Management teaching, the spiritual dimension and the acceptance of the Islamic other

Abstract

This article aims to provide a reminder of other traditions of spirituality and the contemplative in ethical questions in business, and to suggest some opportunities for re-introducing these themes into the work of business schools. It is timely to go beyond the Western emphases on management and knowledge rooted in positivistic epistemologies and in individualistic ‘rational actor’ models of organizational action in which economic goal-orientation and objective-targeted behaviours are assumed to be universal human characteristics. It reviews some of the foundational principles of management in the Islamic world, as Islam represents a comprehensive worldview and a basis for cultural and behavioural universality. In particular, I note the Islamic approach to wealth, seen as a collective and community asset within the responsibility of the Ummah, the Wasta approach to mediation and influence in social networks and the concern for the interests of the generalized other.

Keywords:

• other
• diversity
• Islam
• Ummah
• spirituality

Acknowledgements

This article was originally presented at Stream 20, ‘The Role of the Contemplative in Workplace Organization: Exploring Spiritualities, Theologies, Philosophies, and Ethics at the Critical Management Studies Conference 6’, Warwick University 13-15 July 2009. With thanks for the constructive comments of the participants at the session and in particular to Jonathan Gosling, Peter Case, Matthew Eriksen, Albert J. Mills and Angela Hope and especially to the anonymous reviewers.