In the traditional business world it may sound silly, but things are changing. People are, most certainly, now seeking more meaning from their work and from their lives. Customers want transparency and availability of information, demanding that organizations behave more responsibly and sensitively with them.

Perhaps for this reason, relationship marketing, societal marketing and customer care concepts have evolved, because the traditionally selfish character of corporations and organizations, and the way they conduct business, caused an increasing number of people to get fed up.

In business and organizations, love means genuine compassion for humankind, with all that this implies. Love in business and work means making decisions and conducting oneself in a way that cares for people and the world we live in.

Love and compassion became unfashionable in corporations in some ways. In the 20th century, business was largely concerned with "left-side brain" perspectives, for example: performance management, critical reasoning, total quality, strategic planning, financial results, profit, etc.

Historically, men dominated the business landscape and still do so today, to an extent. Men are generally more prone towards left-side-brain thinking and working. Not surprisingly, male-oriented ideas and priorities -- especially dispassionate left-side-brain factors -- have tended to dominate business and organizations.

Conversely, love and compassion are generally perceived to be female traits. Men are less likely than women to demonstrate loving, compassionate behavior because of cultural and social expectations. But it does not mean that men are ruthless.

Where unloving, dispassionate behavior exists in a business leader, whatever its cause, this unavoidably sets the tone for the whole organization to be unloving and uncaring, and devoid of spiritual awareness.

If this situation is replicated across very large organizations, as arguably it has been during the 20th century, then inevitably business, and work as a whole, tends to be characterized in the same way -- as unloving and uncaring, and certainly not spiritual.

However, unloving, uncaring methods, which tend to predominate in organizations and to be passed on through successive leadership generations, are not the entire, and only, way to run a business or organization.

Reward systems, and training and development methodologies, have been correspondingly dispassionate. Not surprisingly, therefore, ideas about loving people, being compassionate, are unlikely to appear in much management training manuals or training courses.

Workers and organizations in recent times are finding ways to be simply aligned with some of humankind's most basic needs -- to be loved, and to find our own purpose and meaningful connections in life -- which often brings us full circle to loving and helping others.

Now, leaders need to care properly for the people and the future of the planet, not just to make a profit and to extract personal gain. And, so, businesses and corporations are beginning to realize that genuinely caring for people everywhere is actually quite a sensible thing to do.

It is now, more than ever, necessary for corporations to make room for love and compassion -- to care for people and the world -- alongside the need to make a profit.

Love in business is becoming a popular concept. Some interpretations have a compassionate foundation; others are quite rightly incorporated within wider issues of corporate social responsibility and ethical business. Other ideas approach the concept from the environmental angle, or sustainability, or "fair trade."

Barbara Heyn, a Cincinnati-based consultant, who helps organizations develop relationships and capabilities among people and teams, particularly in response to challenges of globalization and cultural diversity, sees love in organizations from the perspective of feminine instincts and behavior.

This is not to say that men are useless at it; not at all: men, like women, can actually do anything they put their minds to. Everyone can.

The concept of "feminine spirit" emphasizes that the biggest challenges in modern work and organizations respond to what we traditionally consider to be "female" strengths and styles.

Globalization is creating some new organizational challenges: Managing and developing global teams -- which require far more sensitive treatment than traditional localized structures.

Approaching cultural diversity as strength, not a hindrance -- which requires great perception, awareness and openness to possibilities. And creating inclusive responsible plans, and making ethical decisions -- which requires a strong sense of what is right and good, including compassion, humanity, and spiritual connection.

Most of them are traditional female territory, but must now be part of the male world too, because these are the big issues facing all managers, leaders and organizations today.

As such, this is a call for everyone in management and business to be more loving and spiritual -- to be more sensitive and understanding and compassionate.

In fact, love flows naturally when you create a space for it. People are naturally inclined to good. It's the business world that makes us resistant and skeptical.

Love can be used as a catalyst in business growth by viewing colleagues as potential allies rather than threats, finding ways to connect personally with others on an honest human level, asking sensitive questions and identifying common areas of interest, and proactively looking for opportunities to help team members in a meaningful way.

For the managers intuition is invaluable, especially in dealing with people. This might be developed by, first of all, accepting that we have it, and then by practicing paying attention to our feelings. However, trusting intuition is a wonderful way to enhance decision-making skills.

Maslows hierarchy suggests that people must satisfy five groups of needs -- in order, physiological, security, belongingness i.e. love, esteem, and self actualization. Without love other needs cannot be achieved. Today, the corporate world is paying great attention to satisfying this need, not only in their employees but also in their consumers, forming a trianglular love bond to instigate business growth.

Mobile-phone operators and banks, especially, have the propensity to build up this long lasting relationship for their business categories. However, pharmaceutical companies have a great opportunity to build up this loving relationship with consumers because they are directly related to health care though, in our country, they feel happy to butter up doctors for business growth, but they do not know that love can do something.

Maybe love does have a place in business after all. Maybe more and more of us will have the courage to begin to talk about what really matters to us about work and our relationships with each other, and to push back the sterile language of business that we have been trained to accept. Maybe we will realize that accepting love in the workplace will remind us of the original purpose of work -- not to maximize shareholder value but to come together to do good things, to help each other and, hopefully, to make the world a better place.

Sazzad Reza Basunia is an MBA student, Khulna University.