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Wages in the Indian Bureaucracy. Can Kautilya’s Arthasashtra Provide an Answer? KU Leuven
We compare the wage structure of the Indian bureaucracy with the wage structure recommended by the Arthashastra, a treatise on economics and politics written by Kautilya, the advisor to the Mauryan emperor Chandragupta during the fourth century B.C. As compared to Kautilya’s recommendations, the wages in the Indian bureaucracy are highly egalitarian and far lower than those recommended by Kautilya. It is likely that the existing wage structure ...
Indian Spiritual Tradition. Inspiration for Ethical Leadership in Europe KU Leuven
Indian Spiritual Traditions: an Inspiration for Managerial Ethics in Europe? The purpose of the paper is to explore the influence of Indian Hindu, Buddhist and Sufi traditions on the work on management by West-European economists or executives during the 20th century. While many management and organizational scholars now recognize that cultural differences can have a significant influence on management and work behaviour, the impact of ...
Indian versus Japanese Socio-economic Identity. Japanese Exceptionalism, Myth or Reality? KU Leuven
This chapter demonstrates that Japan was not an “exception” as the Eurocentric historiography has been claiming since the end of the 19th century. Both the cases of India and Japan reflect traditions which allowed very similar ways of socio-economic thinking. The final choices were, however, very different, even contradicting. These were the result of their respective geo-political and geo-economic realities. Japan, thanks to its geographically ...
From oriental utopia to business ethics: Europe’s search for new socio-economic paradigms in eastern religions and philosophies KU Leuven
In the eyes of European commentators Asia represented utopias, romantic oriental empires and spiritual wisdom. Europe re-invented Asia, sometimes from an inferior position, sometimes from a superior position. In general this ‘European Asia’ had not much to do with the real Asia. Asian philosophies and religions were used to make a point in a European context. But in doing so some traces of an authentic Asia, sometimes even forgotten in Asia ...
Economic leadership in 18th century Britain: Swift’s orientalism versus Defoe’s pragmatism KU Leuven
Jonathan Swift’s classic satirical narrative Gulliver’s Travels was first published in 1726, seven years after Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. While Dufoe decribed a primitive paradise, Swift discovered sophisticated utopias, superior or at least equal to European civilization of his time. Was it a coincidence that Jonathan Swift’s utopias were all situated in the “East"? What was his ideal of economic leadership? Our conclusions show that Swift ...
Indian versus European religious traditions and transformational socio-economic leadership KU Leuven
This contribution explores the relevance of Indian philosophical and religious traditions for modern socio-economic leadership wisdom from a European perspective. Traditions like Sikhism, Sufi Islam, Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism (Vedic traditions and Vedanta) contain concepts and rituals which can be relevant not only for medicine or psychology, but also for contemporary business and leadership wisdom. All these traditions refer to a basic ...
Light from India: Europe's search for Indian economic wisdom KU Leuven
At the beginning of the 21st C Western Europe is increasingly confronted with a new emerging superpower, India. India’s image combines the contradictory characteristics of a spiritual centre, an economic think tank and a still unresolved huge poverty trap. This contribution focuses on two major questions: (1) Are there any similarities between European and Ancient Indian economic thinking? (2) How did Europe perceive ancient Indian economic ...