Modeling Organizational Behavior
The purpose of a model is to explain, predict and control the behavior
of a system. In the case of an organization, its model should help answer
questions such as the following:
1. Will this organization grow?
2. What are the hurdles for its growth?
3. Is the organization healthy i.e., does it have the resilience to survive and rejuvenate itself?
4. Can this organization handle an upcoming challenge posed by its environment - competition, industry, nation, ecosystem etc.?
5. What change is needed to rectify problems?
6. Is this organization relevant anymore?
Defining Life
What is the sign of life? According to Vedic wisdom, an entity that is living has a sense of self-identity (aatma jnaana), a will to preserve it and expand its power and influence over its environment (icchaa shakti), and the ability to voluntarily change its environment (kriyaa shakti).
The underlying motive for life is delight of existence and expansion.
In this sense, an organization can also be considered a living organism if it exhibits these qualities.
Vedic wisdom also offers a model to represent the mechanism of life. A living organism must have the following faculties:
1) ahamkaara or I-ness,
2) manas or faculty of experiencing the world and feeling the delight or perversion of it as pleasure or pain,
3) buddhi - or faculty to make sense of its environment for the purpose of interaction, and
4) chitta - or memory or record of its own existence, actions and their effects to help navigate its evolution efficiently.
These four faculties operate at 5 levels of substance or pancha koshas - 1. physical matter or annam, 2. conscious energy or praana, 3. manas or expanded feeling of others as oneself and buddhi or inclusion of others with same ideology as oneself, 4. vijnana or governing principle or dharma in line with cosmic truth, and 5. ananda or pure unconditional joy of existence. This Vedic model of human psychology is explained further in another blog.
All the four faculties are present in each of the five koshas or personalities of the organism. This 5x4 matrix constitutes the complete anatomy of the life form. Some of the aspects may dominate the life form's behavior, but all are present, whether dormant or active.
Each life form is a manifestation of a facet of the Truth of existence for the delight of manifestation. It experiences this delight at 5 levels i.e., the 5 koshas with the delight being more intense in the higher koshas. For instance, the delight of success of family members - manomaya ananda, is more intense and motivating than personal success - praanamaya ananda, which is in turn more intense than one's mere physical health - annamaya ananda.
An organization is the coming together of individuals to manifest a truth or power of reality that they cannot manifest individually. If an organization is merely a union of its member units, it has no purpose to exist. It has to have its own identity and existence and delight beyond that of its members. That additional value is what motivates and justifies its birth and existence. Hence to model an organization, one has to define its 5x4 matrix of faculties in koshas.
According to Vedic wisdom, the animating life force executes 5 functions as pancha praanas: infusion, elimination, distribution, sublimation/consecration, assimilation. What these mean in the organization's context needs to be identified.
To reason about an organization's behavior, one has to define its 5x4 matrix.
1. What is the governing dharma?
2. What is the life force that animates it?
3. What does survival and expansion mean?
4. What does delight mean (stakeholder value)?
5. What is the binding force that ties individuals to the organization?
6. What is the motivation for this organization to support its ecosystem?
7. What are the forces that eliminate unwanted elements?
Now let's examine how to define various aspects of a Vedic model of organizations.
Organizational Identity
Organizational identity needs to be defined at 5 levels corresponding to the pancha koshas.
- Annamaya or physical identity is the set of employees, wealth and physical assets. This is the most visible identity.
- Praanamaya identity is the affinity the employees feel towards the organization. It is their combined manomaya kosha that indicates their affiliation and pride in the organization. The stronger the sense of belonging, the more robust the life of the organization. This is the dominant aspect of western approach to defining organizations. The capitalist motto of "Greed is good" stems from preoccupation with this identity for self-expansion.
- Manomaya identity is the set of other individuals or organizations whose welfare gives joy to the organization. Joy is in being loved and accepted by the community as a member. Live
and let live is the formula. Sorrow is rejection by the community. The cooperative industry clusters in the unorganized sector of India are strong in this identity. For such organizations, transactions happen on the basis of relations and trust rather than contracts. This is totally ignored in the western approach to management. For organizations preoccupied with this identity, the focus is to build an entity that can last for generations, not merely predatory self-expansion.
- The buddhigata or intellectual identity is the core set of ideas, worldview, products and IP that sets the organization apart.
- The vijnanamaya identity is the cosmic truth or dharma that the organization is manifesting. Not all organizations have a clear vijnanamaya identity. Only social, cultural and spiritual organizations have a clear sense of this identity. The main preoccupation of this identity is to be known as the upholder of a noble cause such as philanthropy, compassion, equality, fraternity, etc.
The identity reflects in the products or services delivered. An organization's vision
statement should be an articulation of its identity at all koshas, especially the higher ones.
Like any living entity, the purpose of an organization's existence is to experience organizational delight through manifestation and assertion of its identity at all these levels. Who experiences this delight? Its members i.e., stakeholders. They experience organizational delight as their manomaya ananda in their community self.
Varnas:Types of Organizational Functions
Just like an individual, an organization's functions or actions can be classified into 4 major categories denoted by the 4 varnas i.e.,
- Brahmana - setting the vision and direction, ideology, worldview etc.
- Kshatriya - protecting the identity of the team, keeping it cohesive
- Vaishya - procuring resources necessary for the team to accomplish its tasks, planning and scheduling for efficiency
- Shudra - skill to execute the tasks by employing domain knowledge and tools.
These actions happen at all koshas with the objective of asserting and expanding the personality of those koshas.
Gunas: Motives for Action
There are 3 possible motives for action at any kosha, and they are denoted by the 3 gunas:
- Sattva - enthusiasm to serve a higher cause, become the fittest instrument for the purposes of higher koshas
- Rajas - the urge to assert and expand one's identity at a kosha, also called egoistic assertion
- Tamas - the urge to maintain status quo, resist change and maintain stability
Tamasic urge keeps an organization stable. Rajasic urge causes predatory expansion. Sattvik urge enables broader impact for universal good.
Motivational Strategies
Any of the various functions in an organization fall into a combination of the categories denoted by the varna. Every individual has a natural affinity for actions of a particular varna category. Varna indicates one's affinity, not ability. Sometimes it is a combination, such as a primary and subordinate category. It is important to assign people to functions of matching action type or varna to ensure job satisfaction and performance. While varna determines what kind of job an individual or a team enjoys doing, the guna determines what motivates one to do a job. Identifying the guna helps devise the right incentives to motivate an individual or a team. What works for people of one guna backfires for those of another guna. Hence, leaders need to be aware of the gunà of their team members for maximìzing team effectiveness.
Vedic wisdom recognizes four broad strategies for motivation.
- Saama - convincing, works for those with a sattvic disposition.
- daana - incentivizing, works for those who are rajas dominated i.e., ambitious for personal growth,
- bheda - competition, works for those having rajas with a tinge of tamas.
- danDa - threatening or insulting, works for shaking people out of tamas.
A healthy organization has a judicious blend of activities representating all varnas.
Performance
To perform its actions well, an organization or individual needs three capabilities or shaktis - icchaa or will, jnaana or knowhow and kriya or skill and energy/resources. So an organisation's performance in its chosen activities can be boosted by enhancing these three capabilities. Icchaa by motivation, jnaana by education, and kriya by training and facilitation. Performance assessment can also be done along these dimensions.
Finally, an organization's or individual's health and wellbeing can be measured by its delight being experienced in each of the 5 koshas. That is its 5-component delight vector.
Vedic Psychological Profile
In summary, the complete psychological profile of an individual or organization is a matrix of the following aspects along each of the 5 koshas:
- The four faculties, viz.,
- ahamkaara: a clear conception of its identity and distinction from others
- manas: passionate stakeholders who feel for the organization
- buddhi: intelligence to sense and respond to its environment
- chitta: accumulated organizational experience
- Varna denoting preferred action types,
- Guna denoting the prime motive for action,
- Shakti denoting the capability for performance in the action, and
- Ananda denoting its current level of delight experienced which is a measure of its health or wellness
Now let's see how this model can be used to answer behavioral questions posed earlier. Below, we give a brief pointer on the approach to answer the questions.
1. Will this organization grow?
- Assess the shakti and Ananda of its pranamaya kosha.
2. What are the hurdles for its growth?
- Identify lacuna in shakti.
3. Is the organization healthy i.e., does it have the resilience to survive and rejuvenate itself?
- Is there clarity in identification of the 4 faculties?
4. Can this organization handle an upcoming challenge posed by its environment - competition, industry, nation, ecosystem etc.?
- Assess the guna of pranamaya kosha.
5. What change is needed to rectify problems?
- Devise ways to boost rajas, or to enhance shakti.
6. Is this organization relevant anymore?
- Assess the Ananda being experienced in various koshas.
