Impact of the Cultural Attributes on Management in Muslims

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Table of Contents

Application to management
Application to the events industry
Ethical considerations
Conclusion
References

The world “culture” has over 100 meanings depending on when and how it is used (Jex & Britt 2008). In this case, culture will be taken to mean a system of beliefs, attitudes, values, goals and practices that are peculiar to a certain group of people that may be in a common institution, organization or group (Barney 1986).

Since the twentieth century, culture has come to refer to a system of human qualities that are in no way determined by the genetic make up of individuals (Cameron & Quinn 2005). In this respect, culture refers to the various ways that people in various communities all over the world behave and, group and interprets their experiences as individuals and as groups.

Since then, the study of culture has had different connotations with respect to disciplines such as cultural studies, organizational psychology and management studies (Black 2003).

On the other hand, management refers to the activities that are associated with bringing people together and organizing them in order to meet specific goals and objectives while at the same time utilizing the resources that are available as economically as possible (Barney 1986).

The subject of this study is the Islamic culture in relation to management (Chatman & Jehn 1994). Islam, when defined as a culture is found mostly among the secular academia to define the culture of people that have historically practiced Islam. With the emergence of Islam as a religion in the 7^th century in Arabia, most of the Muslims them were Arabs at the time (Jex & Britt 2008).

However, Islamic empires grew and spread out to the rest of the world and consequently, people from Persia, Turkey, Pakistan, Mongol, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia among others also came to profess Islam as a religion and to actively practice it in all the aspects of their lives (Barney 1986). As a result, Muslims are found in all corners of earth and originate from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds (Black 2003).

However, the fact that most Muslims base all their actions and activities, even dressing on the religion from the Koran and various hadiths of the Islam religion, provides a point of cultural unity among Muslims throughout the world (Cameron & Quinn 2005). This culture varies in some aspects depending on the sect that the individual may follow, as well as the prevailing circumstances (Jex & Britt 2008).

Since the Islamic lifestyle is part and parcel of a Muslim’s day to day activities, it follows that the same practices are to be found with Muslims at their workplaces and anywhere else they might be (Jex, & Britt 2008)s. To begin with, the kind of dress that a Muslim may wear is dictated by their religion (Barney 1986).

Women are required to be modest and the religion prescribes that they wear a hijab which covers most of their bodies from the head right to the toes. However, different Muslim women wear different varieties of the hijab and some in fact cover their heads only (Barney 1986).

Their clothes should not be transparent nor show their bodies’ shapes. There is controversy as to whether there exists a specific dress for Muslim men with most arguing that the religion demands that they cover the region from their navels to their feet even when engaged in activities such as swimming.

However, today’s male clothing covers more that just that region and is accepted widely by men (Cameron & Quinn 2005). In addition, men are prohibited against wearing clothing that may seem feminine such as jewellery and silks among others. In addition, Muslims are very keen on what they eat. In particular, they do not consume any products that come from pigs such as ham and bacon (Barney 1986).

The meat which they consume has to be prepared in a very specific way that is called halal. Muslim adherents wash and pray before eating their meals; drinking of alcoholic drinks is strictly prohibited by their religion in addition to selling alcohol or supplying it even to non-Muslims. Men and women may not be seen together in public and even at home, the women do not particularly interact with male visitors.

The language that Muslims use depends on the geographical area from whence they come (Barney, 1986). However, most, if not all Muslims are well conversant with Arabic that is spoken in Arabia as it is the medium of instruction in Islamic teachings and most of the Korans are written in the language (Cummings & Worley 2005).

The Muslims mark the beginning of their months by the first day that the new moon appears (Barney 1986). The Muslim year also has twelve months which are considerably shorter than those in the Roman calendar which are Muhar-Ram, Safar, Rabi-ul-Awwal, Rabi-ul-Akhir, Jumada Al-Ula, Jumada Al-Akhirah, Rajab, Sha’baan, Ramadan, Shawwal, Dhul-Qu’dah, Dhul-Hijjah (Cameron & Quinn 2005).

There are various festivals that are celebrated by Muslims all over the world; the most prominent of these are the Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha. The former is celebrated after the thirty days of fasting which are known as Ramadan whereas the latter coincides with the Hajj (Bligh 2006).

Children born to Muslim parents begin to learn about the religion as soon as they can. It is part of them since childhood. If a child attends a Muslim school, the Koran is part of the education but if he or she does not attend an Islamic school, they learn the Koran from classes that are referred to as Madrassa in the Mosque (Bligh 2006).

It is important to note that the Muslims praying practice is part of their culture and is observed fervently (Cameron & Quinn 2005). Prayers are said three times a day while facing the direction of Mecca and sitting or kneeling on mats (Cummings & Worley 2005).

Men may say prayers in the mosque but women only say their prayers in their houses or in other rooms at the Mosque (Harris 1994). The kind of clothing that is worn during prayers is also important and failure to dress appropriately results in one being require to dress well and re-say the prayers (Black 2003).

Upon death, the bodies of Muslims are washed and then shroud in clean cloth. Burial is preferred to cremating and usually takes place within 24 hours of death. Women are not allowed to go to funerals but they are permitted to visit graves and lay flowers thereafter (Cummings & Worley 2005).

Application to management

As a result of the undeniable influence of the religion of Islam on the followers and believers of the religion, management studies have included a package for specifically this group of people (Barney 1986). Management by Islam is one approach that focuses on offering management solutions which most Muslims in various professions will feel comfortable with.

Management by Islam, also known as MBI, targets individual and organizational roles and responsibilities and provides management solutions (Bligh 2006). This model is deeply entrenched in the Muslim religion and offers solutions that are spiritual, restore balance in management decision making practices, and encourage good while discouraging bad (Harris 1994).

Management by Islam is a concept that came into being upon the realization that most organizations are focused on generating revenue, and increasing material wealth besides preserving what the organizations have already in the course of making business decisions (Barney 1986). As a result, values such as social justice, public trust and civic responsibilities have taken a back seat in most organizations.

Even performance, quality and customer satisfaction, transparency and accountability are all evaluated on the basis of their ability to generate profits that are commonly assessed through financial statements (Bligh 2006). Management by Islam is specifically targeted at “God conscious” individuals whose idea of return to investment is promoting what is right and forbidding what is wrong.

In this case, forbidding is regarded as being a good role model in the course of one’s work (Black 2003). Role modeling in this case refers to aligning of one’s intentions to their actions while at the work place for the benefit of others (Bligh 2006).

The MBI framework works on the assumption that all individuals are charged with specific duties that are only possible with observation of religion (Islamic in this case) (Barney 1986). Therefore, if the individuals wish to experience the love of God, they should engage in activities that bring them closer to their creator which is only possible through observing the divine framework in our day to day lives.

The divine framework on the other hand is simple, reasonable, and an easy to follow tool for the accomplishment of our dreams. It is also acknowledged that Islam as a religion has not had much impact in organizational management (Bligh 2006).

Management by Islam seeks to strike a balance between contemporary professional and organizational wisdom and faith based policies and ethical standards in a bit to establish and sustain personal and organizational environments (Barney 1986).

Implementation of MBI begins with a concept whose acronym is SALAM which stands for: sense of purpose, applying the framework, learning organizational wisdom, accepting the flexibility in practice and mastering the process (Bligh 2006). All these are tenets of corporate management which have been fortified with fundamentals of spirituality and God consciousness.

Another obstacle that is commonly met in the course of culture management is which procedures should be used for the purpose of managing culture (Barney 1986). In practice, there is no single right way to address these issues and it mainly depends on the management that is handling the process or the agent that has been hired to do so (Harris 1994).

Application to the events industry

Consequently, the events industry should realize that the culture and practices of the Muslim community are largely influenced by their religion as compared to their own ethnic cultures (Hartnell et al 2011).

With this in mind, any player in the industry that would want to stage an event for the Muslim community would be wise to avoid any alcohol or pork products for purchase by the Muslims. This is against their beliefs and will definitely leave them feeling offended (Jex & Britt 2008).

Secondly, Muslim women, and men to some extent, are required to dress modestly, with various variations of the Hijab depending on where they come from. However, if the participants of an event are largely Muslim, it would be imprudent to have women with Western clothing particularly the casual and immodest type at same function for whatever purpose (Hartnell et al 2011).

These will be viewed negatively by the attendants of those events and might cause disturbances as well (Black 2003). There have been cases where western musicians have been prohibited from performing in front of their Muslim fans in the Middle East as a result of their dressing.

In addition, Muslim faithful pray several times every day and in the course of organizing an event for people who practice Islam it is important to accommodate this practice (Hartnell et al 2011). In other countries and destinations such as Mecca, the movement of non-Muslims is strictly controlled. There are places where non-Muslims can visit but equally, there are even paths where they shouldn’t be seen walking (Barney 1986).

Therefore, while organizing events in such countries, the management should be sensitive to the existence of the two cultures and should desist from actions or words that may offend people from either culture.

As far as management by Islam is concerned, this is a concept that may work well in the industry if the workforce is mainly Muslim (Cummings & Worley 2005). However, the acts of promoting beliefs and practices of Islam while at the work place may be a contentious issue given that most event management companies may be called upon to organize events for people from any culture (Hartnell et al 2011).

It will definitely not work in workplaces whose population is not chiefly Islam and in this case, it may be viewed as the interference with an individual’s right to worship and religion. However, Muslim employees that may want to adopt it should be allowed but forbidden from imposing upon others (Jex & Britt 2008).

Ethical considerations

Within Islam as a religion are Islamic ethics, which are also referred to as “good character”, which originated with the religion in the 7^th century and were well established by the 11^th century (Jex & Britt 2008).

These include moral commandments, environmentalism, politics, medical ethics, military ethics, peace and justice, and welfare. There are ten moral commandments which define the relationship between a Muslim believer and Allah, a Muslim believer and others, and the Muslim believer he or herself.

Environmentalism defines the relationship between Muslim believers and the environment; emphasis is placed on conservation of the natural resources and fair treatment of the organisms that are found in the ecosystem. (Hartnell et al 2011).

As far as politics are concerned, there is usually no difference between the state and religion where Islamic rule is practiced such as in Saudi Arabia; the State is based on the religion (Jex & Britt 2008).

However, this is not observed all over the world and as a result there have been various conflicts in most nations including the United Kingdom as a result of attempts of some Muslims to impose Islamic rules of law on citizens in secular countries (Black 2003).

Medical ethics as far as Islam ethics are concerned are meant to govern health care providers. These revolve around drugs, medical peer review, and neuro-ethics (Bligh 2006). Military ethics govern the interaction with diplomats, the treatment of hostages, refugees and prisoners of war among others; these are based on the Koran and the Sunnah of Muhammad.

When organizing events for members of the Muslim community, care should be taken to avoid offending them as a result of ignorance of their culture, practice and religions (Jex & Britt 2008).

Conclusion

For events management organizations that are planning events in Muslims cultures, there are a lot of things that should be considered from the content of their event, the food that should be served or be made available at these events, as well as the music, gender, and time when these events will be hosted (Black 2003).

However, in spite of the similarities among the various Muslims communities that are found all over the world, there are differences as well which are based on aspects such as geographic location of the country as well as the Islam denomination that prevails in that region (Jex & Britt 2008).

However, the Management by Islam concept may have to be approached cautiously given the explosive nature of religious matters today (Hartnell et al 2011). A lot of problems have arisen due to the failure to separate Islam as a religion from other aspects of the society’s fabric such as politics and governance.

References

Barney, J. B. 1986. Organizational Culture: Can It Be a Source of Sustained Competitive Advantage? Academy of Management Review, 11(3):656- 665.

Black, J. 2003. Organizational Culture: Creating the Influence Needed for Strategic Success. London UK : Phaidon Publishing.

Bligh, C. 2006. Surviving Post-merger ‘Culture Clash’: Can Cultural Leadership Lessen the Casualties? Leadership, (2):395 – 426.

Cameron, S. & Quinn, E. 2005. Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture: Based on the Competing Values Framework. London: The Jossey-Bass Business & Management Series.

Chatman, J. A., & Jehn, K. A. 1994. Assessing the relationship between industry characteristics and organizational culture: how different can you be? Academy of Management Journal, 37(3): 522-553.

Cummings, G. & Worley, G. 2005. Organization Development and Change, 8th Ed. USA: Thomson South-Western.

Harris, G. 1994. Organizational Culture and Individual Sensemaking: A Schema- Based Perspective. Organization Science, 5(3): 309–321.

Hartnell, C. A., Ou, A. Y., & Kinicki, A. 2011. Organizational Culture and Organizational Effectiveness: A Meta-Analytic Investigation of the Competing Values Framework’s Theoretical Suppositions. Journal of Applied Psychology. Advance online publication, 7(3):30–32.

Jex, M. & Britt, W. 2008. Organizational Psychology, A Scientist-Practitioner Approach. USA: Wiley Publishers.

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