College of Graduate Studies

ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOUR MGTM 613

Leader Analysis :

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Name ID Lecturer Submission Date

: Shasidharan Venugopal : SP 20993 : Prof. Dr. Zainal Ahmad : 10/ 03/2011

Abstract

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2nd October 1869 30th January 1948) was the preeminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of Satyagraha-resistance (devotion to the truth), to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa or total non-violence-which led India to independence and has inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. (Bhattacharya, Sabyasachi (1997). Gandhi is commonly known around the world as Mahatma Gandhi (Sanskrit: mahtm or ' Great Soul , a honorific first name applied to him by Rabindranath Tagore) .He is officially honored in India as the Father of the Nation; his birthday, 2nd October, is commemorated there as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence. As a practitioner of Ahimsa, Gandhi swore to speak the truth and advocated that others do the same. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven from yarn that he had spun by hand himself. He ate simple vegetarian food, experimented for a time with a fruitarian diet, and undertook long fasts as a means of both self-purification and social protest. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi (as of 1st March 2011)

Introduction

Following is the biodata of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as http://www.gandhi-manibhavan.org/aboutgandhi/aboutgandhi_main.htm :

documented

in

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on 2nd October 1869 in Porbandar, Bombay. His father, who was Karamchand Gandhi (18221885), belonged to the Hindu Modh community, and he served as the diwan (a high official) of Porbander state. His mother, Putlibai, who came from the Hindu Pranami Vaishnava community, was Karamchand's fourth wife, where the first three wives apparently died during labour. The young Mohandas have absorbed early all the influences that would play an important role in his adult life where these included compassion for emotional beings, vegetarianism, fasting for self-purification, and mutual tolerance between individuals of different faiths from his loving mother (Mani Bhavan, 2004). In May 1883, the 13-year old Mohandas was married to 14-year old Kasturbai Makhanji in an arranged child marriage, according to the custom of the region. Later on in 1885, when Gandhi was 16-years old, the couple's first child was born, but survived only a few days. Gandhi's father, Karamchand Gandhi, had died earlier that same year. Mohandas and Kasturba had four more children, all sons who were Harilal, born in 1888, followed by Manilal, born in 1892, Ramdas, born in 1897, and the youngest child was Devdas, born in 1900. During Gandhis middle school in Porbandar and high school in Rajkot, Gandhi remained an average student academically. He passed the matriculation exam for Samaldas College at Bhavnagar, Gujarat with some difficulty.

Later on in the year 1988, Gandhi travelled to London, England to study law at University College London and to train as a lawyer and later on in 1891 he left London for India on 12th June 1891, where he learned that his mother had died while he was in London, his family having kept the news from him. His attempts to establish a law practice in Bombay failed and, later, after applying and being turned down for a part-time job as a high school teacher, he ended up returning to Rajkot to make a modest living drafting petitions for petitioners, a business he was forced to close when he ran afoul of a British officer. In his autobiography he refers to this incident as an unsuccessful attempt to lobby on behalf of his older brother. In April 1893, he accepted a year-long contract from Dada Abdulla & Co., an Indian firm, to be posted in the Colony of Natal, South Africa, then part of the British. Gandhi was an expatriate lawyer in South Africa. There, he faced racial discrimination directed at blacks and Indians. Such incidents provoked him to work towards social activism. After his return to India in 1915, he organized protests by peasants, farmers, and urban laborers concerning excessive land-tax and discrimination. After assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns to ease poverty, expand women's rights, build religious and ethnic amity, end untouchability, and increase economic self-reliance. Above all, he aimed to achieve Swaraj or the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led his followers in the Non-cooperation movement that protested the Britishimposed salt tax by organizing the 388 km Dandi Salt March in 1930. Later on, he launched the Quit India Movement in 1942, demanding immediate independence for India. Gandhi spent a number of years in jail in both South Africa and India. The independence cum partition proposal was offered by the British Cabinet Mission in 1946 and it was accepted by the Congress, in spite of being advised otherwise by Mahatma Gandhi. Sardar Patel convinced Gandhi that it was the only way to avoid civil war and he reluctantly gave his consent. After India's independence, Gandhi focused on peace and unity of Hindus and Muslims. He launched his last fast-unto-death in Delhi, asking for all the violence to be stopped and the payment of Rs. 55 crores, as per the Partition Council agreement, to be made to Pakistan. Ultimately, all the political leaders conceded to his wishes and he broke his fast by sipping orange juice.

Individual Analysis
To explain about Mahatma Gandhi, the best model I can suite the best for him is from George & Jones work values which is Values in the Workplace (George & Jones, 2008). This model is divided in to two values, which is work values and ethical values. The reason I chose this model is because Gandhi self-values are divided into two. In his early stage of life, he had work values and towards mid-stage of life, Gandhi switched to be more of an ethical value person.

Figure 1 : Values in the work place, George & Jones, 2008

i)

Intrinsic Work Values

From what I have researched about my topic leader who is Mahatma Gandhi, he has high intrinsic work values where Gandhi is person who desire to be challenged, learn new things, make important contributions, and to reach his full potential on their jobs (George & Jones, 2008). Gandhi began a legal practice in Mumbai and Rajkot, Gujarat. However, he was unsuccessful to establish a career as a lawyer in both the places. At this point, Gandhi received an offer from the firm Dada Abdulla Seth and Company, to be the legal representative of the firm in South Africa. Gandhi accepted the offer and set sail for a whole new world in April, 1893. During his early time in South Africa, Gandhi faced the discrimination directed at Indians and other coloured people. But this didnt bring him down as he persevered and succeed in law. His income during those days in South Africa touched fifteen thousand dollars a year! Something which was still a dream for most of the Indians at that time.

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Extrinsic Work Values People with extrinsic work values are those whose primary reasons for working is to earn money (George & Jones, 2008). For Gandhi, he was an extrinsic kind of person in the beginning stage of life when he was in Africa, but then the worldly success seemed too cheap and unimportant to him and when hearing the untold misery of millions of his fellow countrymen and thousands of them dying of starvation. He consecrated his life to helping the poor and the demoralized.

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Utilitarian Values Gandhi is a person with a high utilitarian values where it guides a person to make a decision. A person with a good utilitarian value dictate that decisions that he took should be made to generate the greatest good for the greatest number of people (Carson, 1989). Gandhi always uses cause of non-violence as the tool of India's freedom struggle was not without its share of criticism. Gandhi's system of Satyagraha (devotion to the truth) on the basis of non-violence and non-cooperation was largely unheard of, and generally distrusted. However, Gandhi's faith was strong. It was a faith based not on arms and antagonism, but on extreme moral courage that drew its strength from innate human truth and honesty. Gandhi soon held the mantle and introduced his non-violence modes with great success in the non-cooperation movement. It was a new era in the history of Indian Freedom struggle. By adapting utilitarian values and using non-violence approach Gandhi was able to eliminate any blood shed among his followers during all his peace march and protest. So I conclude that the decisions that he took for his followers generate the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

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Moral Rights Values Is the values that dictate that decision should be made in ways that protect the fundamental rights and privileges of people affected by this de cision, such as their freedom, safety and privacy (George & Jones, 2008). In March 1930, Gandhi then launched a new Satyagraha (devotion to the truth) against the tax on salt. This was highlighted by the famous Salt March to Dandi from 12 March to 6 April, where he marched 388 kilometres (241 miles) from Ahmedabad to Dandi, Gujarat to make salt himself. Thousands of Indians joined him on this march to the sea. This campaign was one of his most successful at upsetting British hold on India. Britain responded by imprisoning over 60,000 people. Gandhi followers were high in their moral sprits and decided to join him because they are asking for their own right.

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Justice Values Justice values dictate that decision should be made in ways that allocate benefits and harm among those affected by the decision in a fair, equitable or impartial manner (E. Olson, 1979) It was through witnessing firsthand the racism, prejudice and injustice against Indians in South Africa that Gandhi started to question his people's status within the British Empire, and his own place in society. In 1906, the Transvaal government promulgated a new Act compelling registration of the colony's Indian population. At a mass protest meeting held in Johannesburg on 11 September that year, Gandhi adopted his still evolving methodology of Satyagraha (devotion to the truth), or non-violent protest, for the first time, calling on his fellow Indians to defy the new law and suffer the punishments for doing so, rather than resist through violent means. The community adopted this plan, leading to a seven-year struggle in which thousands of Indians were jailed (including Gandhi), flogged, or even shot, for striking, refusing to register, burning their registration cards or engaging in other forms of non-violent resistance. While the government was successful in repressing the Indian protesters, the public outcry stemming from the harsh methods employed by the South African government in the face of peaceful Indian protesters finally forced South African General Jan Christiaan Smuts to negotiate a compromise with Gandhi. Gandhi's ideas took shape and the concept of Satyagraha matured during this struggle. All their effort and suffering paid off and also justice prevailed.

Group Analysis
In this part, Im going to use topic The Leader Trait Approach as espoused by House and Baetz from the book Leadership to explain Gandhis leadership approach. Early studies of leadership sought to identify enduring personal traits that distinguish leaders from followers and effective from ineffective leaders. The search for leadership traits began in the 1930s, and after nearly 300 studies, the list was narrowed to several traits that showed the strongest relationship to effective leadership which Ill be discussing in this part.

i)

Intelligence This is the main and outmost important traits that Gandhi has, this is because at the age of 19 he travelled to London to further his studies in law at University College London as a barrister. At that time not many Indian were lucky enough to continue their studies at overseas. During his time there, he spent his time to learn English language and also their customs. Later on, he joined the Vegetarian Society, and he was elected to be its executive committee and from there also he also joined the Theosophical Society. Gandhi joined them in reading the Bhagavad Gita both in translation as well as in the original. Not having shown a particular interest in religion before, he became interested in religious thought and began to read both Hindu as well as Christian scriptures. This was the turning point for him to be more involved in his country and also his religion where he is able to solve complex problem.

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Task-relevant Knowledge Gandhi has a good task relevant knowledge where he knows what has to be done, how it should be done and what resources are requires in achieving his goals. Here I would like to share an event where British government had appointed a new constitutional reform commission under Sir John Simon, which did not include any Indian as its member. The result was a boycott of the commission by Indian political parties. Gandhi pushed through a resolution at the Calcutta Congress in December 1928 calling on the British government to grant India power status or face a new campaign of non-cooperation with complete independence for the country as its goal. His action finally paid off when on 31st December 1929, the flag of India was unfurled in Lahore. 26th January 1930 was celebrated as India's Independence Day by the Indian National Congress meeting in Lahore but the official lone is on 15th August 1947. Gandhis experience and knowledge helped him to get what he was aiming for India which is their independence from British.

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Dominance This trait is about an individual needs to exert influence and control over other, helps a leader channel followers efforts and abilities towards achieving group and organization goals. This trait of Gandhi was highlighted by the famous Salt March from 12th March to 6th April, where he marched 388 kilometers from Ahmedabad to Dandi, Gujarat to make salt himself. Thousands of Indians joined him on this march to the sea. This campaign was one of his most successful at upsetting British hold on India. Later on Britain responded by imprisoning over 60,000 people. From this event, I could say Gandhi has a strong dominance power over his followers where without caring about the consequences, they joined Gandhis Salt March to uphold their right and they know that what Gandhi doing is right as well!.

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Self-Confidence I would like to say that Gandhi has a high self-confidence because it helps a leader to influence followers and motivates them to persevere in the face of obstacles or difficulties. There was an incident where the magistrate of a Durban in South Africa court ordered Gandhi to remove his turban which he refused to do. The day he stood up for his own right was the turning point in his life, awakening him to social injustice and influencing his subsequent social activism. It was through witnessing firsthand the racism, prejudice and injustice against Indians in South Africa that Gandhi started to question his people's status within the British Empire, and his own place in society.

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Energy/Activity Level A leader like Gandhi will deal with many demands from his followers on a day to day basis. Gandhi believed that God is in every person, without exception. Therefore, he devoted himself to serving humanity, especially the poor and outcast. Gandhi once settled in a poor village and began serving the needs of those who lived there. A friend asked if Gandhis objectives in serving the poor were purely humanitarian. Gandhi replied, Not at all. I am here to serve no one else but myself, to find my own self-realization through the service of these villages folk.

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Tolerance Gandhi is a person with a low tolerance against injustice towards Indians during those times. There were several incidents that had happened to him in South Africa, where Gandhi faced the discrimination directed at Indians. He was thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg after refusing to move from the first class to a third-class coach while holding a valid first-class ticket. Travelling farther on by stagecoach he was beaten by a driver for refusing to travel on the foot board to make room for a European passenger and all this have made him a stronger man of what he is today.

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Integrity & Honesty In the integrity and honesty view, it will ensure that a leader behaves ethically and is worthy of his or her followers trust and confidence. Gandhi earnestly believed that a person involved in public service should lead a simple life. He first displayed this principle when he gave up wearing western-style clothing, which he associated with wealth and success. When he returned to India he rejected the western lifestyle he led in South Africa, where he had enjoyed a successful legal practice. Gandhi dressed to be accepted by the poorest person in India, advocating the use of homespun cloth (khadi). He and his followers adopted the practice of weaving their own clothes from thread they themselves spun on a charkha, and encouraged others to do so. While Indian workers were often idle due to unemployment, they had often bought their clothing from industrial manufacturers owned by British interests. The Swadeshi (self-sufficiency) movement held that if Indians made their own clothes, it would deal an economic blow to the British establishment in India. Gandhis simplicity and integrity was a sign and expression of Swadeshi (self-sufficiency) principles. Consequently, the charkha was later incorporated into the flag of the Indian National Congress. He subsequently wore a dhoti for the rest of his life to express the simplicity of his life. This shows Gandhi is a person who upholds his word by practicing it on himself. This show how integrity and honest person he is.

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Emotional Maturity Emotional maturity ensures that a leader is not overly self-centered, can control his feelings and can accept criticism. When Gandhi was 16 his father became very ill. Being very devoted to his parents, he attended to his father at all times during his illness. However, one night, Gandhi's uncle came to relieve Gandhi for a while. He retired to his bedroom where sensual desires overcame him and he made love to his wife. Shortly afterward a servant came to report that Gandhi's father had just died. Gandhi felt tremendous guilt and never could forgive himself. He came to refer to this event as "double shame." The incident had significant influence in Gandhi becoming celibate at the age of 36, while still married. Here I couldnt comment how strong his emotional maturity is. But to make such decision shows how strong and matured person he is.

Organization Analysis
In this last part, Im going to use the topic Evolutionary Change in Organization as espoused by C.E Lindblom to describe more about Gandhi. Evolutionary change is gradual, incremental, and narrowly focused. Evolutionary change is not drastic or sudden but a constant attempt to improve, adapt, and adjust strategy and structure incrementally to accommodate changes taking place in the environment. Socio-technical systems theory and total quality management, or kaizen, are two instruments of evolutionary change. Such improvements might entail utilizing technology in a better way or reorganizing the work process. But in this case, Gandhi fought for what was rightfully theirs in an evolutionary way where they resist back every time they felt the British were unjust towards them. From a single man fighting for their rights ended up the whole India was backing him up.

Below here are the event/protest timeline on how the evolutions for Indias independence have started from the beginning and all these events was leaded by Gandhi. It started from 60,000 followers during the Salt March and lastly there were more than 100,000 followers for the Quit India movement got imprisons in the proses of supporting Gandhis cause. As a domino effect each event lead to another event and finally India received its independence on 15th August 1947. 1906: Began Satyagraha campaign in South Africa to protest the requirement that Indians be fingerprinted and carry identification cards 1915: Returned to India from South Africa 1917: Initiated Champaran Satyagraha to alleviate the condition of indigo planters 1919: Instituted Satyagraha campaign in India to protest the Rowlatt Acts, which deprived all Indians of important civil liberties. 1922: Ended Non-Cooperation movement against British Raj after his followers were involved in a series of riots and disturbances that violated his policy of nonviolence 1930: Led Dandi March to collect salt in protest of the British salt tax. 1931: Signed a pact with Lord Irwin to suspend the Civil Disobedience Movement and went to London to attend Round Table Conference. 1932: Fasted to protest the treatment of people who belonged to no Hindu caste, the Harijans or Untouchables 1942: Launched Quit India Movement against British Raj. 1947: India got its independence from British.

Conclusion
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi life achievement stands unique in political history. He has invented a completely new and humane means for the liberation war of an oppressed country, and practised it with greatest energy and devotion. The moral influence he had on the consciously thinking human being of the entire civilized world will probably be much more lasting than it seems in our time with its overestimation of brutal violent forces. Because lasting will only is the work of such statesmen who wake up and strengthen the moral power of their people through their example and educational works. We may all be happy and grateful that destiny gifted us with such an enlightened contemporary, a role model for the generations to come. Lastly, in this Leader Analysis assignment, I feel I am lucky because I choose Mahatma Gandhi as my leader as I understood more deeply all the suffering and pain that he had gone thru to help India to achieve its independence and the journey he went thru to be the person he is right now. I finally understood what is Organization Behavior all about as I did my research chapter by chapter to find the perfect values to fit him best from the given three criteria which was individual, group and lastly organization to complete this assignment. Below here are the awards and nomination that Gandhi have received

Time magazine named Gandhi the Man of the Year in 1930 When the 14th Dalai Lama was awarded the Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi." Gandhi was also the runner-up to Albert Einstein as "Person of the Century at the end of 1999 Time Magazine named The 14th Dalai Lama, Lech Wasa, Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, Aung San Suu Kyi, Benigno Aquino, Jr., Desmond Tutu, and Nelson Mandela as Children of Gandhi and his spiritual heirs to non-violence The Government of India awards the annual Gandhi Peace Prize to distinguished social workers, world leaders and citizens. Nelson Mandela, the leader of South Africa's struggle to eradicate racial discrimination and segregation, is a prominent non-Indian recipient. In 2011, Time magazine named Gandhi as one of the top 25 political icons of all time.

References A) Books i) ii) iii) iv) v) vi) vii) viii) George & Jones, Understanding & Managing Organization Behaviour, 2008 R.C Carson, 1989 E. Olson, 1979 Stogdill, Handbook of Leadership House & Baetz, Leadership C.E. Lindblom, 1959 P.C. Nystrom & W.H. Starbuck, 1984 Gandhi - A Political and Spiritual Life, Kathryn Tidrick, 2006

B) Internet i) ii) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi,Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, as of 1st March 2011) http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/specials/independence -day/morestories/Important-dates-in-Independence-movement/articleshow/4885883.cms, Important dates in Independence movement. (as of 1st March 2011) http://www.mapsofindia.com/personalities/gandhi/ , Mahatma Gandhi-the leader, the visionary (as of 1st March 2011) http://www.theindianblogger.com/interesting/mahatma-gandhi-little-known-factsmost-of-us-don%E2%80%99t-know-about-him/ Mahatma Gandhi: Little known facts most of us dont know about him (as of 1st March 2011) http://www.gandhi-manibhavan.org/aboutgandhi/aboutgandhi_main.htm , About Gandhi , (as of 1st March 2011)

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