Innovation = Regenerating Knowledge | The Transformation & Innovation Book Series
Islamic Values and Management Practices:
Quality and Transformation in the Arab World
The author of this thought provoking book has worked as a management consultant in the Arab Middle East for 30 years.
In Islamic Values and Management Practices she acknowledges that businesses and other organizations in the region face urgent concerns in relation to quality and transformation, but argues that these issues might be more appropriately addressed by the application of an Islamic Management Model, rather than the ‘Western’ one hitherto applied. Over time, a set of management systems based on Islamic values has been developed by the author. These systems recognise the need to build human organisations, socially and politically as well as commercially, and also the recognition that for Muslims, justice is the ultimate value, bringing balance between the individual’s soul and spirit on the one hand, and the organisation’s soul and spirit on the other.
This Islamic management model stresses that effectiveness is an outcome of operating efficiently and at the same time unifying the organisation’s objectives with those of its employees and wider society, and ensuring that at the strategic level the long view is always maintained. Recounting her own personal and business journey, Maqbouleh Hammoudeh presents the outcomes of research that has tested the application of the Islamic Management Model and its ability to deliver the desired quality and transformation outcomes in a major civic or profit making organisation.
At a time when many practitioners and business educators are seeking new management approaches, this revealing case study sheds light on the evolution of a contemporary theory of management for the Muslim World.
“Dr Hammoudeh’s work is a testimony for the imperative for knowledge mining in Islamic culture to inform and enlighten the Business literature and practice. Her insights on the linkages between culture and business are of value since her model has resonance with basic notions of Tawheed (Unity), Ihsan (inner beauty) and Mizan (social justice). There are windows of opportunities to harness and embody local knowledge inspired by Islamic values as a humanitarian and universal business charter that will both enhance cultural diversity and innovation through sound and smart understanding of text and context in both Islam and Business.“
Prof. Odeh Al-Jayyousi, Regional Director- IUCN