The Influence of Islamic Values on Management Practice

G. Forster

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781137335111
• eBook ISBN: 9781137335128
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Business Strategy

The Influence of Islamic Values on Management Practice is a cultural study examining how Islamic values influence management practice. Using Morocco as a case study, and with academic research and actual business managers working in this context, the book explores and explains how national characteristics, including Islam, shape management practice

1

Introduction

This book presents a research study on how Islamic values influence management practice in Morocco and in doing so extends knowledge of management in the pan-Arab context so that greater cross-cultural understanding can be achieved and acted on.

Background to research

The reasons for undertaking this research were both academic and personal. In academic terms there was an opportunity to provide greater knowledge and understanding of geopolitical regions that have ignited comparatively little interest thus far in the academic world. It is an oversight that may cost the West dear, as Nisbett (2003 p 220) noted in The Geography of Thought:

In the emerging world of ethnic conflict and civilizational clash, Western belief in the universality of Western culture suffers three problems: it is false, it is immoral, and it is dangerous.

Nisbett is not alone in his belief. Weir (2001 p 2) too accuses Western academics in business and management of ‘cultural myopia’ in their proclivity to ‘read the transmission of knowledge and praxis strictly from West to East’. Weir goes on to call for a paradigm shift so that, rather than being seen as ‘objects’ in the West’s narratives, non-Western countries become ‘participating subjects’.

I draw upon the words of Weir for one reason; Weir’s focus of concern is the ‘Arab World’, as is the focus of this research. Weir (2001 p 17) believes that this geopolitical region has been neglected by the extant management research and that the region’s ‘management practices … now need to be studied as an entity in [their] own right’. Weir (2003 p 71) calls this ‘entity’ – which is Arab management – the ‘fourth paradigm’, distinguishing it from the first three paradigms of American, European and Japanese management that currently take precedence in business and management research and practice. Within this ‘fourth paradigm’ Weir (2001 pp 16–17) identifies the ‘integrating framework of Islam … a matrix of belief that is manifested in behavioural practice’ as a source of study because of the ‘morality of management [being] at centre stage’ in management practice.

Little more than a decade after Weir’s ‘call to arms’, perhaps the biggest geopolitical issue of the day – and a growing source of global tension – is the intersection of the secular and commercial with the religious and ideological. It is a domestic issue as well as global, and finding a modus vivendi between these two oppositional world views is also an urgent one. Under the circumstances, there is no doubt that within the global context companies with significant presence in, or dealings with, the Islamic world should be interested in the interface between the secular and commercial interests of their organizations and the religious, ideological and cultural traditions of their various host countries (Tayeb 2000, Weir 2000, Wilson 2006, Metcalfe 2006, 2007).

It is my view that academics should contribute fully to the international dialogue that is taking place, providing the necessary insight into different cultural traditions and practices that global organizations need. After all, academics too are part of the ‘organizationally interdependent world’ (Warner 1999 p xvi), and as such one of their roles is, I believe, to encourage the exchange of knowledge and understanding and to facilitate cultural sensitivity.

Furthermore, academics must play their part to eliminate the ‘cultural myopia’ endemic in Western management practices and learn sufficient humility to accept wisdom from cultures other than their own. I wanted to contribute to that process and it ‘made sense’ to me to do so through the exploration of this phenomenon – Islam – which not only acts as a ‘unifying force’ (Weir 2003 p 72) across an entire management paradigm but is also to be found at the source of current global tensions.

But why choose Morocco as the cultural context for the exploration of Islamic values in management practice? Weir (2000 p 509) argued that Arab management is ‘a developing theme awaiting the empirical study and a more comprehensive theoretical rationalisation’, but Weir’s Arab World is confined to the Middle East and now researchers such as Ali (1989, 1992, 1995, 2005, 2009a, 2009b) are beginning to ‘plug the gap’ which Weir goes to such lengths to point out. But this is not so for another Arab World – that of the Maghreb (a collective term for the North African countries) – or more specifically Morocco (Benson and Al Arkoubi 2006). To all intents and purposes, despite the efforts of researchers such as Wahabi (1993), d’Iribarne (1998, 2002, 2003), Al Arkoubi (2008) and Cox, Lynham and Motii (2005), Morocco remains what Thomas (1996 p 485) refers to as a ‘forgotten location’. Therefore, sources of knowledge and practical guidance are thin on the ground for those multinational and global organizations that do business in Morocco. But my reason for choosing Morocco is not just to provide greater knowledge and understanding in order to facilitate cultural sensitivity in a comparatively unknown country – unknown that is to the management research community. It is also to give a voice to those whose views and experiences that, despite their trading backgrounds (Pennell 2003), have largely gone unheard in the ‘organizationally interdependent world’ (Warner 1999 p xvi) of today.

On a more personal level, I am familiar with Morocco and its people, entranced by its allure and fascinated (often baffled) by its ways. It could only be Morocco!

Focus and scope of study

The guiding principle of this research was that ‘the study of values … reveal(s) deep insights about how work is viewed’ (Robertson, Al-Khatib and Al-Habib 2002 p 585). Further justification for the choice of Islamic values as the focus of this study on management practice in Morocco was provided by the extant research revealing Islam as a ‘unifying force’ (Weir 2003 p 72), ‘an integrating framework’ (Weir 2001 p 17) or a ‘moral filter’ (Rice 1999 p 346) for management practices across the fourth paradigm. Whilst Weir (2003 p 74) might question Morocco’s place within his Arab World because of its different ‘historical, administrative and linguistic traditions’, there is still support for placing Morocco within this pan-Arab context, notably because of shared religious beliefs (Gellner 1969, Benson and Al Arkoubi 2006). Furthermore, extant research (Benson and Al Arkoubi 2006, Cox, Estrada, Lynham and Motii 2005, Al Arkoubi 2008 and d’Iribarne 2002, 2003) on management in Morocco sends a clear message that Islamic values do have a role to play in management practices. As far as the extant research is concerned therefore, the subject of this study appeared to be a relevant and important one.

What also had to be considered, however, was that despite the recognized influence of Islamic values on Arab management, these values do not work in isolation but are an integral part of a country’s ‘national character’ (Tayeb 1988 p 154) – an all-encompassing phrase used by Tayeb to include all of a country’s cultural, political and socio-economic (i.e. its national) characteristics. Tayeb’s view is that all features of the ‘national character’, including religion, ‘have a significant bearing on the management styles of organizations located in particular countries’. Thus the scope of this research had to go beyond the identification and enactment of Islamic values in the workplace and seek also to identify other contextual influences (national characteristics) that also shape how managers ‘practise’ management in Morocco.

As a result of the above considerations, the objectives for the research were as follows:

• To identify and explore how Islamic values shape management practice in Morocco

• To identify and explore other influences that might shape management practice in Morocco

• As a result of the above, to develop a framework for greater understanding of how different cultural contexts affect business practices

• To explore and understand management practice in Morocco via an interpretivist methodology which thus far has had limited application within the extant research in Morocco and the broader pan-Arab context.

And in order to achieve these objectives, the research process was designed to:

• Provide a cultural portrait of Morocco which identifies its national characteristics (Tayeb 1988) and how they might shape management practice in Morocco

• Identify the nature and content of Islamic values for the purposes of analysing and exploring how they influence management practice in Morocco via the lived experiences of the research participants

• Review the extant management research on the pan-Arab context in order to provide both sensitizing concepts (Strauss and Corbin 1998) with which to explore management practice and to better establish the clear potential of this research to contribute to, and augment, existing knowledge

• Build a heuristic model of sensitizing concepts from the extant research for the purposes of exploration of management practice

• Explain and justify the choice of methodology and methods employed for this research

• Explore how participants ‘live’ management practice in Morocco and establish how Islamic values influence management practice from their perspective

• Provide greater insight into how Islamic values and other influences shape management practice in Morocco through a synthesis of the participants’ voices with the extant research

• Develop a framework of greater understanding of how the cultural context of Morocco affects its management practices.

Concepts and ‘working definitions’ within the study

Watson (2006 p 27) suggests that whilst, on the one hand, in every-day life people seek ‘correct definitions of phenomena, ones that will be generally helpful … when communicating within a broad public language’ (original emphasis), the social scientist, on the other hand, must ‘analyse phenomena with the greater degree of rigour and focus that distinguishes scientific analysis’ and thus s/he must ‘conceptualise phenomena. This means devising working definitions which are helpful … in trying to analyse and understand some aspect of the world (original emphasis).’ Concepts – or working definitions – he proceeds to say, ‘differ from dictionary definitions which tend to have a much more general applicability’ (original emphasis).

Set out below are my own conceptualizations, or ‘working definitions’, of the different concepts that I used in this study; they are ‘management practice’, ‘values’ and what is meant by ‘influence’. The concept of Islamic values will be discussed within the framework of what is Islam in Chapter 3. In providing these ‘working definitions’, not only will I be explaining, and justifying, my use of the concepts, but I will also be providing a loose framework in which the research question and objectives were addressed. Loose, because although there was a need to establish the scope of the research – and the development of working understandings facilitated that – this was an interpretive piece of work and, as such, no assumptions based on a priori knowledge could be made and terms had to remain to some extent flexible.

What is management practice?

Management practice is a ubiquitous term within the extant research on management (Marchal and Kegals 2007, Watson 2006, Linstead, Fulop and Lilley 2004, 2009), but it is not one which is clearly explained by any commentator who reflects upon it (Watson 2006), critiques it (Linstead, Fulop and Lilley 2004, 2009) or attempts to describe some element of it (Marchal and Kegals 2007, Stewart 1989, Hales 1986).

However, despite the ambiguity of the phrase, it was possible to establish that the extant research understands that management practice is what managers actually do (Stewart 1989, Watson 2006, Hales 1986, Ghoshal 2005) as opposed to what it is thought they might do. The ‘working definition’ of management practice for this study therefore is that management practice is the totality of the activities that managers do. In accordance with the extant research (Mintzberg 1973, Watson 2006, Linstead, Fulop and Lilley 2004, 2009), management practice is regarded as an umbrella term which describes or encompasses in the broadest terms the total collection of behaviours, actions and processes of individuals in management positions. Thus it is empirical rather than theoretical, descriptive rather than prescriptive, general rather than specific. This ‘working definition’ provided a form of framework, albeit loose, in which I, as the researcher, could work. But it also allowed flexibility – a requirement necessary to acknowledge not only the view of Linstead, Fulop and Lilley (2009 pp 2–3) that management practice ‘is a complex process which is cultural, social, economic, political and informational’, but also that it is all of these things and in an unknown cultural context too.

What are values?

Within the extant literature, values are a ‘a conception, explicit, or implicit, of what an individual or a group regards as desirable’ (Guth and Tagiuri 1965 pp 124–25); a preference for ‘certain states of affairs over others’ (Hofstede 1981 p 19); and also that which ‘guide and direct our behaviour and affect our daily lived experiences’ (Dolan, Garcia and Richley 2006 p 27).

These are thumbnail ‘definitions’ and as such did not provide adequate means to develop a ‘working definition’ or ‘understanding’ that could be employed to discover not only the existence or not of values but also their influence within a cultural context. In addition to this problem of brevity, Ali (2005 p 63) also reports that values are often ‘confused with other related terms such as attitudes, beliefs, needs and norms’.

It is the work of Rokeach (1973) which sheds most light on this concept of values, providing greater exploration and sharper ‘definition’. Rokeach (1973) enables values to be made operationally distinguishable from concepts such as attitudes, which he believes to be the favoured concept of social scientists mainly because of the ease with which they can be researched. It was with his work therefore that I began in my search for a ‘working definition’ for the purposes of this study.

Rokeach’s (1973 p 5) ‘definition’ of a value is that it

is an enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence (and) a value system is an enduring organization of beliefs concerning preferable modes of conduct or end-states of existence along a continuum of relative importance.

Rokeach proceeds to provide an in-depth description of the nature of values, how they are integrated into organized systems and how they refer to the mode of conduct (instrumental values) and the end-state of existence (terminal values). How individuals get to their desired end-state is just as important as the end-state itself. The challenge, however, in using Rokeach’s definition as the ‘working definition’ for this study was that it is complex in nature, and despite Rokeach’s own studies on religiosity (1969) and how this impacts people’s behaviour and values, the disparity between his own ‘definition’ and that of others’ highlighted before (Guth and Tagiuri 1965, Hofstede 1981, Dolan, Garcia and Richley 2006) was considerable.

It was Schwartz (1994 p 21) whose research on values provided the possibility of a ‘working definition’ which dispensed with some of the detail provided by Rokeach and yet could be sufficiently robust for the purposes of this study. Furthermore, Schwartz (1994 p 21) provides the reassurance for those wishing to research values that there is much crossover between value definitions and that he is attempting to ‘modify [those] earlier definitions’ rather than dismiss them. Basing a ‘working definition’ on Schwartz therefore seemed to be possible.

Schwartz’s ‘definition’ and subsequent research have enabled...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Acknowledgements
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Morocco as a Social and Cultural Context for Management Practice
• 3. Islamic Values
• 4. A Profile of Management – Morocco in the Broader Pan-Arab Context
• 5. Management Practice in Morocco
• 6. Lifting the Veil
• 7. A New Synthesis for Management Practice in Morocco
• 8. Conclusions and Contribution to Knowledge
• References
• Index