Elements in the Proposed Management Model

The Islamic model will have to be based on revealed knowledge and organizational culture. Islamic values in management were applied in the mundane affairs including business and economic which contributes significantly to their success in the early days of Islam. Islamic leadership had proven the powers not only in the battle fields, but more importantly, a conducive business environment through a very stable political and just administrative set up. Islam provided sound financial and educational machinery. Early Muslim leaders had contributed towards various fields including the advancement of various branches of human knowledge. The Muslim history during the seventh to fifteenth centuries constitutes sufficient proof of Islam’s potential to create yet another force in the centuries to come. These leaders receive their training from the Prophet ( S.A.W ) They loved human beings and worked hard for them day and night. They did not allow unethical behavior at the market place where the merchants sometimes were includes in malpractices.

During the time of Umar ( second caliph ) businessmen were not allowed to run business unless they learned basic guidelines stipulated in the code of business practices. This way because in the absence of these codes they might capitalize on the needs of innocent customers and public affected by the business. Thus they looked deeply into the ethical practices and provided maximum support for the welfare of the human beings including Muslims and others. Present day business is required to respond to the needs of its employees, the customers and the Muslim societies were positively. Allah S.W.T also expects to see Muslims including Muslim business managers at a possible height in this materialistic world while declaring His promises of making the Khalifah with some conditions.

The Quran says “ Allah has promised those from amongst you who believe and do righteous deeds that He would surely make them His vicegerents on earth “

Despite this promises success in the form of vicegerents on earth, Muslim countries face many economic and political problems in the contemporary world. Addressing such issues would involve unprecedented pressure on managerial excellence in business and else where for quality performances. In business, the aim of Muslim managed organizations will be to provide the customers with the value for money as desired and deserved by them in order to ensure its owns survival in the wake of such global competition in the world market.

The crucial factors in this challenging job will be the quality assurance, cost effectiveness, consumer satisfactions and ethical standards for good image building. In order to achieve these end results our business needs the quality in its managerial performance itself, management of change , a favorable work and Islamic culture, team spirit, organizational loyalty and such other similar conditions as put forth by Allah S.W.T.

Meeting this great challenge successfully is the key to survival. Do we have enough potential to do all these? The answer is yes. Because we do not have a dearth of capable people. Our manpower resource is aviate large. They posses vision, creativity, modern outlook and professional training. Their social and religious values are also deep-rooted in the population which the rich heritage of Islamic norms which are conduction to material as well as spiritual progress.

But despite such conducive Islamic values, do we really practice Islam in our life in the contemporary world to achieve high performance? Are we bringing up a well motivated team of individuals who believe in the end results and are prepared to take up the various challenges in the accomplishment of their tasks? Answers to theses questions are really not positive. Any positive value system, will fail to show results without a disciplined population who act upon it. This is true in every aspects of life including a business organization.

Islam provides norms and values for each and every aspect of human life which maybe translated into desired models. We would like to recommend 4 basic elements in a management model suitable for Muslim manages as well as others, which are in line with Islamic values and which, we believe, are indispensable for the contemporary Muslim managers facing the present day problems.

In this model, a manager considers the respects for the individuals as required by Islam as the most important ingredient in its own right for successful, high quality and excellent management. This is the human factor in management in the form of customer, local inhabitant and personal who actually performs all the tasks in the whole organization. There can be an excellent organization in terms of buildings, structures, charts, rules, regulations, systems, support facilities etc. but, if the human factor is absent, nothings will actually move, what move to function in a coherent, well organized manner.

Therefore, Muslim managers must take lessons from their belief systems and should pay attention on people’s total development, automation, high performance, utilization of human talents and company’s other resources.

Islam encourages an organizational culture which is consistent to an act of ibadah. The implications of this concept would be working continuously hard for excellence which comprises the intention, speech, action, reaction and behavior of the people performing it. Thus, the overall excellence will come forward since the organizational culture become the culture of ‘ ibadah ‘ . Islam puts forward such a leadership style for Muslims to follow which believes that any work can be ibadah given that requirements such as good intention permissible professions, serious efforts surrendering to Allah’s will, are met during and after its performance.

Lastly, in case of the profession arrangements and developments of strategy, structure, systems etc, Islam does not disagree with the Western development. It pays full attention to professionalism to avoid any wastage of Allah’s given resources to minimize the cost and ensure efficiency.

It may be noted at the end that the basic philosophy of management in respect of concern for human beings does not exist in the Japanese and Western models, but it has specially been placed in the proposed model for Muslim managers in order to clean the present pollution from the internal as well as external environment of the organizations and build an atmosphere of mutual trust, team spirit and group consciousness in the firm-human being interface. This is very much in the spirits of the Islamic code of life. The managerial tools with their roots in the culture of contemporary Muslim societies have been included, comphasizing their importance and priority for our system the leadership that has to play a vital role in implanting a healthy and Islamic culture within the organizational premises has been positional. Discipline and order cannot properly be maintained without providing an acceptable and exemplary leadership.

Incorporation of the elements of professionalism which refer to our managerial styles completes our list. Anybody who can manage well the strategy, structure, skills and systems in a given social set up may be qualified enough to be called a professional manager.

In addition to a human factor and management style, there is a need to replace the existing managerial tools with the more modern and scientific ones which are consistent with Islamic values. Muslim managers have to keep on sharpening tools to improve and update theirs decision making process. But is needs a through and repeated testing on continuous basis for its best fir in the modern world.