IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/iimkoz/v9y2020i1p34-44.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Implications of Indian Philosophy and Mind Management for Agency Conflicts and Leadership: A Conceptual Framework

Author

Listed:
  • Anadi S. Pande
  • Ranjan Kumar

Abstract

The unceasing stream of corporate scams and financial misdemeanours establish that agency conflicts are a stark reality of the contractual relationship between principals and agents. Agency theory identifies four sources of agency conflicts at the leadership level: moral hazard, earnings retention, risk aversion and time horizon. The theory proposes an outcome- and/or behaviour oriented mitigating mechanism based on agency costs. However, as the real-world evidence shows, these mechanisms have been only partially effective. In this context, the present study conducts a diagnosis of agency conflicts at the leadership level, trying to understand its origin, sources, mitigating mechanism and its limitations. The paper then takes a novel approach for bridging the gap between the current state of conflicts and the desired state of absence from conflicts, by examining Indian philosophical systems. It identifies the characteristics of Indian philosophy rooted in the Vedic wisdom as integrative, holistic, stressing on a direct experience of vision of the truth, emphasising practicality, and promoting the goal of self-realization through mind management. The paper then leverages the pithy aphorisms ( sutras ) from Indian philosophical texts to develop a mind management framework as a tool to mitigate agency conflicts.

Suggested Citation

  • Anadi S. Pande & Ranjan Kumar, 2020. "Implications of Indian Philosophy and Mind Management for Agency Conflicts and Leadership: A Conceptual Framework," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 9(1), pages 34-44, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:iimkoz:v:9:y:2020:i:1:p:34-44
    DOI: 10.1177/2277975219858864
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2277975219858864
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2277975219858864?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. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W., 1989. "Management entrenchment : The case of manager-specific investments," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 123-139, November.
    2. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    3. Goodpaster, Kenneth E., 1991. "Business Ethics and Stakeholder Analysis," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 53-73, January.
    4. Agrawal, Anup & Mandelker, Gershon N, 1987. "Managerial Incentives and Corporate Investment and Financing Decision s," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(4), pages 823-837, September.
    5. Dechow, Patricia M. & Sloan, Richard G., 1991. "Executive incentives and the horizon problem : An empirical investigation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 51-89, March.
    6. Yakov Amihud & Baruch Lev, 1981. "Risk Reduction as a Managerial Motive for Conglomerate Mergers," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 12(2), pages 605-617, Autumn.
    7. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    8. Fama, Eugene F & Jensen, Michael C, 1983. "Separation of Ownership and Control," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(2), pages 301-325, June.
    9. Denis, David J & Denis, Diane K & Sarin, Atulya, 1997. "Agency Problems, Equity Ownership, and Corporate Diversification," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 135-160, March.
    10. Ralph A. Walkling & Michael S. Long, 1984. "Agency Theory, Managerial Welfare, and Takeover Bid Resistance," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 15(1), pages 54-68, Spring.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anadi Saran Pande & Neerja Pande, 2024. "Enriching the Construct of Workplace Spirituality with Insights from Indian Philosophy and its Empirical Validation in Indian Context," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 13(2), pages 210-227, July.
    2. Pallikara Rameshan, 2024. "Leadership Behaviour in Covid-19 Crisis Response: A Personal Strategy Proposition," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 13(1), pages 44-69, January.

    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. Chen, Chiung-Jung & Yu, Chwo-Ming Joseph, 2012. "Managerial ownership, diversification, and firm performance: Evidence from an emerging market," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 518-534.
    2. Daniel Broxterman & Tingyu Zhou, 2023. "Information Frictions in Real Estate Markets: Recent Evidence and Issues," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 66(2), pages 203-298, February.
    3. Christian Engelen, 2015. "The effects of managerial discretion on moral hazard related behaviour: German evidence on agency costs," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 19(4), pages 927-960, November.
    4. Gadhoum, Yoser, 1999. "Potential effects of managers' entrenchment and shareholdings on competitiveness," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 118(2), pages 332-349, October.
    5. Doukas, John A. & McKnight, Phillip J. & Pantzalis, Christos, 2005. "Security analysis, agency costs, and UK firm characteristics," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 493-507.
    6. Deng, Saiying (Esther) & Elyasiani, Elyas & Mao, Connie X., 2007. "Diversification and the cost of debt of bank holding companies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 2453-2473, August.
    7. Angélica María Sánchez-Riofrío & Luis Ángel Guerras-Martín & Francisco Javier Forcadell, 2015. "Business portfolio restructuring: a comprehensive bibliometric review," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(3), pages 1921-1950, March.
    8. Etienne Redor, 2016. "Board attributes and shareholder wealth in mergers and acquisitions: a survey of the literature," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 20(4), pages 789-821, December.
    9. Patrick Bolton & David S. Scharfstein, 1998. "Corporate Finance, the Theory of the Firm, and Organizations," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 95-114, Fall.
    10. Martynova, M., 2006. "The market for corporate control and corporate governance regulation in Europe," Other publications TiSEM 8651e281-4914-41f2-ac14-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    11. Oesterle, Michael-Jörg & Richta, Hannah Noriko & Fisch, Jan Hendrik, 2013. "The influence of ownership structure on internationalization," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 187-201.
    12. Zhu, JianJun (John) & Tse, Caleb H. & Li, Xu, 2019. "Unfolding China’s state-owned corporate empires and mitigating agency hazards: Effects of foreign investments and innovativeness," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 191-212.
    13. Laeven, Luc & Levine, Ross, 2007. "Is there a diversification discount in financial conglomerates?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 331-367, August.
    14. repec:ibf:gjbres:v:16:y:2022:i:1:p:17-24 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Bruce Ian Carlin & Simon Gervais, 2009. "Work Ethic, Employment Contracts, and Firm Value," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(2), pages 785-821, April.
    16. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1997. "A Survey of Corporate Governance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(2), pages 737-783, June.
    17. Wei Shen & Richard Gentry, 2014. "A cyclical view of the relationship between corporate governance and strategic management," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 18(4), pages 959-973, November.
    18. Jandik, Tomas & Makjija, Anil K., 2004. "Can Diversification Create Value? Evidence from the Electric Utility Industry," Working Paper Series 2005-7, Ohio State University, Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics.
    19. Kim, Young Sang & Mathur, Ike, 2008. "The impact of geographic diversification on firm performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 747-766, September.
    20. Melissa A. Williams & Ramesh P. Rao, 2006. "CEO Stock Options and Equity Risk Incentives," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1‐2), pages 26-44, January.
    21. Aloke Ghosh & Doocheol Moon & Kishore Tandon, 2007. "CEO Ownership and Discretionary Investments," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(5‐6), pages 819-839, June.

    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:iimkoz:v:9:y:2020:i:1:p:34-44. 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.