Title: Need for integrating holistic education in management studies: a model curriculum based on Bhagavad Gita perspective

Authors: S. Rukmini

Addresses: Department of English, School of Social Sciences, VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu-632014, India

Abstract: Present-day, management education aims at gathering knowledge and honing skills side-lining attitude that develops one holistically to think and act wisely, leading one to balance work and life. Kurukshetra, the battlefield in the Mahabharata, symbolises the inner conflict that man confronts every day in his day-to-day life, whether in education, workforce, or personal life. A plethora of literature exists on the application of principles of the Bhagavad Gita, a repository of all knowledge and wisdom, to soft skills, managerial skills and communication skills in management education; however, hardly any attempts have been made to integrate Gita into the management curriculum for holistic education. Given this background and the need for holistic education, the paper examines the workplace challenges and the need to integrate the application of the Bhagavad Gita principles to develop a holistic perspective of work and life. Keeping this in view, an attempt was made to provide a perspective for holistic education as well as to develop a model curriculum for the integration of holistic education in management studies.

Keywords: management education; workforce; holistic education; management programmes; integration; soft skills; communication skills; managerial skills.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICBM.2022.126148

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 2022 Vol.27 No.2, pp.270 - 286

Received: 21 Aug 2020
Accepted: 28 Jun 2021
Published online: 13 Oct 2022 *

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