IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/psydev/v20y2008i1p27-49.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Karma-Yoga, the Indian Work Ideal, and its Relationship with Empathy

Author

Listed:
  • Zubin R. Mulla

    (Zubin R. Mulla, Adjunct Faculty, Organisational Behaviour & Human Resource Management, Prin. L.N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, Matunga, Mumbai–400 019, India. zubinmulla@yahoo.co.in)

  • Venkat R. Krishnan

    (Venkat R. Krishnan is a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Temple University, Philadelphia. He is Professor (Organizational Behavior) and Director (Yale-Great Lakes Center for Management Research) at Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, India. He does research on transformational leadership, value systems of individuals in organisations and Indian philosophy.)

Abstract

Karma-Yoga, the technique of performing action such that the soul of the actor is not bound by the results of the action, constitutes the Indian work ideal. The relationship of Karma-Yoga with the dimensions of empathy was explored through a study done on 108 students in a postgraduate programme of business management. Karma-Yoga was found to be related to some dimensions of empathy. The results highlighted the differential impact of dimensions of empathy. Empathic concern was found to be related to Karma-Yoga only for those individuals who were low on personal distress. For individuals high on personal distress, empathic concern was not related to Karma-Yoga. Findings indicate that Karma-Yoga is very similar to altruism motivation in the Indian context. Individuals who are high on empathic concern and low on personal distress are more likely to take actions for the benefit of others rather than for their own benefit.

Suggested Citation

  • Zubin R. Mulla & Venkat R. Krishnan, 2008. "Karma-Yoga, the Indian Work Ideal, and its Relationship with Empathy," Psychology and Developing Societies, , vol. 20(1), pages 27-49, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:psydev:v:20:y:2008:i:1:p:27-49
    DOI: 10.1177/097133360702000102
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/097133360702000102
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/097133360702000102?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rajnanandi Pillai & Terri A Scandura & Ethlyn A Williams, 1999. "Leadership and Organizational Justice: Similarities and Differences across Cultures," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 30(4), pages 763-779, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Takuma Kimura & Mizuki Nishikawa, 2018. "Ethical Leadership and Its Cultural and Institutional Context: An Empirical Study in Japan," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(3), pages 707-724, September.
    2. Polychronakis, Yiannis E. & Syntetos, Aris A., 2007. "`Soft' supplier management related issues: An empirical investigation," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(2), pages 431-449, April.
    3. Le, Huy & Pan, Liyao, 2021. "Examining the empirical redundancy of organizational justice constructs," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 21-44.
    4. Ying Chen & Ray Friedman & Enhai Yu & Fubin Sun, 2011. "Examining the positive and negative effects of guanxi practices: A multi-level analysis of guanxi practices and procedural justice perceptions," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 715-735, December.
    5. Bahar Taner & Mithat Turhan & Ýlter Helvacý & Onur Köprülü, 2015. "The Effect of the Leadership Perception and Organizational Justice on Organizational Commitment: A Research in a State University," International Review of Management and Marketing, Econjournals, vol. 5(3), pages 180-194.
    6. Jun Ishikawa, 2012. "Transformational leadership and gatekeeping leadership: The roles of norm for maintaining consensus and shared leadership in team performance," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 265-283, June.
    7. Juan M. Andrade & Elias Ramirez, 2019. "Organizational Justice and Work-family Conflict in Colombian Organizations," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(2), pages 139-153.
    8. Gumusluoglu, Lale & Karakitapoğlu-Aygün, Zahide & Hirst, Giles, 2013. "Transformational leadership and R&D workers' multiple commitments: Do justice and span of control matter?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(11), pages 2269-2278.
    9. Niti Singh & Venkat R. Krishnan, 2005. "Towards Understanding Transformational Leadership in India: A Grounded Theory Approach," Vision, , vol. 9(2), pages 5-17, April.
    10. Selvarajan, T.T. & Singh, Barjinder & Solansky, Stephanie, 2018. "Performance appraisal fairness, leader member exchange and motivation to improve performance: A study of US and Mexican employees," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 142-154.
    11. Ghulam Mustafa & Rune Lines, 2016. "The Emergence and Effects of Culturally Congruent Leadership: Current Status and Future Developments," Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review, Centre for Strategic and International Entrepreneurship at the Cracow University of Economics., vol. 4(1), pages 161-180.
    12. Takahashi, Kiyoshi & Ishikawa, Jun & Kanai, Toshihiro, 2012. "Qualitative and quantitative studies of leadership in multinational settings: Meta-analytic and cross-cultural reviews," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 530-538.
    13. Li, Guiquan & Shang, Yufan & Liu, Haixin & Xi, Youmin, 2014. "Differentiated transformational leadership and knowledge sharing: A cross-level investigation," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 554-563.
    14. Humayun Sattar & Tasweer Hussain Syed & Afshan Naseem & Yasir Ahmad & Muhammad Zeeshan Mirza & Masood Raza, 2021. "Uncovering the Indirect Impact of Work Ethic on Engineering Students’ Productivity through Positive and Negative Organizational Behaviors and Workaholism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-16, March.
    15. Serhat Erat & Hakan Kitapçı & Kültigin Akçin, 2020. "Managerial Perception and Organizational Identity: A Comparative Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-16, March.
    16. Zalewska, Anna, 2014. "Gentlemen do not talk about money: Remuneration dispersion and firm performance relationship on British boards," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 40-57.
    17. Ryan, James C. & Tipu, Syed A.A., 2013. "Leadership effects on innovation propensity: A two-factor full range leadership model," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(10), pages 2116-2129.
    18. Sangeeta Sahu & Avinash D. Pathardikar, 2014. "Job Cognition and Justice Influencing Organizational Attachment," SAGE Open, , vol. 4(1), pages 21582440145, February.
    19. Christopher C. Rosen & D. Lance Ferris & Douglas J. Brown & Yuanyi Chen & Ming Yan, 2014. "Perceptions of Organizational Politics: A Need Satisfaction Paradigm," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(4), pages 1026-1055, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:psydev:v:20:y:2008:i:1:p:27-49. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.