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This chapter explores the concept of ‘dharma’ (duty orientation) and ‘karma’ (action orientation) of corporate social responsibility (CSR) from Vedantic (Vedanta) viewpoints. Islam, Buddhism and Christianity have received wider attentions in the CSR literatures from philosophical and religious perspective. However, Vedanta is yet to be explored in the context of CSR. This chapter therefore is timely and fills the gap in the CSR literature.

In this chapter, the authors employ hermeneutics, a qualitative research methodology which involves the study, understanding and interpretation of religious texts of Vedanta particularly the ‘dharma’ and ‘karma’ in the context of CSR.

In a nutshell, the Vedanta provides an inside-out approach to CSR, which is development of the individual leader’s self-conscience. The leaders and the role they play in corporations are crucial in ensuring transparency, good conduct and governance towards the ultimate aim of achieving CSR.

This chapter analyses the Vedantic perspectives on communication in establishing CSR objectives. It investigates the problems and prospects of Vedantic style of communicating CSR.

The basis of global business operations in the twenty‐first century is knowledge. The Hindu scriptural reference, the Bhagavad Gita, interpreted as “Celestial Song” or “Song of God,” is quickly becoming a critical resource in this relatively new paradigm. This paper aims to draw lessons from this.

The Gita is a summary of the essence of Hindu teaching and wisdom. It is a philosophical foundation from which a deeper understanding of successful solutions to management leadership issues and business practices are emerging. The paper focuses on an analysis of the primary elements found in the Gita.

The Gita's essence of Yoga, Dharma, Dhyana, Samabhava, Nishkama Karma, and Tat‐Twam‐Asi provides the keys for influencing contemporary management thought and global business practices. Yoga is the gaining of mastery over the body and mind through self‐discipline. Dharma focuses on finding a higher calling or mission in life and a calling to fulfill one's purpose or duty. Dhyana encompasses the process of identifying a higher calling by becoming rooted in one's inner strengths and potential through meditation. Samabhava is the calling to interact with the external world in achieving one's duty with equanimity. Nishkama Karma refers to developing a detached involvement by doing one's duty objectively without worrying about the consequences. And Tat‐Twam‐Asi is the recognition of the interconnectedness of nature, the human, and the spiritual. It encourages managers to look at the big picture, a holistic view, for guidance with a realization that there can be no simultaneous winners and losers. When managers change their outlook, success is enhanced.

The paper offers valuable insights into the lessons that can be learned from the Hindu Bhagavad Gita.

The purpose of this paper is to present a broad historical review of critical wisdom literature of ancient Indian tradition and examine how these precepts can complement and enrich the contemporary managerial frames.

The paper attempts to critically review remarkably deep religious and secular traditions of India and integrate them in a conceptual model.

The paper findings point towards the need for a holistic frame in overcoming fragmented viewpoints of contemporary management by strengthening the reflective domains of the managerial world.

The limitation of the paper lies in its didactic nature and the specificity of the contextual boundary limiting its ready transferability.

The paper provides a pointer in extending horizons of business or non‐business organizations in opening up their possibilities for achieving holistic managerial perspectives by combining economic, social and other higher order sustainable goals.

The paper's contribution is in its integrative value of some of the key themes of Indian wisdom literature and demonstrating their relevance to the modern management.

To identify the characteristic features of humanistic leadership in the Tata group in India, and to explicate the key facilitating factors.

Narrative case-study inquiry via semi-structured interviews with top management leaders and middle managers, and secondary sources of information.

The top leaders of the Tata companies emphasised the following values and leadership experience: (1) Adherence to the founder's philosophy and the basic core values, (2) Leadership with Trust, (3) Community as the key purpose of the enterprise, (4) Senior leaders as mentors and role-models, (5) Abiding by the ethical code of conduct, (6) Employee-focus and (7) Tacit alignment with Indian cultural values. These resonated with the humanistic leadership tenets. Based on the literature the authors also identified that in Tata leadership, there is an amalgamation of personal values (humata, hukhta, hvarshta: good thought, word and deed) and national cultural ethos (dharma, karma and jnana: emphasis on duty-bound action and knowledge). These leadership values are conveyed and institutionalised in the organisation via strategic initiatives such as the Tata Trusts, Tata Business Excellence Model, Tata Code of Conduct. This synergy of personal values, national cultural ethos and organisational strategy makes Tata group realise the humanistic leadership objectives, while achieving business targets.

The thematic analysis of interview data provides a contextualised understanding of how humanistic leadership gets realised at both the individual behavioural level, as well as at the broader organisational strategic level. This provides inputs to building the theory of humanistic leadership.

By unravelling the factors that facilitate the realisation of humanistic leadership in the Tata group, the authors provide an exemplar for other organisations and business leaders to draw insights from.

Humanistic leadership, oriented towards upliftment of community and society, and not just profit maximisation, is critical to creating a more sustainable and peaceful world.

This is one of first studies that conceptualises the Tata leadership from the humanistic perspective. The theoretical insights are of basic and applied use.

In the literature there is very little exploration on how the Tibetan approach in leadership may be relevant for management. Here, for the first time, the paper discusses the ancient yet continuing practice of succession in leadership of the Kagyu Karma School of Tibetan Buddhism within the context of management practices. In so doing, the author suggests a theory of continuous consciousness for succession in leadership.

A multi‐method design is utilized in the research paper. First, the biographical literature on the 17 Karmapas is reviewed and content analyzed for insights: Who is the Karmapa? Second, the author, through a process of planned personal, activity‐based research, including field visits of ritual ceremonies, gathers insights on the Karmapa leadership in action. Furthermore, he was invited to host for HH The 17th Gyalwa Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje a forum on, “Living a Meaningful Life in the Contemporary Age”. Third, comparative analyses of tenure of leadership are made of different succession approaches: Karmapa versus other systems of succession, for example Chinese dynastic system (Yuan, Ming, Qing and Chinese Communist Party) are presented. Fourth, traits in the leadership of the Karmapa are portrayed: symbolically, the divine parasol through a rare photograph. A parallel symbolism of leadership, especially the motif of the Sun is drawn between the Tibetan Karmapa and Han Chinese Mao Zedong. For this, the artistic method of montage is utilized to the findings. Fifth, drawing upon research on psychology (nineteenth century German psychologist, Ebbinghaus), the author suggests the memory tests employed by the Tibetans for selection of successor have some scientific basis. Finally, in discussion on corporate vision; from a review of past biographies of 16 Karmapas and for the first time a taxonomical portrayal of the visionary experiences of His Holiness is presented.

The continuity in the leadership of the Karmapas over almost 912 years (1100 BCE to present) is certainly one of the most remarkable in the history of mankind. It is the longest lineage of spiritual leaders within the Chinese minority, of the Tibetan culture. Among the theory of leadership, the case of Karmapa reinforces strongly the role of personality traits. Every Karmapa, including the present 17th has to manifest certain traits or signs to gain continuing acceptance as leader of the spiritual community. In a very sharp contrast to the very short tenure of American CEOs (statistically, graphically presented), the tenure of leadership for Kagyu Karma School of Buddhism is life‐long. Indeed, uniquely as a Tibetan practices in succession, multi‐lifetimes. In this paper, the author discusses how modern corporations may draw insights from this as unique case of institutionalizing the sustainability of leadership. Perhaps, there is a case for expanding the current paradigm of leadership research?

This paper highlights the value of management learning through research from ancient religious or spiritual traditions. In this case, the focus is on leadership succession and it is hoped this paper will foster inter‐disciplinary (management and spirituality) research by scholars.

India is a country of socio-cultural diversity. Every society and culture existing in India is full of values, ethics and morality regarding good deeds. The exhaustive survey of corporate social responsibility (CSR) literatures from Indian philosophical perspectives observes many studies based on the socio-cultural and religious aspects. It has been observed all these philosophical views and concepts covering socio-cultural and religious backgrounds have received attention in the field of CSR. It is observed that almost all views have been fully explored in the context of CSR. Therefore this chapter tries to detect the drivers of CSR with all these philosophies prevalent in the culture of Indian society. This study utilises the hermeneutics, a qualitative research methodology which involves an in-depth study, critical analysis, thoughtful understanding and explanatory interpretation of the concepts of CSR originated from diversified Indian society and culture. In a nutshell, from these viewpoints and philosophies of different cultures, CSR is seen from an inside-out perspective.

The paper aims to understand and expand the idea of capitalist accumulation process from social structures of accumulation theory to religious structures of accumulation within the Indian context. It analyses the philosophical tenets of Hindu religious philosophy as outlined in the Bhagavad Gita. It argues that the ideological narratives within the Bhagavad Gita are concomitant with the logic of capitalism.

The paper draws its methodological lineage to nonlinear historical narrative around the concept and construction of Asiatic modes of production debate. The paper follows discourse analysis to locate how the Hindu religion as outlined in Bhagavad Gita provides philosophical foundation to capitalism in India.

The Bhagavad Gita (Songs of God) gives social and spiritual legitimacy to a specific form of production and accumulation processes by rationalizing and justifying socio-economic stratification based on eternal inequality. The paper focuses on the interface between cardinal principles of Hindu religion as outlined in the Bhagavad Gita and capitalist modes of social and economic processes in India.

The paper aims to advance a new concept called “Hindu modes of accumulation” by advancing the theoretical understanding of the theological processes in the Hindu religion, which reinforces capitalism and capitalist social relations in India.

In this conceptual paper, anchoring on the Hindu philosophical doctrine of karma, this study models the impact of salesperson’s karma orientation (KO) (a relatively new construct), in alleviating his/her job burnout. This study also explores the moderating impact of thought self-leadership (TSL).

This study theorizes the impact of KO on salesperson’s burnout by integrating the job demand–resource model with spirituality and TSL literatures.

Using multi-dimensional construct of KO, this study proposes several research propositions to theorize the impact of each of the four dimensions (i.e. work as selfless action, work as duty towards others, detachment from work-related rewards and equanimity under environmental influences) on three aspects of job burnout (i.e. emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment). Additionally, this study also theorizes the moderating impact of TSL on the above-mentioned relationships.

Organizations can adopt the karma doctrine for designing new sales jobs that provide higher meaningfulness and a greater sense of purpose to their salespeople, going beyond extrinsic rewards such as money. Higher KO among the business to business salespersons would lead them to derive higher intrinsic motivation to make karmic investments with their customers knowing that their good deeds with customers would eventually lead to good rewards for themselves, reducing their burnout, while also enhancing their well-being.

The paper makes an original theoretical contribution by theorizing the impact of Hindu philosophy of karma on salesperson’s job burnout, and hence well-being and eventual impact on organizational effectiveness.

This paper aims to provide an overview of the relevance and applicability of the Hindu tradition to organizational learning.

Attempting to separate the spiritual from the religious aspects, a primarily theoretical approach is used to delineate the basic concepts in Hinduism and their applicability to various aspects of employee and organizational functioning.

Concepts such as Yoga, Dharma, Karma, Yajna and Lokasamgraha are discussed.

This paper stems from the recognition of cultural differences and the need to explore alternative paradigms to understand and enhance organizational functioning.

Religion and culture can influence ethical behavior in business. It is suggested that there has been and continues to be, a deep interrelationship between religion, business ethics, and economic activity in India. As India is becoming a major global economic business partner, understanding its unique ethical business infrastructure is gaining in importance. The purpose of this paper is to intend to further the understanding of Indian (“Vendantic”) business ethics, as opposed to Greco – Roman business ethics, as the foundation of business culture in India. This paper further elaborates on the evolution of business ethics and its implications on doing business in and with Indian companies.

The authors undertook a conceptual approach in order to understand the evolutionary process of Indian business ethics in a holistic view in order to understand better its workings and effect on business interaction.

The paper explains the constructs of business ethics in India and shows its evolution over time.

This original theoretical paper examines the evolution of Indian business ethics over time in line with environmental changes in the Indian business landscape.