Chanakya's perspective - Recruitment based on Values.


Chanakya's Arthashastra is supposed to have been written during the 4th Century B.C. (Bandopadya, 1980).  In Chanakya's treatise, the government was the organization and its basic philosophy was to create a welfare state. We can extrapolate the teachings of Chanakya about his observations about Kings as corporate leaders and of Kingdoms as modern organizations. "By any definition, the Chanakyan state was a welfare state par excellence in which the king was a model of personal purity and sobriety and is called upon to work for the happiness of the people.

Chanakya’s value based leader:

The primary goal of the leader: The leader's primary goal according to Arthashastra is to fulfill the philosophy of the organization. It was for the happiness and welfare of his subjects that the king existed.

Leadership values: Chanakya gives a list of values the leader has to possess which among others include: (a) Piety; (b) Truthfulness; (c) Reliability; (d) Gratefulness; (e) Liberality; (f) Promptness; (g) Freedom from vices.

The king should avoid any profit that would be injurious to the subject.

Hiring for Values: Chanakya's scheme can be studied under the following aspects:

1.      Organization’s member values: Chanakya understood the necessity of promoting values among other members of the organization to fulfill the corporate philosophy. Such members apart from being experts in their own field of work must have among others the following values: (a) Integrity; (b) Capability; (c) Loyalty; (d) Character; (e) Intelligence; (f) Perseverance; (g) Dexterity; (h) Friendliness; (i) Devotion; (j) Amicability. 

2.      According to Chanakya, one of the major factors that have to be taken into consideration while appointing officials to various posts is their character and conduct.

3.      Extrinsic rewards: Righteous behavior under Chanakya's scheme has to be rewarded.

4.      Check on unethical behavior: Supervision and inspection of activity, punishment for fraudulent behavior like manipulation of accounts, corrupt trade practices should be established.

Conclusion: Chanakya thus gives a comprehensive model for value-based management for an organization. He enforces that values percolate from the leader and his actions are definitive. Chanakya suggests that both desirable, as well as undesirable values, once inducted propagates its kind. Hence the urgency to hire not only the right skill but also the right value.  Reinforcement of values, recruitment based on cultural fitment and methods to incentivizing value-based actions are critical to the development of a righteous organization.

It is unfair to state that present management practices are a direct pick up from the west, Management practices were studies and documented in India as far back as the 4th century BC. Either history has simply deleted the vast learning India as a culture has acquired or we simply decided to ignore it.

Ref: 
1. Guidelines for. Value Based Management in Kautilya's Arthashastra. - N. Siva Kumar & U. S. Rao.
2. Moral Guidelines in Indian Business. 
3. Chanakaya's Kutniti

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