in a developed and self‐propagating corporate culture. Examines the core values or “commercial principles” of G.C. Rieber & Co. in Norway, which was founded 115 years ago and is still going strong. Although this culture has developed over the years, its spirit and core features remain essentially the same. In particular, a long‐term and proactive perspective has been a pervasive characteristic, together with a high degree of care for employees. Over the years, these values have provided the stability and direction needed to make effective decisions, to be proactive and adapt to more or less continuous changes in procedures, technology, products and services, markets and society at large. Since the culture provides a meaningful workplace, a highly stable aspect of the company has been its employees. As a result there are many instances of second‐generation employment, even some of third generation. In particular, the company has been led by a continuous line of four generations of the Rieber family. This has reinforced the culture and made it more resilient to change.

The chairman of a major Japanese corporation recently visited the New York Stock Exchange and asked one of the US brokers what his time‐perspective was when making decisions. The reply was two seconds. The chairman reacted that when he made decisions the time‐frame was usually ten years. This story illustrates the need to look at decision making in a deeper and wider perspective. Presents an overview of different and complementary objective and subjective approaches to decision making, and relates them to different levels of the human mind. Effective decisions are seen as those arising from a synergy of these respective analytical and intuitive approaches. Subjective approaches are fundamental to the objective ones. In spite of this, research suggests that the majority of adults have not moved beyond the analytical level and reached a level of development where feelings and intuition are operationalized. Hence, there is a need to expand the conscious awareness of the manager and knowledge worker. To operationalize such a growth, one method for psychological development is introduced.

Suggests that development of consciousness is a fundamental causal variable underlying the complexity of behaviours and psychological qualities associated with leadership. This unified model is supported by evidence which indicates that world‐class leaders experience a silent, expanded, restfully alert, and non‐attached state of consciousness, which forms the basis of higher states of consciousness, more frequently than comparison groups. Discusses transcendental meditation, a mental technique which systematically cultivates development of consciousness, as a technology to lay the foundations for more widespread development of leadership.

Asserts that the opposite of a rule may be true, particularly with regard to the creation of “unity in diversity” – the simultaneous strengthening of the two seemingly contradictory factors of integration and multiplicity – which will fundamentally enhance organizational performance. Common experience shows that there are plenty of diverse world views around. This multiplicity has many sources. Suggests that, in order to reap the benefits of this diversity, we need first to understand and indeed encourage it through empowerment, decentralization and self‐management. Second, we need to integrate the differences and ensure that everyone is working towards a common good under the influence of a unified company vision and a shared set of values. Argues that such a mature state of “unity in diversity” can only be realized through higher stages of individual and organizational development.