Another State of Mind

Perspectives from Wisdom Traditions on Management and Business

Bertine van Hoof, R. Blomme, B. van Hoof

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781137425805
• eBook ISBN: 9781137425829
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Estrategia empresarial

By returning to the source and the source texts, this book deepens the understanding of certain important ideas and notions which affect our present thinking. In Wisdom in Business, the authors go back in history to answer the question: How can one act wisely in the spirit of the present age?

Part I

Introduction

1

Introduction

Robert J. Blomme and Bertine van Hoof

1.1 Introduction

Many of the current ideas on leadership and management are grounded in theories that find their origins in ancient and recent philosophical and religious sources. The stories and images stemming from these traditions have become firmly embedded in our conscious and our subconscious mind and, we believe, are also exerting a clear influence on modern corporate culture, irrespective of whether people are religious or not. We hope that by returning to the source and the source texts we can deepen the understanding of certain important ideas and notions which affect our present thinking. In this book we go back in history to answer the question: How can one act wisely in the spirit of the present age?

This book is not about religion. It is about what we can learn from the wisdom we have inherited from religious and philosophical traditions. We present a diversity of perspectives on how wisdom from the ancient traditions can be translated into management and business practices. However, at the same time, it seems that some business and management practices may be far too down to earth for the sophisticated ideas and notions of the wisdom traditions discussed here. It is not always easy to narrow, far less close the gap between insights and notions from universal and abstract wisdom traditions on the one hand, and the daily practice of management and business on the other. We have, nevertheless, attempted to do exactly this by including in this book the thoughts of practitioners and representatives of wisdom traditions as well as those of scholars. We interviewed six leaders from business, politics and wisdom traditions in order to gain insight into the ways in which their background has influenced their attitudes and behavior. In this chapter we discuss the message this book might bring and how it can be used to help managers and other professionals.

1.2 Wisdom traditions

We have chosen to speak of wisdom traditions rather than religions. Quoting his teacher, Friedman (1992) defines religion as ‘the total response of the total being to what is experienced as ultimate reality’ (p. 3). This definition of religion extends farther than doctrines as expressed through, for example, theology, metaphysics, creed and myth, and farther than practice as expressed through, for example, rituals, masses and prayers (Friedman, 1992). It also stretches beyond the physical manifestations in the form of communities, such as congregations, brotherhoods and sects which follow a religious path and partake in worship. In the words of Friedman (p. 4), ‘Religion is a path that walks. Religion is a commitment. Religion is one’s basic response to whether or not one calls oneself religious and whether or not one affirms the existence of God.’ According to Friedman, the examination of a religion requires a conceptual clarification, without detracting from the encounter between man and God or other deities, and without doing injustice to how people worship and how they experience this encounter. If we want to explore wisdom derived from religions we have to take these caveats into account.

In this book we do not focus specifically on the relationship between man and the Divine in our exploration of wisdom. As stated, we do not speak of religions, but of wisdom traditions. We endorse Sternberg and Jordan’s concept of wisdom (2005, p. 3) and define wisdom traditions as the cultural outcomes, including religion, philosophies, myths, songs and written texts, which all people, primitive or civilized, have produced to pass down their knowledge to future generations. In our examination of wisdom we are especially interested in how these cultural outcomes influence the perceptions and behavior in the daily life of people who follow a religion and how they can be used for the benefit of management and business practices. One could say that we apply a ‘secular’ approach, given that we believe that the term ‘wisdom tradition’ captures what we want to examine far more succinctly than ‘religion.’ Wisdom tradition is a broad concept that encompasses not only religious movements but also secular philosophies which have influenced people’s thoughts and lifestyles through the ages. Neither the Buddha nor Confucius nor Socrates nor Plato base their teachings on a divine authority (Black, 2008), so branches of Western and Eastern philosophy could also be placed under the umbrella of wisdom traditions.

According to Jaspers (1949), the five main religions, as well as Eastern philosophy – including Confucianism and Taoism – and Western philosophy, originated in the ‘axial’ period, which lasted from 800 until 200 BCE. It was during this period that the foundations were laid for present-day civilizations and people went in search of moral truths to answer deep, burning questions about life and its meaning, and find ways in which they could live and work together in peace and prosperity. These moral truths provided a basic structure in which civilizations and societies could emerge. The concept of the axial period has been further developed by theologians and religious thinkers (cf. Armstrong, 2005). Jaspers’ theory has, however, been questioned by historians (cf. Black, 2008). There is general agreement that there are moments in history when breakthroughs in thinking have conditioned the way people think, live and behave for a very long time (Black, 2008). Black argues that sometimes, during periods of breakthrough, new ideas and attitudes are integrated into a long-standing tradition while leaving the good and usable aspects of that tradition intact. Examples of this can be found in Confucius and the Hebrew prophets. On the other hand, new ideas and attitudes can be introduced which contest the tradition and call for change. Examples of this can be found in the teachings of the Buddha, who radically reinterpreted the idea of Karma, and in Socrates, who exhorted us to rely on our own mind and experience, and not be swayed by current trends in thinking. The success achieved by new ideas as the harbinger of renewal and change in leading traditions is measured by the extent and resilience of their impact on social, political, religious and ethical structures in a civilization or society. In a similar vein, Black further claims that the Age of Enlightenment was a small axial period which changed our perception of man (Humanism) and challenged us to rationalize and manipulate the world around us (science).

In short, axial periods, or periods of breakthrough, are characterized by the introduction of new ideas and attitudes which push forward the existing boundaries and clear the way for new traditions. So, besides the five main religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism) we can add Confucianism, Taoism and Humanism to our list of wisdom traditions since they have influenced the lives and work of swathes of the world population down the ages. We will use these eight wisdom traditions in our examination but we will also look at the ideas of offshoots, such as Sufism.

1.3 Wisdom

What relevance does wisdom – more specifically wisdom from wisdom traditions – hold for managers and businesspeople? Man has pursued wisdom since time immemorial. Moberg (2007) has emphasized man’s natural curiosity in the search for wisdom. In Aristotelian fashion, Moberg argues that wisdom can be compared with a two-sided coin. One side holds the answers to the profound mysteries of life, while the other holds the answers to the everyday judgments and decisions we have to make. The latter is often described as practical wisdom (Schwartz, 2011; Chandler, 2013; Marker, 2013). Humans are also spiritual beings (Fry, 2003), looking for ‘wise’ ideas on how to cope with daily problems. This emergent need for ‘wise’ ideas has been triggered by the tendency of management and behavioral scientists to focus on the development of instruments and to search for causality in human behavior (Pyzczynski et al., 2004). Meantime, human beings grapple, consciously or unconsciously, with questions about themselves and about life (Blomme & Bornebroek-Te Lintelo, 2012). In the process they might look for notions that refer to their own situation as workers in an organizational context, and their efforts to derive meaning from what they do. Moberg (2006) contends that people who work in organizations grapple with a whole stack of issues and are often confronted with distorted information and ambiguities, moral dilemmas, execution binds and ethical decision-making. All of this makes organizations and the surrounding environments complex places, where instrumental solutions are hardly ever the answer (Blomme & Bornebroek-Te Lintelo, 2012). Often, this complexity entails not only dilemmas in judgment and decision-making but also questions regarding the significance and meaning of one’s role, one’s actions and one’s relationship with colleagues and the organization at large. These are important topics in the wisdom traditions discussed in this book.

Wisdom and management practices are not topics that are frequently discussed together (Moberg, 2006; Rooney, Mandeville & Kastelle, 2013). When they are, the perspective is usually philosophical or psychological (Sternberg & Jordan, 2005; Moberg, 2007). Theories on how notions and ideas from wisdom traditions can contribute to management practice are thin on the ground and most of the scholarly and management publications address wisdom in relation to the concept of leadership (cf. Kriger & Seng, 2005; Yang, 2011; Ben-Hur & Jonsen, 2012; Gottlieb, 2012; Kaipa & Radjou, 2013; Van Hoof & Blomme, 2013). One important reason for this omission is that wisdom traditions are often associated with dogmas and enduring convictions. However, the ideas and notions from wisdom traditions can themselves be a highly inspirational and powerful force when these dogmas and convictions are omitted. When we flesh out the texts of these wisdom traditions and transpose them to a modern setting, they can cause shifts in perspective and serve as input for further reflection. The human being who is grappling with life and work may find that these wisdom traditions can offer him insight into the subtle changes taking place in his outer and inner world, and help him to develop self-awareness so that he can help others to address their own grapplings (cf. Kriger & Seng, 2005).

1.4 Dimensions of wisdom

An all-important question is: How do we make the concept of wisdom more accessible to managers and business professionals? What relevance does the concept of wisdom hold for the managers and professionals who are grappling with problems and ambiguities on a daily basis?

Scholars have discussed at length what the dimensions of wisdom actually entail. Moberg (2006) refers to the concept of wise responses to the surrounding environment, which is related to the psychological components of wisdom and includes knowledge, thinking, emotions and motivation. Other authors also refer to the psychological condition of a wise attitude and the corresponding behavior (cf. Kriger & Seng, 2005; Izak, 2013). These psychological conditions point to a certain state of mind that makes people act wisely. Hence, we would argue that, as a first dimension, wisdom is a competence. One important aspect of a competence is whether it can translate ideas or notions into practice and into action. In the psychology of learning this process is commonly known as ‘transfer’ (Blomme, 2003, 2012). An important condition for transfer is an ability and willingness to put knowledge and wisdom into practice. Openness to the surrounding environment, unclouded by emotions or moods, is another important condition. However, in interpreting the surrounding environment, the willingness to assume nothing and to subject to scrutiny everything that is true in the perspectives of the majority and make one’s own interpretation is no less important in order to maintain an objective mindset and vision (Black, 2008). We might claim that the willingness and motivation to develop and maintain such a state of mind has associations with the concept of freedom. Hence, putting wisdom into practice calls for a right state of mind.

The second dimension is leadership – not only leadership of others but also leadership from within. Kriger and Seng (2005) note that a ‘wise’ leader notices subtle changes in his outer and his inner world. By reflecting upon these and by being morally disposed to prevent harm to the social environment, a leader can arrive at ‘wise’ leadership. Acting in an unpredictable and chaotic world (Blomme, 2012; Intezari & Pauleen, 2014), awash with ambiguities and inadequate and distorted information (Moberg, 2006) calls for skillful maneuvering and cautious behavior (McKenna, Rooney & Boal, 2009). When they discharge their responsibilities for the well-being of the people they lead, leaders must act cautiously in trying to understand the changes in the environment (Yang, 2011) and in themselves (Kriger & Seng, 2005). Wise leadership is often reflected in its relational accomplishments (Yang, 2011). McNamee (1998) stresses the importance of the role of the leader in dialogues which generate wisdom through a process of interaction. This also holds for the leader’s role in the establishment and maintenance of communities aimed at sharing and collective activities (Blomme, 2013). Hence, putting wisdom into practice calls for ‘wise’ leadership.

The third dimension concerns the question of how we can support engagement and innovation in others and ourselves. How do we stay engaged and innovative as managers and professionals? Here, we might hark back to the state of mind listed as the first dimension. However, here we also take a closer look at our own grappling behavior in organizations. Engagement does much more than influence the corporate performance; it is a much broader concept that also addresses the possibilities for individuals to decide when and where to translate their cognitive, affective and physical energy into activities (Kahn, 1990; Rich et al., 2010). Although, on the one hand, work engagement may seem specific to the individual (one either does or does not have a positive attitude to life), various studies have shown that it is positively influenced by personal and external resources (Schaufeli & Salanova, 2007; Xanthopoulou et al., 2008; Rich et al., 2010). When it comes to state of mind, one may suggest that the individual state of mind is an important precondition for engagement. Having already defined state of mind as the first dimension, what we want to emphasize here is that we can learn lessons from wisdom traditions that will enable us to use external resources to enhance engagement and thus increase creativity and innovation. Wisdom traditions have demonstrated beyond doubt that their value patterns have retained their influence over time; but this could be attributable, to some extent, to an inbuilt flexibility and an ability to adapt to the spirit of the time. Hence, wisdom traditions may be sources of creativity and inspire people to make optimal use of external conditions to become engaged and innovative. Consequently, putting wisdom into practice calls for the right state of mind, and an effective use of external resources, to become engaged, creative and innovative.

For the fourth dimension, we want to stress the importance of communities. Every wisdom tradition has a strong moral dimension, which includes the prevention and alleviation of human suffering and a debt to the community to which one belongs. The insights of...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Foreword by Prasad Kaipa
• Foreword by Paul de Blot SJ
• Acknowledgments
• Notes on Contributors
• Part I: Introduction
• Part II: With the Right State of Mind
• Part III: Leadership from Within
• Part IV: Engagement and Innovation
• Part V: Creating the Right Conditions: Community, Learning and Development
• Part VI: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Management
• Part VII: Final Thoughts
• Index