Title: Leadership lessons from Shukraniti: a post-Vedic perspective

Authors: Margie Parikh

Addresses: B.K. School of Professional and Management Studies, Gujarat University, University Road, Ahmedabad-380009, Gujarat, India

Abstract: Advances in the leadership thought remind one of the Rigvedic tenet of 'Let the noble thoughts arrive from all over'. Of the ideas related to leadership, transformational leadership forms a bulk, but attention to ethical and moral leadership is increasing rapidly. This paper advances four propositions based on the Niti perspective on effective leadership and responds to the need of reducing fragmentation of leadership literature. Selecting Shukraniti as the seminal text of the post-Vedic era, this paper introduces the concept of tri-balancing among satisfaction of aspirations, success measured in financial terms, and ethical conduct of duty. Secondly, this paper presents punishment in a more constructive role to help bridge the gap between the performance concerns of the leader and the ethical concerns. Emphasising that leadership is a behaviour-based role, this paper finally presents an integrated cycle of leadership with pre-entry, functional, and exit phases.

Keywords: Shukraniti; Niti; post-Vedic texts; Niti texts; governance; Trivarga; tri-balance; leadership; leadership cycle; punishment; Danda.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICBM.2020.110474

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 2020 Vol.21 No.3, pp.410 - 434

Received: 01 Nov 2018
Accepted: 09 Aug 2019
Published online: 20 Oct 2020 *

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