Title: India inspires: incarnations of a leader (lessons from Indian epic Gita Govinda)

Authors: Ranjan Kumar Mohapatra; Amit Gupta

Addresses: Indian Oil Corporation Limited, New Delhi, India ' Indian Oil Corporation Limited, New Delhi, India

Abstract: This paper extracts applications for leadership from Dasavatara Strota, a hymn of Gita Govinda, an Indian epic that makes an appearance in managerial literature for the first time. The paper addresses the call of scholars for developing indigenous organisational theories; identifying traits from culturally rooted patterns that can be transferred to business environment; introducing cultural perspective to conventional business perspectives; addressing need of the West to look at applications of Indian philosophy in business. Through hermeneutics, the paper enhances understanding of inspirational leadership, whose increasing importance in dispersed settings has been highlighted. This paper leaves scope for scholars to unveil each incarnation of a leader and opens doors for mapping transformational leadership with ancient scriptures. Comparative studies can be undertaken to see commonalities and differences in lessons drawn from this epic and other more researched texts like Bhagvada Geeta, Ramayana and so on.

Keywords: hermeneutics; culture; India; Indian mythology; leadership; inspirational leadership; Das avatara; charisma; transformational leadership; Gita Govinda.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICBM.2021.113000

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 2021 Vol.22 No.2, pp.233 - 255

Received: 05 Oct 2019
Accepted: 09 Jan 2020
Published online: 15 Feb 2021 *

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