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Part One:
Part Two:
PART ONE
2.
3.
4. A theoretical base to the praxis is offered by Prof. Atul Sapre5. He shares the view of Ralph
Stacey that, organizations are communicative interactions that become stable over a period of
time. There are five characteristics that an OD consultant would looks for in understanding the
group or organisation: (i) the level of information available with the group to complete its
primary task (ii) the diversity in the group to increase creative inputs (iii) relationships existing in
the group (iv) the power differences in the group (v) dealing with anxiety in the group. Based on
these the OD consultant would make observations to bring latent processes into consciousness
and this is also an intervention. His advocacy is for OD's role in moving organization systems
from the impulse to being complex coercive and then to pluralistic complex.
5. The above survey of OD praxis reveals a rich tapestry of waft and wefts. Upon this tapestry, the
author will weave a metaphor for the diagnosis of human collectives.
7.
8.
lies the power of the mind to create constructs based on the cognition that comes from intuition
and imagination. Survey of literature, brings much of this thought under the label of esotericism
and occult. However these are western frames, which describe the knowledge, Man acquired
prior to the scientific method.
Sankhya Yoga, Tantra, appear to have initiated the world-views held by later day western
Esoterica. The world-view at a phenomenal level, its creation, elements, relationships, the
cosmology are well documented. Running parallel to this is the concept of Integralism that helps
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to understand the esoteric concepts that have now merged into a global noosphere .
Integralism, postulates a 3-dimensional reality that is known by humans through its corresponding
channels of cognition:
The physical aspect of the Universe that is partly comprehended by the sense organs
A realm of ideas understood by the human intellect and reason
The elusive dimension beyond sense organs and intellect known through intuition
9. Sri Aurobindo, proposed the Integral Yoga school of thought in 1914. The word integral is used
to encompass all three channels of cognition. It begins with the concept of a source of all
existence in a Being and Consciousness that is beyond the perception of the physical reality of
the Universe. It is eternal. All beings are connected to this Consciousness but in varied layers of
separateness based on their ignorance of this Source. Human life is a manifestation of that
source which then works itself to perfection by evolution. It manifests itself in the physical
matter, then the mind and then into the spirit through the practices called Yoga. With the help of
memory, imagination and intuition, the human organism can understand laws inherent in nature
and use them for its growth and development.
10. It is described that human consciousness is folded into five layers, or sheaths, (koshas) around
the central point, containing the self (chitta). The self is enveloped in the sheath of bliss;
Anandamayi Kosha. Surrounded by this is the Ego and Intellect. Called the Vijnananmaya
Kosha, in it resides the qualities that will, discriminate and determine. The next kosha is the
Manomaya Kosha. Here is the Mind, the tool of consciousness that enables us to perceive the
world and process the incoming information. Here reside the five senses. Then comes the
Pranamayi Kosha. The place of the vital energy (prana) that enlivens the body. The most gross
is the Annamaya Kosha which describes the physical body. The structure is shown in Table 1
below:
Table 1: The Structure of Koshas
Level
1
2
3
Kosha (Sheaths)
Anandamaya
Vignyananmaya
Manomayi
Seat / Core
Eternal Bliss
Ego and Intellect
Mind
Description
Sat Chit Ananda
Will, discrimination and determination
Tool of consciousness and environmental interface
4
5
Pranamayi
Annamaya
Vital Energy
Physical
Prana
The animate body
11. Rudolf Steiner, was an esoterist and founder of Anthroposophy. He created an integral view
from a for the western mind building upon the scientific method through Goethean observation .
There is a movement from understanding to imagination. Steiner postulates the following:
The 3 fold construct of the human being as a thinking, feeling and doing being
The bodies in living beings similar to the concept of koshas
12. In this view of integralism, the human being is seen in totality having an intra-connection
between the Mind (thinking), the Heart (feeling) and the Limbs (doing). This is extended to a
systems view of the human living system consisting of the nervous sensory system (NSS), the
metabolic-lymphatic system (MLS) and the rhythmic body (RB). This is a tri-polar construct
rather than the bi-polar construct. The bi-polar view is more popular today in literature review
than the esoteric tri-polar view.
13. Alchemy speaks of three principles: Sulphur, Mercury and Salt. Their characteristics are given
in Table 2 below:
Table 2: The Trinity principle in Alchemy
No
1
2
3
Principle
Sulfur (sulphur)
Sal (Salt)
Merkur (Mercury)
Seat
MLS
NSS
RB
Description
Fiery, breaking down
Forming, structuring, precipitating
Rhythm, flow
14. Anthroposophy, the wisdom of Man, has an esoteric view of the Integral Man, that meets with a
congruence of the ideas from integral Yoga. A comparison of the various sub-systems in living
being is shown in Table 3 below:
Table 3: The Anthroposophical view of living beings
Level Body
Seat / Core
Decription
Spirit
Intuition
The self
Ego
3
4
5
Self
Awareness
Astral Consciousness
Etheric Vital Energy
Physical Physical
Material
Common
with
Unique to
Man
Animals
Plants
Minerals
15. Integralism, the view adopted and held for this paper, assumes that a holistic view of the human
being is more than that experienced by the sense organs and empirical data. The integration of
this view with the scientific method of observation and logical deduction is adopted in this paper.
model.
The VSM offers the concept of harmony and balance amongst 3 interacting parts (1)
Operations (2) Metasystem and (3) Environment
The structure, that is universal, makes a system viable or functioning:
System Number System Identification
System 1 : Primary activities.
System 2 : Stability and conflict resolution.
System 3 : Internal regulation and optimisation.
System 4 : Sensors, adaptation, planning, strategy development.
System 5 : Policy, identity, goals
19. From a VSM perspective, the enterprise as a system can be described as follows:
Level Descriptor
Observation
Policy
Environment &
Development
Monitoring &
Regulation
Holder of source code and process algorithms. A fall back mechanism, referral
point for strategy. Usually holder of legacy systems.
The executive officer who must scan the external environment to maintain the
sustainability of the enterprise. A prospector and a developer.
Internal distributor of resources, scan and generate feedback loops of control,
homeostasis.
4
5
Coordination
Operations
20. The VSM perspective is a construct based on the Systems Theory. It derives from Cybernetics
defined as the study of feedback and derived concepts such as communication and control in
living organisms, machines and organisations. Its focus is how anything (digital, mechanical or
biological) processes information, reacts to information, and changes or can be changed to
better accomplish the first two tasks.
10. Chapter 4: Convergence of the Integral view and the systems view
21. The previous chapter has explained the view held for integralism. A congruence has been
attempted in Table 4 below:
Table 4: Congruence mapping of VSM with Esoteric view
Level
VSM Level
Esoteric Level
Pole
Tendency
1
2
3
4
5
Policy
Spirit
NSS
Information
Environment
& Development
Ego
NSS
Information
Monitoring
& Regulation
Astral
RB
Energy
Coordination
Etheric
MLS
Matter
Operations
Physical
MLS
Matter
22. The Ego, at level 2 is a great creator of organisation. A strong will action beings into being a
23.
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purpose and explosive energy for creation. At nascent stages of development ,the will action
brings into being the physical body and then Etheric forces begin the formative work of
differentiation and therefore bring about a structural framework.
The Etheric body at level 4 works upon the Physical at level 5 to create a basic life system with
limited complexity. As maturity sets in, the Etheric takes its energies to the NSS where it
develops thought, the ability of the organisation to think and perceive. The systems interface
with the external environment at all levels also increases.
The Astral body, at level 3, is the principle of metabolic activity and will action. This is termed as
organisational motive energy. It is the seat of emotions, passions and human energy. It must
also serve the purpose of homeostasis, regulating the various forces and levels. The role is for
system optimisation rather than audit. Homeostasis is a machinist view for living systems.
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Heterostasis , the ability to create appropriate responses in real time is a measure of its
resilience. There is an influence of the cosmos ( external environment) composed of culture,
science, society that influence organisation systems. However it is put forth that Man and
therefore human organisations are to an extent emancipated from cosmic rhythms by having
internalised many of the cosmic rhythms into the organs. In case of the organisation, this
becomes the organisation culture or lifestyle, ambience ,etc.
The physical body encompasses the structure systems and processes in organisation space.
The human collective and the business ecosystem reside here as animate assets. Agents
26.
metabolise at the micro level. Groups process crude resources and convert these to digested
products for the external environment. A barter takes place at the system boundary. The Etheric
works to a great degree with these agents for the formation and functioning of the system.
Information (energy) and resources (matter) are distributed as shown in table 2.
Chapter 5: The Concept Of Health in the Human Being and the Organisation
27. Wellness is an emerging paradigm that questions the binary view created by the scientific
28.
29.
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31.
32.
33.
method. Humans, as other living beings, exist in more than an on and off state. They are in the
realm of iterations that reaches infinity.
The word Salutogenesis has its roots in the Latin salus or salis meaning health; and the
Greek genesis meaning origin. It is a new paradigm in the western world against the maladyremedy view held by pathogenesis. In the pathogenic model, the goal of the physical organism
is homeostasis, a Greek-derived word indicating a similar or constant condition or state.
Homeostasis is, of course, essential for health. The principle emphasized in Salutogenesis is
Heterostasis (hetero=different), the organisms adaptive and transformative power needed when
meeting varying conditions and overcoming conflict for creating homeostasis. In meeting that
which is foreign, the human becomes stronger. What becomes essential, then, is recognising
the boundaries of physical and psychological endurance, and expanding them.
Aaron Antonovsky, medical sociologist, examined the survivors of the Nazi concentration camps
and found that many had been able to build their lives from scratch. His investigation into how
people manage stress and stay well, despite harmful experiences, led him to formulate the
concept of Salutogenesis. Health is viewed as a continuum rather than a dichotomy. He pointed
out that stressor life events are present with all of us, and they create tension. Coping with these
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tensions can have a pathological, neutral or even strengthening effect on our health.
Organisations, as human collectives, can have a Health property. To build on this, the
dynamics of health in the human body is conceptualised. The Ego, the Astral work through the
Etheric upon the physical body. The action has a temporal dimension and another of intensity. If
each plays their role in perfect scripting, the human being would be an infinite being. However
the forces many a times either act beyond their roles either temporally or in intensity. This
disrupts a natural order leading illness exhibited by symptoms.
In the psychological realm, Salutogenesis is concerned with building a sense of coherence, a
feeling for what connects everything that exists. Aatonovosky considered this as the main
determinant of the position a person will have on the health-ease / dis-ease continuum and to
move towards the health-ease end of the continuum. It varies from person to person and
consists of three components: comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness.
Comprehensibility refers to the extent to which one perceives internal and external stimuli to be
understandable. Manageability refers to the extent to which on perceives one to have adequate
resources to meet the demands posed by the stimuli. Meaningfulness is the extent to which one
finds life to be meaningful not only in the cognitive but also emotional state. It is the motivational
factor. A person with a high degree of meaningfulness will invest more energy into processes for
coping because it is felt to be worthwhile. Together, the collective will evolve a group
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salutogenic state, a Sense of Coherence enabling it to deal with the above.
Therefore the integral view of health is one of pathology and of well-being. They exist in the
realms of understanding and imagination.
PART TWO
Chapter 6: Harmony Versus Equilibrium
34. To reach an aspired state of balance for an organisation is a system objective. This is referred
35.
36.
to as an equilibrium of various forces acting upon the system both externally and internally.
Another view, more process oriented, would be to instil processes in the system so that it is
always adapting itself to the forces and thereby remain in harmony.
Equilibrium is a concept from the scientific method. Thermodynamics looks at a equilibrium as a
state in which A system in which all processes of change have gone practically to completion is
considered to be in a state of thermodynamic equilibrium. Change has ceased. From an outlook
of life, which consider All life is process, the term equilibrium is almost a dead state.
Harmony is a concept that lends itself to imagination and has a philosophical basis as
expounded by Professor N.N. Panicker, scientist and Gandhian philosopher as he explains the
logic in his article, Evolution of Humanity :
Aum Shanti: These two words express the aspiration of humanity for evolution towards harmony
and peace. They denote an attitude of life and a way of living. Aum represents harmony harmony among creation, sustenance and dissolution; harmony among body, mind, intellect,
harmony among individuals, neighbourhoods and the world. Harmony, from Greek 'harmos' (=
joint), is literally yoga. Yoga is which joins (Sanskrit - yujyate anena yogah).
Yoga leads to Shanti. Shanti means peace - peace with oneself or inner peace, peace within
community and universal peace. Peace from Latin 'pacisci' (= to agree), is a state of tranquillity.
From harmony to peace is literally an evolution from joint to agreement, from congruence to
unity. Peace comes to individuals from harmony in living, to communities from living in harmony
with neighbours.
37. Therefore a method for Organisation Diagnosis can be to ascertain the quality of harmony of the
38.
system. Harmony can be ascertained as the nature of interaction of the forces of the Ego, Astral
and Etheric bodies on the physical and on each other. Issues of Power, influence, conflict are in
this domain. The contribution that an esoteric view makes is that whilst an equilibratory state is
achieved through cybernetic control on the various forces through positive and negative
feedback, an harmonious state can have higher altruist values like sacrifice, fuzzy logic, love
that will allow the system to function without implementing binary rules to the letter. That is the
way of human social units where discernment and self regulation to fit into a larger whole holds
the key to harmony. Forces are not externally regulated as much as self regulation and
adaptability that will may induce the other forces in the system to regulate themselves for
system well being and resonance.
To test the hypothesis, 3 case studies of organisation are presented with an esoteric OD
diagnosis.
from and around Auroville who work in specialist units and another floating population of international
volunteers who help in documentation, project monitoring and any other special task allocated to them.
The Symptoms:
JB faces a disconnect with the people who are unable to cope with his multi-tasking abilities. JB
wants the organisation to one of imagination and flexible enough to adapt in real time to his
directions
Projects deadlines and deliverables are not being met. Utilisation of funds in many cases is over
budget.
New funds have reduced leading to a worry about sustaining the organisation.
Staff threatens with attrition due to unsatisfactory pay and work environment. .
Diagnosis:
JB is the Ego at level 2, The old- timers are the coordinating level 4 and the working staff is at the
level 5. International Volunteers are brought in at Level 3 for audit and monitoring
In times of infancy, the level 1 functions of the Spirit were advisors and governing council of
Auroville. But with growth, the level has disintegrated with diminished influence on the Ego.
Today the spirit level is not able to influence the Ego
The influence of Astral body and the Spirit are missing. The Astral has sporadically developed
through the times. As a result will action and metabolic functions are driven by the Ego.
Charting out the biography of the organisation, it is found that the Ego and its pervading energy
have always pushed for the growth of the physical body. Initially the etheric formative forces
were able to keep pace. However in latter years, the etheric body is unable to keep pace, and is
disoriented. The natural order of life requires that at some point as the organisations metabolic
system its ability to digest and produce services and products for the environment matures,
the Ego must let go and allow the Astral body to work through the etheric. This has not
happened. A shadow astral body to nurture the body which falls short due to the all pervading
power and control of the Ego.
The rhythmic body cannot work its self through the astral. An internal hetrostasis feed back loop
can be initiated by the spirit at level 5. But that is also absent or destroyed.
The organisation has an inefficient MLS, a stressed out NSS and a blocked RB.
The quality of service delivery is not at a standard required by international donor agencies.
Service objectives ( mission, do good) is no longer the sole criterion for meritocracy.
Attendance in sports sessions has also reduced with pressure from parents for tuitions and lack
of good play grounds.
Staff attrition was high a few years back when a group of senior managers left in a short time.
Organisation hierarchy keeps changing with portfolios of MS and AS being exchanged
frequently.
Most staff have strong loyalties and favour to AS which protects their jobs and receive period
promotions and benefits. Another very small group (the new HODs) are loyal to the CEO.
Mission objectives and goals keep changing all the time. The purpose is therefore unclear.
Diagnosis:
In the early years, the Ego (MS) played it part well and a well developed physical body was
created. At the right time, the astral (AS) took over from the ego force and created the metabolic
organs.
But at some point, as the Ego went to its next level of activity, wanting to rise to a spirit level with
a vision of an altruist role with a larger national presence. There was a conflict with the astral
body which did not see the goals as purposeful or that they would endanger the organisation
stability. Initiatives by the Ego were systematically retracted and shut down. The astral body was
indispensible because the Ego did not have the energy to work into the etheric.
Then an OD intervention took place leading to a strengthening of the Ego energy. The Ego
brought its influence into the etheric and began again working into the physical body. But the
astral has a stronger hold on the etheric leading to the Ego time and again backing out leading
to a push and pull with the astral level.
The etheric constantly re-aligns itself to the 2 powerful internal forces.
The astral by blocking the initiatives of the Ego is not allowing the development of the Physical
body leading to a mature body with underdeveloped metabolic organs.
The organisation is living on its support from the ecosystem by providing it with abundant
resources, requiring very little change management initiatives.
The spirit level at Level 1 has been constituted and has the potential energy to support the ego
for taking the Organisation to its next spiritual level.
The NSS is now hyperactive and the RB needs strengthening through the spirit and ego to create
a hetrostasis state.
The Symptoms:
The chairman has become part of the executive and operational processes. The President has
boundary issues when this happens in academics including the wish for the Chairman to be a
part of the teaching and mentoring staff.
Students feel controlled with issue of personal freedom and free choice in matters of lifestyle and
moral values.
There is constant struggle to build this dream for both the chairman and the president both having
institution development as their espoused objective.
Power centres have been created around the chairman and the president. This is matter of
concern and of confusion leading to dependencies for all.
Diagnosis:
Here is the play of the Ego and Astral and how they impact organisation space. The Ego, PS has
come with a dream, a love and now a vision of certain life values and goals. It set about creating
the physical body with the first burst of life and the physical body has been growing ever since.
With foresight and insight, he brought in IP to create the astral body to shape the academics
the metabolic pole. There was also a wish to give inheritance and legacy to the new being a
pedigree linage by IPs repute and the ability to bring in external resources from other systems.
However the negotiation and agreement was not complete, as evident, because there was a
resonance in the passion of both the persons leading to an initial euphoria. It appears that IP
has considered the her role to be of a co-founder (shared Ego) rather than the sole
responsibility of creating the Astral Body. It may also have been assumed that as Chairman, PS
will settle down at Level 1 (the spirit).
But as the being was formed, PS found itself working mainly on the etheric and creating the
physical infrastructure alone. IP was investing energies outside the system and, therefore we
may say that in esoteric terms, the body was not fully incarnated.
And so with full control of the etheric, and a supportive astral, PS (ego) built up the physical body
rather quickly and well. At this time, when it must withdraw to its place, handing over the
metabolic organs to the astral, it shifted its attention to these organs itself out of necessity and
absence of a strong astral.
The unintended consequences was that a stress has been created on the etheric which must be
wrestled by both. The energies that the etheric bust now spend on the development of the
thought (knowledge) is spent on the physical body that has already developed.
The Sense of Coherence comprehension, manageability and purposefulness will gradually
diminish and wellbeing will be affected at all levels. Control and power must be perceived to be
non-violent. IP should create a strong astral body with is inclusive and participatory processes.
and PS must now allow the etheric to work on the development of the NSS, utilising the
resources to create right thinking. Freedom will allow creativity to sprout essential for learning
and discovery.
END OF PAPER