Incorporating Islamic Values into HR Management
Cultural and religious values set the main parameters of how humans deal with others in certain environments. The main mistake of today’s corporates is that they blindly implement the set business theories of the western civilization, which had established these values based on their own western progression. From planting the seeds of democracy in mid-thirteenth century England, to the development of communism and trade unions, to the final adaptation of HR management policies and procedures set in the US, which mainly deal with integrating governmental and corporate rules and regulations, ultimately eliminating trade unions and workers’ presentation in political parties and institutes.
While the development of these laws and theories was based on the progress of respecting and appreciating human value and its role in human work-achievements, thus leading to achieving the business goals of corporates, the concept of respecting human values and developing laws to force not just managers, but also governors and world leaders, to be bound by these laws was set about 1400 years ago in the cities of Makkah and Medina. What the west had finally developed over centuries was implemented during the early days of the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) and his companions and early Islamic caliphs. The west had forced Islamic countries into substituting their values, thus making their implementation of western values rather fragile. From forcing employees to dress in a certain way – that can be viewed as a violation of human rights, to forcing employees to either shave facial hair or to humiliate their dignities by forcing them to punch time clocks, deal with business affairs in certain ways.
Eastern managers tend to forget that Islam gives humans the freedom to do what is good or valuable, from freedom of speech to freedom of education. Incorporating Islamic values into HR management will make room for the notion of dialogue amongst employees from all ranks, making them feel valuable and vital to the development of their own companies and organizations. The west develop the employees’ ideology into believing the values of their companies, while the east had already developed values which they study and implement from birth to adolescence and thus are held in their hearts, and if their companies choose to belittle these values, the employees themselves will either under deliver or rebel.
Although it may seem peculiar as a preliminary thought, the development of eastern business theories with the aid of Islamic values can stop the destructive rise of globalization, and allow us to not just develop our own concepts in management, but also develop our own products that can be beneficial to economic and human development. Initially hiring an Islamic cleric as part of the HR management team to provide motivational speeches to both the employees and employers can have benefits beyond the expectations of the most optimistic business leaders of today. Some may argue that this notion can be mistaken for prejudice against non-Muslims; however, it should be noted that Islamic values are not based on mere belief, but can also be implemented and appreciated by all readers and people from different religions and races the same exact way that easterners had studied and implemented western values and theories.
Nadim Mina
Photography: Mahmoud Mansi
EDITORS: Mennat-Allah Yasser Zohny & Nada Adel Sobhi