Presently the world is facing leadership crisis. This article tries to give the solution for the ideal type of leadership required in the present times. Rajarshi leadership which is an ancient Indian concept of ideal leadership is offered as a solution for the modern business world and this conclusion is drawn by getting the insights from the evolution of society, business, and leadership theories. The remarkable aspect that comes to the surface from the study of evolution is that society, business, and leadership theories all are converging towards the spirituality and have started seeking solution in spirituality. Now the time has come for India which has been the land of spirituality for ages to offer the spiritual solution to the ailing modern world. This article offers the leadership solution for the modern world from the ancient Indian tradition of spirituality.

This paper tries to establish the need of the time to practice responsible leadership in the globalised work environment. It sheds light on the qualities needed for responsible leadership such as moral and ethical as well as emotional and relational. This paper also unfolds the important value based leadership roles as a citizen, a servant, a steward and visionary and operational roles as a change agent, a coach, an architect and a storyteller.

These days corporate scams, corporate frauds and corporate crime have become a very common and regular phenomenon. We often wonder why people commit fraud, why they steal things that do not belong to them and what goes through their minds when they do such awful things. The answers can be explained with the help of descriptions given in the ancient Indian scriptures, which were written centuries ago. Not only this, these ancient Indian scriptures also offer the remedial measures for curing the ailment of unethical and devilish behavior. This paper is an attempt to understand the reasons of unethical behavior and prepare a model for developing ethical leadership.

Corporate managers know the importance attached to values, ethics and personal conducts. Their values and personal conducts are reflected through their leadership style and actions. Personal conducts of a corporate manager is well visible to the employees who work under him. A consistency in the saying of managers and their actual personal conducts play a dominant role in creating trust between them and employees. Any inconsistency may lead to a state of mistrust between them. A proper understanding and deep rooted trust help in enhancing competency among the managers as well as employees. Such an environment will, no doubt, motivate employees to yield their maximum output. This type of environment just cannot develop automatically. Every manager needs to exhibit a good practice of personal conducts. Managers who exhibit positive ethical behavior can influence the actions of employees to a great extent. Personal conducts of a manager include many things or qualities. It reflects leadership abilities, individuality, integrity, responsibility, vision accuracy, respect, dedication, diversity, loyalty, credibility, honesty, innovativeness, teamwork, accountability, efficiency, empathy, accomplishment, courage, independence, security, challenge, influence, learning, compassion, friendliness, discipline/order, generosity, optimism, dependability, and so on….As a manager select personal conducts that are most important to you and exhibit such practices in real actions. Integrate the values and ethics so that they define your character. Then live up to your own personal conducts. India is rich as far as ancient literature is concerned. There are many ancient Indian literatures available even today. They are written on different aspects of life and society. One such great contribution is Bidur neeti.

Kautilya is famous for making Chandragupta Maurya as the king of Magadha in 4th century B.C. and for writing Arthashastra which deals with building of a nation on sound economics. In Arthashastra and many of his other works leadership aspect has been dealt by him quite emphatically and the ideas and recommendations expressed by him gathers importance simply because he himself was responsible to groom a small child to become the king of Magadha and the empire later on extended to the whole of present India and Afghanistan to the border of Persia. This article is an attempt to find out the relevant concepts of ethical leadership mentioned in the works of Kautilya and its relevance for the modern business world.

There are several theories today, which explain and define Leadership in vivid manner, but do they inculcate the concept of Purushartha in their theories as defined and explained so clearly in our ancient Indian literature like Vedas, Puranas or in epics like Ramcharit Manas and Mahabharata . This paper is an attempt to figure out the true characteristics of Leadership from ‘Ramcharit Manas written by Tulsi. Ramcharit Manas reflects that leadership does not come only when you are in the power, leadership can also be shown when you are in very odd conditions maintaining the balance of four Purusharthas- Artha, Dharma, Kama and Moksha. This was exemplified by Rama of Tulsi when he was exiled soon after the enthronement.

Believed by some to be over 5,000 years old, the Bhagavad Gita is one of the world’s oldest known texts. The manuscript, believed by Hindus to have been inspired by God provides unique perceptions and prescriptions for modern day leaders. The Gita offers advice on humanistic and inclusive leadership, and tells managers to seek a higher level of consciousness when seeking to influence others. The manuscript is useful for Hindus, and non-Hindus alike, and represents an early form of the Western theory of servant leadership. Using contextual analysis, this paper explores the leadership implications found in this classic text.

Tata is arguably the most recognized name in India as far as business organization is concerned. Its founder Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata was an exemplary leader who demonstrated ethical leadership in all his business endeavours in his lifetime. This paper attempts to highlight his ethical leadership which is an example for present business leaders. Dimensions of his ethical leadership included religious ethics, nationalist ethics and business ethics. Moreover this paper also shows how the legacy of his ethical leadership is still pursued by the Tata Group which he founded.

Leadership was the most talked topics in the classical thoughts. The early civilization required a great leader to build the city state. A pioneer in this field, a classicist; was Plato. The purpose of this paper is to identify the various perspectives of leadership emerging in Plato’s classical works: The Republic, The Statesman, and The Law. This paper tries to focus on the necessary virtues prescribed by Plato for the making of an ideal leader and the extremes to be avoided to become a great leader.

The aim of the article is to embrace sacrificing dimensions in leadership repertoire and elicit its implications in organizational leadership in order to generate intrinsic motivation among individuals working in the organization. Intrinsic motivation refers to motivation that comes from inside an individual rather than from external rewards. The sacrificing dimensions are discussed in the context of values and morality that emphasizes on ‘sacrifice rather than satisfying the lower order needs’, charity rather than acquisitions, sense of contribution rather than achievement, and sense of excellence rather than completing the work for materialistic rewards. The roles of a leader are to develop gracious work culture in the organization which is the sustainable source of intrinsic motivation among employees of the organization, to shift the focus of employees from mode of obsession to mode of graciousness, and to generate higher level of satisfaction and peace of mind.

Lack of ethical principles and economic pressures are often cited as reasons for ethical failure of successful leaders. This article attempts to highlight that apart from lack of ethical principles and economic pressures “Hubris Syndrome” is also responsible for ethical failures of many successful leaders. “Hubris Syndrome” signifies the state of a leader where he feels he can get away with anything however immoral and unethical it may be by virtue of his power and influence. This article also offers certain guidelines to overcome this syndrome.

The culture of working long hours has become highly prevalent in the business organizations across the world. Karoushi (death from overwork) and Overtime Work Cultures (OWC) have both ethical and financial dimensions. This paper discusses the phenomenon of karoushi and OWC and its impact on the employees and organizations. Then spiritual leadership is explained and offered as a solution to karoushi and the negative aspects of OWC. This paper argues that spiritual leadership is the intervention that is most suitable for negative aspects of long working hours and for enhancing employee wellbeing without sacrificing profitability, revenue growth, and other indicators of financial performance.

Lord Krishna, through Bhagvad Gita and his own personal conduct, has given to this world the universal message on leadership which has perennial significance irrelevant of the time and situation. This paper tries to extract some aspects from the Bhagwadgita and his own personal attributes which are relevant from the leadership point of view.

Going by the utilitarian principal of the greatest good of the greatest number, the manufacturing of TATA NANO, has demonstrated the ethical corporate leadership of Ratan Tata Tata has created an organizational culture for innovation and has utilized modern technology with the Gandhian frugality and developed inconceivably low cost products which find immediate market in the lower segment. They have fragmented the entire value chain in such a way that it not only creates a better value at much lower costs but also involves the customer with the manufacturing process and thus provides customer co creation experiences. They have transferred a part of the assembly process to various assembly points in the country which would be owned and operated by a new group of entrepreneurs. This modular design incorporates for the manufacturing of kits which can then be assembled locally by thousands of entrepreneurs. This will not only save on costs and provide an efficient distribution network of small manufacturers but will also provide jobs in the country. This fragmentation of their manufacturing process and transferring a part of it to the group of entrepreneurs all over India is a novel way of dispersing wealth in the society.

Stress is a common phenomenon felt by business leaders. Today when many business organizations have taken the form of huge corporations the nature of leadership responsibilities very often make the leaders running these corporations stressful. This paper attempts to provide a solution to business leaders derived from Indian spiritual tradition for effectively running their business organizations without any stress.