MANAGEMENT MANTRA  – EMPOWERMENT

Empowerment is the latest buzzword in Management lexicon. The need for empowerment is increasingly realised for organisational survival and growth in today’s turbulent environment. Although the concept of empowerment as a powerful HRD technique has been imported in India by Western consultants, it is deeply rooted in Indian soil and the universal religion of equality of mankind. .

Empowerment is essentially a process of mobility within the organisation – the power of PEOPLE which they already possess. This necessitates VISHWAS (trust) in people and their vast potential. The vedanta asserts : TATTVAMASI (you are that !) which means you are infinitely powerful – you have power within you to accomplish what you want. The GITA asserts that human being can attain the final accomplishment  worshipping God through his SVAKARMA (work). “Work is worship” is our motto as well. However, to self-actualise at work, one has to internalise the basic mantra that HE HAS INFINITE POWER WITHIN HIMSELF. Besides, he is required to make decisions and work only in terms of his SVADHARMA (nature) and not in terms of that of others (PARDHARMA). He should have full SAKSHAM (resource and authority) to do so within his domain of world. The Gita further specifies that he can attain SIDHI (the final goal) effectively through YAJNAKARAM (team work) as a part of the totality. This noble collective work is instrumental in the accomplishment of higher social goals i.e., in the managerial context, production of goods and services of high quality and at the lowest cost for the full satisfaction of consumers.

TAIL PIECE

Empowerment is not the things you do to or for people, it is the impediments you take away, leaving space for people to empower themselves.

– Brig K Harikumar (Retd). 15 Jan 1998


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