Over 25 students across PGP (Post-Graduate Programme) and PGPX (Post-Graduate Programme for Executives) courses at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad attended sessions on Panchatantra over the last two weeks. To not disturb the pre-decided academic calendar, classes were held post-dinner.
The course was conducted outside the regular curriculum (non-graded) over five 75-minute sessions as an experimental offering by N Ravichandran, Faculty in Production & Quantitative Methods Area, IIM-A and former Director, Indian Institute of Management Indore.
The course focused on management lessons that can be learnt from the understanding and interpretation of conflict in Panchatantra. Talking about the course, Ravichandran said, “Conflict is an indication of interest across different agencies. At a fundamental level, individual conflicts occur due to differences in objectives where tactical measures lead to conflict resolution. Conflict occuring at philosophical/ ideological levels are enriching and intellectually stimulating. All parties stand to gain by resolving ideological/ philosophical conflicts through deliberations and discussions. The next level of conflicts arise at junctures involving wealth creation opportunities. These conflicts translate into opportunities of market share, market accessibility and market domination for institutions created with an objective of stakeholder wealth creation. Organisations resolve these conflicts through dominant strategies, innovations, and creativity. The ultimate conflict occur at the level of an individual and his consciousness, resolution of which is necessary for the individual to lead a harmonious life. The effectiveness of individual actions is sub-optimal under conditions of cognitive dissonance. Panchatantra provides an ideal vantage point for understanding conflicts involving individuals, philosophies, organisations or consciousness. Stories in Panchatantra can be leveraged to provide useful clues to resolve all kinds of conflicts.”