Instances from World History that inspired modern management techniques

Archaeology Culture History Humanitarian Science Sociology

03.04.2021

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Instances from World History that inspired modern management techniques

Human resources management can be defined as an approach to effectively and properly manage employees. Employees are people working for a company, an organisation or an institution. These have different aims often to for maximise profits, so as to gain a competitive edge, or sometimes to gain goodwill of the certain groups of people. The roots of human resource management started at the dawn of civilisation. This is when people started to mingle with each other and hunt, working together for survival. Even though terms like planning, controlling, designing, delegation of duties, roles, power, status, qualifications, etc are named now, obviously these terms did not exist then. However, each person played their part so they survived together.

Here are some instances from history that helped the development of modern Human Resources management:-

(Anecdotes are taken from history, mythology and folklore)

LORD SHIVA-Delegation by the manager, Commitment by the employees

Lord Shiva, is considered the epitome of destruction. He is calm but assessing a situation he may choose to open his third eye, which then leads to ultimate destruction.

“There was a myth that King Bhagirath asked Ganga to cascade from heavens to the earth. But since she was flowing from heaven her path was very turbulent which caused massive destruction beyond human control. Thus king bhagirath asked Lord Shiva for help. Lord Shiva captured Ganga and tied down her on his hair and regulated her flow to the earth. Ganga on the other hand was trapped due to her actions.”

How do we connect this myth to modern management?

By taking the Ganges on his head, Lord Shiva streamlined only that much flow that was needed, as this could be regulated easily. A manager is also the one who has the entire responsibility on his head. He must assort and delegate tasks to his team in accordance with each person’s capacity to handle tasks.

To the contrary, the Ganga in Shiva’s hair symbolizes if you get into something without knowing the consequences, your ignorance will lead to your own failure. Meaning that if your manager gives you an unrealistic goal and you say you are the only one who can complete it, just to win favour, be it on your own head. This is because, there are employees who take up a task and get totally exhausted at the end and then blame the manager for giving themsuch a task. Rather would it not have been better to think before committing to that task?

RAMAYANA-Talent acquisition and distribution

The epic Ramayana is one of the most ancient stories written by sage vathmiki, which unwinds the way of living with rules and ethics. So as the story says Prince Ram was known as Maryaadapurushotham due to his disciplined way of life. An instance of this is taken from Ramayana.

“There was an instance in the Yudha Kanda of Ramayana, where Ram and his allies had to traverse the sea to reach Lanka. They were joined by Ravans’s brother vibhishan, who gave an insight into Ravan’s rule and military tactics. Here Nal and Neel, play an essential part in the tale. Had it not been for them, the army would never have had crossed the sea, and Ramayana wouldn’t have been the same. They are the core architects of the bridge. Hanuman, who was swift and had great agility, was chosen to complete the impossible task of collecting medicinal herbs for an injured Laxman against time.”

Relevance to management

Here if we think about it closely it is revealed that all these critical characters in the above-mentioned instance were just soldiers in the army, till the point of time it was decided that their skills should be utilized for other important purposes. Similarly, in an organization restricting people to their job roles, despite them being adept at other skills is, unfair to them and a loss to the organization. How the organization uses the varied skill sets, of its employees is very important in the larger picture. Also as mentioned above Vibhishan joined hands with ram for the battle, the same way it is the duty of a Human Resources Manager to identify talents for the benefit of the company. This is where a Human Resource Manager’s talent acquisition and their distribution of resources comes into play.

ATHENA-Manager as a good strategist

According to Greek mythology, she is described as the goddess of wisdom, war and craft. She is one of the wisest and responsible gods, amongst the Olympian gods. She has a strong sense of justice, which was not purely based on following the rules, but improvised according to peoples needs, their demands as well as varying situations. A beautiful anecdote of Goddess Athena as a powerful yet gentle strategist.

“King Cecrops decided to have a competition amongst the Gods of the Acropolis, where the winner was to be given the golden chance to lend their name to the glorious city. The two most powerful Gods of that time, Poseidon and Athena, naturally were the toughest competitors. The contest between them was so intense that they nearly went to battle with each other. However, just when they were about to strike each other, Athena had an idea for an ambiguous approach. She made a proposal that she and Poseidon enter into another contest, where whoever presented the city with the best gift would become the regalia. The winner was to be decided by king cecrops and his people. Poseidon struck the Earth with his majestic trident and presented the city with the boon of water. He was the God of the Sea and water was his gift, in the form of a massive foamy stream, delighted the people. But after a while, people got fed up with the water and quite unfit for consumption. After much thought and wisdom, Athena presented the city with an olive tree. Her gift was presented as a seed sown in the earth, and people had to wait to see the results. The olive seed transformed into a tree that bore fruits and proved to be a wonderful gift. It provided the people with sustenance, fuel, wood and a crop that was useful for daily living. Athena’s gift was much loved and welcomed and she was announced the winner.

Thus Athens got its name and Athena’s wisdom was immortalized, in the city of Athens, which to Date bears the olive fruit.”

How is Athena’s strategy relevant to modern management decisions?

Here if a manager can take decisions, rather than making chaos for a company (like Poseidon) by using mere strength like the Goddess Athena being calm, assessing the situation and then providing a strategy by foreseeing the future this will fulfil long-term goals rather than short ones.

CLEOPATRA- A manager who seizes opportunities and is a good negotiator

One of the famous and powerful women in history. She was a goddess, a queen, a skilled diplomat and a negotiator. She was a great politician who knew how and when to show off her and her country’s power. At the height of her rule more than two thousand years ago, she controlled Egypt and other lands including most of the eastern Mediterranean coast. One of Cleopatra’s major worries throughout her rule was Egypt’s relationship with the mighty Roman Republic. The Romans had captured most of Europe and parts of North Africa.

“Cleopatra had anticipation that Rome is going to capture Egypt. She made deals with the Roman leaders. She offered them her financial support and resources such as food grain, warships, types of equipment and soldiers. Egypt was rich in resources and Rome became highly dependent on Egypt. In her 20 year reign, she kept Egypt and Rome side by side, but each functioned as an independent country. But when she had been dethroned and exiled by her brother Cleopatra allied herself with the Roman general and statesman Julius Caesar. Cleopatra lent her hands and military to Caesar during the war between the Egyptian supporters of Ptolemy the Thirteenth and the Roman military. And upon his victory, Caesar gave supremacy of Egypt back to Cleopatra.”

From a management perspective

From the life of Cleopatra even though she is being described as a cunning and a manipulative ruler, she can also be described as a person who seizes the opportunity and someone who can manipulate her control, according to her rules. She knows how to negotiate with her opponents as well as her allies by using keen observation and analyzing their strengths and weakness. In the modern context, this can be interpreted as a SWOT analysis. That is how she made a pact with two of the most powerful men in history (Julius Caesar and Mark Antony). A manager should be a person who can make wise decisions through planning, organizing, staffing and directing, as well as controlling for the sustenance of the organization.

AKBAR AND BIRBAL-Fair judgment and ethical dilemma of whistleblowing

Akbar is, without doubt, the greatest Mughal emperor of all time. He brought about a truce and abundance to Hindustan in a way no Mughal other emperor did. The tales of Akbar are remembered even today. Akbar’s fine strategies, diplomatic relations and techniques are a perfect example for organizations to learn from.

“A blind saint lived in the kingdom of Akbar. He was very well trusted and respected by everyone in the entire place. People often came to seek advice from him since they believed he predicted the future. One day a young couple along with their niece came to see the saint. The parents of the child were killed right in front of her eyes. But as soon as she saw the saint she started to scream and say the saint was the killer. All the people mocked her saying she has gone mad due to the unfortunate incident and was defaming a reputable person; on top of all how can a blind saint kill! The issue was brought before Birbal and he summoned everyone including the saint in the emperor’s court the next day. When the saint just entered Birbal took a knife and chased the saint and the saint suddenly took his knife and started to fight back. This proved that the saint was not blind and the girl was not lying and the saint was sentenced to capital punishment.”

Making a decision fair and judiciously!

Here we get a message that in an organization a whistle blower’s opinion should not be discarded without investigating the matter thoroughly. Sometimes even if situations that compromise the integrity of the organization may occur the truth should be validated properly if facts are there rather than covering up the issue. Here terminologies such as fair judgment and ethical dilemma are emphasized.

An advisory board was always sought to help the king, as if he believed that you cannot make all the decisions yourself. Thus, constituting an advisory board for better management is an important factor.

So, if you are trying to implement something new for your business, or something that benefits society but would also be for your professional gain and increasing profit, try to go through the pages of the history of the world, as you can learn much from them.

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