Islamic Management and the Comparative Approach

Mohammad Reza Sadeqi / MA of Public Management, IKI                                                           

Mohammad Taqi Nouroozi Farani / Assistant professor of  IKI                                                     

Received: 2015-11-25 - Accepted: 2016-06-29

Abstracts

The present paper uses the techniques of comparative study in management and organization to study and offer an Islamic management Science. Using a library method and deductive analysis, first it offers a comparative approach by emphasizing the culture and values in the study of management and organization and on its role in the development process of managerial and organizational theories. Then, it expounds the approaches to the Islamic management by emphasizing the value-oriented approach. Finally, it offers a comparative approach to Islamic management and reviews its strengths and weaknesses. The research findings show that the comparative approach can be a good starting point to establish an Islamic management because it represents a point of agreement among scholars in the two fields of "the study on Islam" and "knowledge of the organization and management". No doubt, this approach should be considered as a piece of macro-puzzle of the road map leading to the science of Islamic management. The injection of pure Islamic values into society and the attempts to enrich and enforce the established approaches can be defined as other important pieces of this puzzle.

Keywords: Islamic management, comparative approach, Islamic values, theories of organization, environment, culture.

The Relationship between the Dimensions
of Religiosity and Cultural Intelligence
(A Case Study by the Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center in Yazd)

Kamal Barzegar Befruyee / P.hd Student Executive Governmental, Payam Noor University of Saveh (lead author)     

Mahnaz Tavakoli Banizi / P.hd Student Industrial Management, Yazd University of Science and Art              

Mohammad Rahmati / Assistant professor of public management, faculty member of Tehran University     

Received: 2015/12/30 - Accepted: 2016/05/10

Abstracts

"Religiosity" is one of the concepts to which sociologists have devoted much attention. Religiosity is undoubtedly one of the factors influencing the attitudes and behavior of people in different societies. In addition to religiosity, cultural intelligence is likely to affect all aspects of life, including the kind of interpersonal relationships, and one's survival and professional skills. Cultural intelligence is the most important tool for handling multicultural situations effectively. This study seeks to assess the impact of religiosity on the cultural intelligence of the staff of "The Agriculture and Natural Resources Research and Education Center" in Yazd. In this study, Glock and Stark's questionnaire religiosity was completed to measure religiosity and a questionnaire designed by the "Center for Studying Cultural Intelligence" was completed to measure cultural intelligence. The required data were collected by distributing the questionnaires among 96 workers. The univariate linear regression was used to test the relationship defined in the research hypotheses. The results show that the dimensions of religion, "religious beliefs" and "religious experience" have their impact on individual’s cultural intelligence.

Key words: religiousity, cultural intelligence, the staff of the Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center in Yazd.

Explaining the Position of Symbol
in Organizational Culture Based on the Islamic Point of View

Ali Reza Abbasi Sadr/ MA in Public management, IKI                                 Sadr598@chmail.ir

Mohsen Manteqi / Assistant professor at IKI                                                                                    

Received: 2015/03/01 - Accepted: 2016/08/15

Abstracts

Organizational culture and studying it in today's organizations is considered as one of the most important and complicated subjects in management studies. Most of the studies in this area have been carried out by scholars related to the symbolic-interpretive school of thought. The impressive results and implications of their findings about organization and management knowledge are undeniable. In the meantime, attention to symbol, which is a part of culture, and its impact on employees’ behavior is regarded as a new discussion in the area of studies on organizational behavior. Among the obstacles, paying attention to the position of symbol in Islamic management studies are the theoretical principles and assumptions governing the symbolic-interpretive school, which is based on subjective cognition, fear of being stricken in symbolism, or encountering some so-called Muslims in facing symbols, who regard believing in symbols as polytheism. The present descriptive-analytical study seeks to review the viewpoints of some Islamic scholars about symbol and the position of symbol in Islamic management studies. Based on the words of great scholars such as Allameh Tabatabaei, martyr Motahhari and etc., the findings show the especial outlook of the religious scholars on symbol. Of course, their attaching importance to symbols relies on epistemological principles and Islamic assumptions. The data collection in this research is library-based.

Key words: symbol, behavior, organizational culture, Islam, Islamic scholars.

Imam Khomeini's Inspiration from
Imam Ali’s Model of Supervising His Agents

Seyyed Ruhollah Tabatabai Nodoushan / MA of Quran and Hadith Sciences, University of Yazd     

Ali Mohammad Mirjalili / associate professor, University of Ayatollah Haeri Meybod            

Received: 2015/11/26 - Accepted: 2016/03/27

Abstracts

Supervision is regarded an efficient factor for coordinating the activities of an organization with its goals and aspirations and structuring behavior of its members and as a guarantee for sound management of that organization. The duty of governments is running the community affairs and this needs to monitoring the performance of their subjects. Because Imam Ali's government had solid religious-devotional foundations and because the Imam Ali was in the upper rank of the management pyramid, he paid special attention to the issue of supervising the agents of his government. Using a descriptive-analytical method and library-based survey, the present paper investigates the different aspects of supervision in Imam Ali's government and its influence on the founder of the Islamic Revolution. This study expounds the methods and components of the model used by Imam Ali for supervising his agents, including direct observation, and attending to the reports submitted by people. The paper elicits the supervision model used by the Commander of the Faithful and proves that it has exerted influence on Imam Khomeini. The results of the study show that Imam Ali used different ways and a systematic pattern to oversee the performance of his agents. The founder of the Islamic Revolution was greatly influenced by the components and methods of the mentioned model by observing its procedural requirements.

Key words: Imam Ali, Imam Khomeini, government, supervision, agents.

An Investigation of the Dimensions
and Elements of Psychological Asset in Religious Teachings

Mahdi Mobini / PhD Student of higher education management, Allamah Tabatabai University      

Kobra Rajabi / MA Student of public management, Tehran University                                     

Mohammad Sadeghi / MA Student of management, Tehran University                                     

Received: 2015/12/02 - Accepted: 2016/04/17

Abstracts

During the last two decades, positive psychology presented a view about the optimization of function, values efflorescence and enrichment and personnel's potency, which is different from the mistakenly supposed view about the Personnel. The concept of ''psychological asset'' developed after the rise of such movements, like; positive psychology, Positive organizational behavior and organizational research works. The research works conducted in this regard concentrate on the importance of identifying and supporting this new asset in order to make personnel's performance rise to maximum in different roles in the office. When we take a look at the concepts and elements of psychological asset, we find that religious teachings emphasize on some of the concepts of ''psychological asset. Considering the fundamental assumptions of religious literature and Islamic teachings which differ from the current literature of psychology and management, this paper examines the main structures of psychological asset according to the theoretical and practical literature with the religious concepts similar to them and the related teachings in Islam.

Key words: positive psychology, positive organizational behavior, psychological      asset, religious teachings.

An Exposition and Comparative Study of the Epistemological and Philosophical Principles of Knowledge Management of Islam and the West

Wahid Farahmand / MA of Islamic sciences and industrial management, Imam Sadiq University  

Roya Ghasemi / MA of applied mathematics, Khawjeh Nasirdin Toosi University                   

Yasir Sobhanifard / Assistant professor of college of progress engineering, Tehran University of Science and Technology         

Received: 2016/07/02 - Accepted: 2016/06/22

Abstracts

Today, knowledge is regarded as the first strategic source for people and organizations. Organizations can make success if they  create new knowledge, distribute it widely across the organization and rapidly change it into new technologies and products. In order to be successful in this field and have access to knowledge, organizations need to know and understand the epistemological and philosophical foundations of knowledge management. The philosophy of "knowledge management" is recognized by Islam and the West as a discipline, and it can be the source of economy, power and welfare. The concentration on the philosophy of knowledge management and comparing between its traditional view and modern view can contribute to discovering new ways, through which knowledge can be recognized, managed and applied. Using the "cyclic process of analysis", the present paper seeks to explain the epistemological and philosophical foundations of knowledge management in the West, review them and compare them with the religious epistemology and principles of Islam. A deep understanding of the substantial difference between the western view and Islamic view about knowledge management can pave the way for replacing the existing foundations with those of religious epistemology.Thus, the information and results about Islamic and Western knowledge management can be gained by referring to these issues to make conclusions. This study shows that acquisition, maintenance, application and distributing of knowledge are, according to Islamic sources, the cycle of life or process of knowledge management. Furthermore, the aforementioned process including silence and distributing of knowledge is considered as a constant and creative process, and the stop and disparity of any cycle or process will pose risk to the whole organization. On the contrary, the continuous and evolutionary development of knowledge, not only helps create new knowledge in the organization, but also improves decision-making, brings a decisive competitive advantage to organizations, and in general, raises the organization's Performance.

Key words: knowledge, knowledge management, management of Islamic knowledge, philosophical principles, epistemology.