Introduction

Management is a vast area of research. Contrary to what seems like a handful of concepts and dogmatic theories, its origin and application is deeply rooted in our daily lives. As Wern (1979) has noted, the concept of management is found in a number of ancient civilisations dating back to thousands of years. As early as 2123-2081 BC, Hammurabi, the Babylonian King, issued a unique code of 282 laws which governed business dealings, personal behaviour, interpersonal relations, wages, punishments, and a host of other societal matters. Chinese general, Sun Tzu devised a way to marshalling the army into subdivision, of gradations of rank among officers, and of using gongs, flags and signal fires for communications in sixth century BC. Confucius, 552-479 BC, put forward a concept of a merit system in official government positions. Wern (1979) noted that one of the most ancient terms used to describe a “professional” managerial role is that of vizier (minister to the King). The record that this office existed goes back to at least 1750 BC. Example of Catholic Church can be given as one of the most ancient organisational structures that have existed for over two thousand years.

There are numerous such examples and it is not difficult to understand them in context of our social and cultural traditions that have evolved, reformed and existed in every century and era. The Western world has gone through crusades, inquisitions, revolutions and a shift in ethical beliefs. The rediscovery of ancient classics and renewed interest in reason and science epitomised the Renaissance and broke the ancient hold of theology on people through Protestant Reformation and subsequent Protestant ethic (Wern, 1979). Martin Luther King, John Calvin and then Max Weber set out what would later be described as “spirit of capitalism”. Nicolo Machiavelli (1513) and Thomas Hobbs (1651) put theories on how to rule, not how to be good or wise, but how to rule successfully. Locke (1690) inspired the likes of Jean Jacques Rosseau and Adam Smith that set course for fundamental changes in political and social environment in Europe. The struggle of state versus the individual and human rights versus autocracy continues.

Much of the East has survived and hung on a social and cultural system that has its roots in spirituality, ancient philosophy and moral interpretation of life (with some exceptions). From 12th to 18th century, British, French and Dutch “colonies” stretch from Africa to Asia. It is continuous struggle to reform and rebuild that forces us to look at the way we work and live. Today, materialism is a great influence in our lives. Our basic needs have expanded to comfortable housing, food, clothing, hi-tech entertainment and our personal ambitions have inflated to individual achievements, power, position and self satisfaction. Everything has a price and ways are being devised to enhance the commerce from one part of the world to other. The technology is evolving at a greater speed. The new era is of technological revolution. As in any other revolution or a major change process, the struggle is between old traditional and newly emerging society. Most of the management models that are available to us today are largely built on psychological and social frameworks (Saul, 1992). Some of the key themes are learning, knowledge, motivation and change. If we could analyse these fundamental issues, some answers may come forth that throw light on human nature and philosophy of life. That is where it may show the subtle connection between basic human nature and prevalent ideology.

No matter what we do or think, we are human beings first and looking within us may provide us with an insight into some of the problems that we encounter in our daily lives. If an insight can bring about some fundamental change into a person, it would change the way that person looks at his or her work and life. Logically, the learning should be internal (introspection, self-realisation) first and then external (education, practical experiences). If we knew of a way to know our inner selves, and took that as a way of life, it would change the way we think of ourselves, others, things and events around us. It is not that the quest to find the meaning of life is totally absent in our world. It is there – strong and persistent. However, the tools or the methods to achieve that have been lost or misplaced. Wealthy people are getting obsessed with accumulating more wealth in spite of knowing deep in their hearts that the wealth does not create happiness. The poor, on the other hand, are trying hard to become wealthy in spite of knowing that the wealth alone cannot create happiness. The race for materialism is amusing and yet depressing. The human consciousness has taken a back seat in the process. Most of our wealth is generated by trade or service in today’s world. That is where the organisation and work come in context of human life.

1.1 The Proposal

The proposal sets out the framework and methodology of this research. It comprises of articulation of the topic and defines objectives and proposed outcomes of this research or field investigation.

1.1.1 Articulation

This project is being undertaken as a qualitative research. The methodology will predominantly be secondary content analysis with use of some phenomenological aspects (reference to social science and perpetuation of ideas) of human life. The objective is to do a comparative analysis of key management theories that have an impact on human life and its sensitivities. Some of the models tested are,

* Learning Cycle by Kolb
* Hierarchy of Needs by Maslow
* Later Thinking by De Bono

From academic perspective, the reference to methodology has been incorporated to satisfy statutory requirements of a student research paper. Secondary analysis of the given models is just an attempt to present them as examples in context of the overall objective of this paper - which is to establish the importance of natural human qualities in the field of management and, discursively, in all walks of life. The theories will be analysed from the human perspective and measured for their impact (positive or negative) on natural human qualities. The focus will be on the following natural qualities;

* Creativity
* Concrete Knowledge
* Instinctive behaviour
* Compassion
* Spiritual insight (Introspection and change)

It is imperative to elaborate the term "natural human qualities" at this point. They are described as "natural" because they form a part of basic human nature. They are essentially considered "human qualities" because they arise from within a human being (inner experiences) and contribute towards the continuous development of human life and consciousness in direct or indirect way. Their significance in life will be discussed in detail in the thesis.

Why is basic human nature so important?

As long stressed by great spiritual masters, the basic human nature is what we are born with – the clean slate with no inscriptions on it. There is no division in the fact that we are all human beings first; endowed with a natural tendency to survive, explore and evolve. The human brain has evolved from single cell amoebae to its present form. It has presumably gone through numerous transformations in last thousands of years and presented itself in the form we perceive it now - the human life. We are perhaps the most advanced species on this planet and have been gifted with a non-parallel intelligence, awareness and an inherent power to search for the truth. For centuries, spiritual masters have believed that the human life has a greater meaning than what we think it to be. And most have believed that "thinking" is the real problem. The discussion is as follows;

On one hand, we believe that we are in control of our lives and can design and guide it through dreams, ambitions and willpower. On the other, we have an inner side of us that is deeply caught in beliefs, unknown fears, faith, emotions and other such hidden characteristics. While we think that we are taking decisions and controlling our lives, we hardly realise that all the vital functions of our body that keep us alive, i.e., breathing, heart-beat, digestion, blood circulation and alike are not depended on our thinking process. Our entire body is a complex mechanism. The very fact that it is functioning without our intervention is the proof of a greater capacity of brain that exists beneath our superficial intelligence. Today, what we think we know, in terms of our intellectual capacity, is limited to our culture, education, acquired information through words, language and life experiences. Beyond the materialistic conditioning of human mind lies the basic human nature that is pure and defiled (details and evidences to be discussed in the thesis). The famous Zen master Chi-Ch'eng (500 BC) described it as self-nature of human being which, according to him, is "free from ills, disturbances, and follies."

Without going deeper in spiritual aspects, the focus in this paper will simply remain on the aforementioned natural qualities. We are all aware of their importance in our development and overall development of human life. Considering these qualities as essential in any form of competency (most of the competency models have one or the other as a part, though without really assessing their actual potential), the research will determine whether the selected models have any influences on them.

The entire discussion is based on the fact that the human life is unique and cannot be perceived in parts such as a professional or personal life (though we tend to live with many divisions in our minds such as the notions of good and bad, right and wrong, likes and dislikes etc.). Management studies, as any other form of learning, are aimed at development of a person and a person, in turn, is part of the entire humanity. Our civilisation has gone through numerous historical and consequential changes in every era and age. Any major change of any kind requires a degree of introspection, realisation and concrete knowledge. These factors are directly related to basic human nature. A collective reflection of a common idea or insight within a society or civilisation forces the events and effects transformation. In context of knowledge, change and human behaviour, the kinds of questions that are expected to be addressed in this paper are;

* If we often perceive and accept the fact that general theories (or what we read) differ from real life experiences, why do we continuously pursue them? Do we just follow a system or our own conscience? Why are they different? What is our learning?

* If we have to work to live, need to be motivated to perform and have skills to succeed, how come we fail to integrate our entire life into one existence and align our objectives in life? Do the relevant models we learn (motivation etc.) help at all?

* Since we are a society of organisations, what impact does our studies, management studies in particular, have on our thinking patterns and behaviour. If we are supposed to develop management skills through established models, theories and simulations, why do the acquired skills fail to provide total satisfaction? Why so many people have to work rather than they want to work?

* Is the change within us (perceptions, values, beliefs etc.) is consistent with the change in outside world? How can the two be different? Are we just learning the techniques to circumvent and evade the problems rather than learning to actually solving them?

We are, today, being influenced by institution, organizations and corporations that exist in forms of religion, government, business and education. Our present wisdom is the legacy of past thinkers, philosophers and ideals in form of education, learning and experiences. The systems are built around models and proven examples.

1.1.2 The Inner Search

A.H.Maslow once commented in his speech, What we have found during last ten years or so is that the source of creativeness of the kind that we are actually interested in, ie., the generation of really new ideas, are in the depth of human nature. We don’t even have a vocabulary for it yet that is very good….. (Fort Belvoir, 1957). Numerous psychological and psychoanalytical studies have been made in the past, and many are going on in the present day, to fully penetrate the human mind and unlock the mysteries of the human nature. Yet the conclusions are hard to make. How can we, then, determine and distinguish natural human qualities? The issues will be addressed in a great deal in the thesis as we proceed. Our actions, experiences and reflections in life usually have two components; internal and external. In the course of life, we go through the complexities of survival, struggle and assimilation. Since we have learned to categorise, divide and attach values to specific things, we have become more perceptive than introspective. Most of the times our attention is focused no external events. Most of the learning that comes to us comes in the form of a logical and theoretical framework. We dissect and scrutinise it from individual perspective, attempt to relate it to presupposed life experiences (comparing with life experiences of elders and peers) and mentally accept it as knowledge. Since we live in different societies and have diversified cultures and languages, our perceived knowledge is limited to what has been taught to us and what we have learned from external sources. The external learning comes to us in form of words that are typical of any place and culture. With them comes a frame of mind that is firstly based on childhood impressions and conditioning. Overall, we get to accumulate a lot of information about life in words and thoughts much before the events start to happen. We have family members, teachers, icons and ideals who have lived or been living their lives with their own values and perceptions. We know a lot about what is apparent but little about what is not. The internal component of human life is often reclusive and intimate. The original human nature is a naked reality. It is filled with characteristics like fear, insecurity, psychosis, mania, desires, greed and so on. Even we are afraid to deal with our own subliminal self. We have learned to use the external attributes as a camouflage. And we have learned to act. We have managed to create separate personalities (all perceptive) that we keep on using according to a particular situation. Since everybody around us is engaged in similar activity, we have a world where the life is based on man-made values. We keep the presentable side of ours for the others and a part of personal side for private affairs.

In such a divided form, we find the principles based on rationalisation and logic easy to accept because they do not aim to penetrate us deeper in the mind. We are now so used to applying our mind and thoughts to everything that we even neglect our emotional side. Though, emotional side can also be a part of a personality. It depends how much value is given to it. Most of the times, though, we tend to suppress it and that has consequential psychological effects. Dehler and Welsh (1994) have quoted in their article in Journal of Managerial Psychology, Most organisations do not know how to deal with emotions, so they try to pretend it does not exist. By design, corporations are emotionally barren (Page 17). It is not the organisations that are emotionally barren. It is their policies, systems and the ways in which they treat the very people who have made them. It is quite surprising how, when accepting that the emotional health of their employees are essential for their performance, the organisations seldom consider tackling it in their business plans. The gap between human sensitivities and business processes is quite visible here. While we keep complaining about work and how little satisfaction it brings, we keep developing systems that further enhance that feeling.

We must look into the way our lives have transformed in today’s world. The management gurus keep pointing at the human elements and the necessities to address human concerns in organisations. However, there has not been a single business model that gives emphasis to human life. The societal approach is considered a separate area of work – an area separate from the areas of creating wealth – non-profit organisations. While we starve for a meaning in life and self-fulfilment, we keep making divisions in our lives. For the rich, sustaining the lifestyle and keeping the inflow of money is the prime concern. For the middle class, the quest is to get everything that the rich people have. For the poor, every little thing is a dream. In either of the situations, the focus does not divert from money and materials. If anything bad has happened to our societies, taking the whole world in one context, it is the classification of human lives. If the large part of our able lives is spent in creating wealth, fulfilling ambitions or earning daily bread, when will we have the time to think about the collective human good? How will the human heart and brain evolve? We need a human revolution - a revolution that will break the shekels of metal dogmas and bring a new enlightenment to the human life. If, as individuals, we can create a profound awareness towards meaning of life, we will collectively work towards one goal – the improvement and enhancement of human life. Then, the wealth will not be an issue because worldly possessions will not the objects of desire. How can we create equality in this world without any prejudice or preference? This enquiry should begin from within us. Looking at this approach, the ideal thing would have been to find a model that addresses individuals rather than the concepts such as management. However, the models for self-realisation and salvation are numerous in spiritual texts. There are very few takers. The mind keeps coming back to lifestyle and earning money. Hence, if we can bring this approach to the organisations themselves, the tide can turn the other way. If the organisations shift their focus from profits and shareholders to human evolution and exploration of human consciousness, we can bring about a new revolution.

1.1.3 Aims and Objectives of this Research

Snyder in his article, "Self-fulfilling Stereotypes" (Readings in Managerial Psychology, 1989, p200) wrote that good will and education are not sufficient to subvert the power of stereotypes. If people treat others in such a way as to bring out behaviour that supports stereotypes, they may never have an opportunity to discover which of their stereotypes are wrong. We have become too used to thinking and rationalising. So much that what we think appears to be a reality to us. Although we all agree that the source of inspiration and creativity lies somewhere deep within us, we have not done enough to tap that potential. Elliot Aronson, in his article, "The Rationalising Animal" (Readings in Managerial Psychology, 1989, p134) has written that man likes to think of himself as a rational animal. However, it is more true that man is a rationalising animal, that he attempts to appear reasonable to himself and to others. He has quoted Albert Camus' remark to further illustrate this point, the man is a creature who spends his entire life in an attempt to convince himself that he is not absurd. The point made here is to emphasise the reliance of human mind on rationalisation and logical perception of events. The sense of absurdity that Camus mentions, comes from the flickers of momentous realisation or an introspection that exposes true nature of human beings at some points in life. Lest we realise, among fears and emotions lie components of instinct, creativity and many other natural qualities. There are no theories for them, for they are not dependent on words, thoughts and languages. That is why we need to look deeper in to the basic human nature and find out the original source of such attributes. We do have creative people around us, lots of them and creative work being done in all the fields. But we also have theories (as mentioned in Articulation) that claim to motivate, create learning and knowledge. One of the objectives of this paper is to compare these two elements.

With all these contradictions, arguments, ideas and contemplation in sight, the objectives of this paper can be stated as;

* Evaluate key management models and theories from human perspective and analyse their effectiveness in real world

* Describe basic human nature and explore natural human qualities such as creativity, concrete knowledge, instinct, compassion and spiritual insight that have influence on work and improvement of human life.

* Emphasis the importance of human sensitivities in a workplace and need for a profound change in the management philosophy in the developing world

The arguments will be presented from human perspective and will hold no prejudice and reference to any particular belief or ideology. It will be a candid attempt towards creating general awareness and provide a basis for future research on the same subject or relevant area.

1.1.4 Scope and Methodology

This research can be described as a qualitative research. This research allows the researcher to explore the workings of stated models by distinguishing specific characteristics in each analysis. The social aspects of discussion, reference to social science and study of perpetuation of ideas should come under phenomenological methodology. Method of data collection will be content analysis. Since the theories and models will be analysed from human perspective, the researcher will first try to establish an argument based on the topic and justify the objectives of this research.

With key focus on motivation and learning, two main models selected for this research are

* Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs”
* Kolb’s “Learning Cycle”
* De Bono’s “Later Thinking”

The above models are evaluated for their effectiveness in the real world, essentially in the areas of motivation and learning. In order to establish that notions such as “self-actualisation” as described by Maslow and “concrete knowledge” as described by Kolb are not possible unless a spiritual process is incorporated into management models, the following areas are explored,

* Duality of Human Mind: Emphasising that the thinking mind and physical brain are two separate entities. The study has a direct impact on our view of the world and human life since key elements of human mind such as belief, philosophy, opinion, preference and ideals are based on external, thought-based influences. As long as the thinking goes, does not matter in which direction, it will remain just that – thinking.

* Knowledge Vs Information: Showing that most of our learning comes from external sources in form of information and there is little attempt in our daily lives to distinguish between information and knowledge. The real “knowledge” is shown as something that comes naturally from within us without the aid of thought, idea, imagination or contemplation. Such differentiation immediately disapproves the notion of “concrete knowledge” in absence on self-realisation

* “I” the Ego: A string emphasis is given on identifying and eliminating the “I” or ego that I essentially a creation of thoughts and though-based ideals. This brings a deep spiritual discussion in light where the importance of thoughtlessness and egoless brain is emphasised. This has a direct implication on theories such as Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” that talks about “self-actualisation” without shedding any light on the human nature itself.

The aforementioned models are vigorously challenged for their effectiveness in the real world given their theoretical nature. The scope also subtly points at the prevalent practice of “creating” new models based on old models by the management “gurus” without actually making any attempt to understand the human life at its basic.

1.1.5 Expected Outcomes

The key objectives of this research will help examine whether the inner experiences such as motivation, knowledge and creativity can be defined through theoretical models and applied to a person externally to get desired results. For instance, does Kolb Learning Cycle actually create concrete knowledge? What impact does such an exercise have on the basic human nature?

Following outcomes are expected from this research,

* Presenting the shortcomings of key management models in relation to human nature and their limitations in real-life situations

* Creating an awareness towards natural learning process and its influence on key human characteristics such as creativity, innovation, inspiration and knowledge

* Contributing towards continuous research in the areas of Consciousness Management and Spiritual Management

* Bringing the notion of work and human life into one perspective

* Presenting a view of the natural human life and emphasising the importance of self-realisation in collective improvement of human life

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