Spirituality to boost business productivity

Kolkata, Mar 20 (UNI) The spirituality quotient is becoming extremely essential for building sustainable business by boosting tje morale of employees and thereby increasing productivity.

Company managers and owners these days believe that meditation and increased internal communication improves overall productivity of the organisation.

''The practise of chanting ''OM'' jointly by the employers and employees before starting work and transparency within the company management are the keys to excellence in business,'' said Vijay Yeshwant Wilankar, General Manager(HR&Administration) of Johnson and Johnson Ltd.

Swami Jitatmanandaji, Secretary of RKM Swami Vivekananda Ancestral Home, also shared his views at a seminar, ''Enabling Excellence'', organised today by the Confederation of India Industries (CII).

While Mr Wilankar spoke of ethical values and stressed on boosting the morale of the workers, keeping their safety in mind and taking positive initiative to look into their welfare, Swami Jitatmanandaji delved into a more holistic approach towards employee handling.

''Instead of going home for lunch, an employer should stay back and share his meal with his employees and colleagues and then see the difference in their attitude towards their boss,'' said Swamiji, an international acclaimed monk and author of books like Swami Vivekananda: Prophet and Pathfinder, Holistic Science and Vedanta, Modern Physics and Vedants, Science, Ethics and Holistic Values.

Swami Jitatmanandaji, a Harvard graduate himself, spoke of the Indian way of Life and how Indians are losing their values which more and more people of the western world have come to embrace.

Quoting Austrian-born American political theorist and journalist Peter Drucker, Swamiji said that employers have to forget that they are bosses and become servants.

An outrageous idea indeed but the reference is no doubt relevant.

Swamiji was speaking about how the distance between the employer and employee increases when communication decreases, when they think that their word will be the last and he would be obeyed unconditionally.

Speaking about the contemporary work culture in India and abroad, he suggested that company owners and managers should remember that to improve productivity, they need to satisfy the employees first.

''If needed, give them some kind of incentives, like a samosa and tea and bring them together for a mediation session before you start work,'' he remarked.

''Talk to them and repeatedly communicate until you are sure you have a happy team of workers who would put down their hats for you and respect you for all that you do for them and feel proud to be associated with your company,'' he reiterated.

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