This document discusses and compares the Western worldview and the worldview of Islam as they relate to management studies. The Western worldview is characterized as Eurocentric, emphasizing observable knowledge, rationality, and the absence of God or the spiritual. It views humans and the universe in mechanistic terms. The worldview of Islam, on the other hand, recognizes both observable and revealed knowledge, emphasizes the oneness of God and interconnectedness. It views humans as vicegerents with free will within limits defined by God. Management studies are argued to have developed based on the Western worldview, focusing on humans as resources and prioritizing economic goals over human development.

1. MANAGEMENT STUDIES: WESTERN
WORLDVIEW AND WORLD VIEW OF
ISLAM
AHMAD YANI ISMAIL
Faculty of Management and Muamalah
KUIS
1st International Conference On Management and Muamalah
13 NOV 2014
KUIS

2. MANAGEMENT STUDIES : WESTERN WORLDVIEW AND THE
WORLD VIEW OF ISLAM

3. INTRODUCTION
“Malaysians are more
Eurocentric than ever
before” - Tun Dr
Mahathir Mohamed,
February 2014
"Do not just follow the West just because they are the
West. Try to get away from this idea that the world is
Eurocentric and whatever comes from Europe, you must
copy. " - Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed, February 2014

4. Resolutions of Muslim Universities Vice-Chancellors’
/Presidents’ Forum, 2010
The existing Muslim
universities’ higher
education models are
norm referenced
which is derived from
the Eurocentric
system
Current approaches
of higher education
are characterized
by Eurocentrism

5. Eurocentrism/Eurocentric And Worldview
Eurocentrism is about Western worldview (Said, 1978; Amin, 1988)
Eurocentrism bertolak daripada anggapan bahawa manusia adalah
haiwan bermasyarakat (social animal) dan ilmu pengetahuan pada
dasarnya dibina di atas dasar kehidupan bermasyarakat, mereka yang
berpandangan kemasyarakatan berpendapat bahawa pendidikan
bertujuan mempersiapkan manusia yang dapat berperanan dan dapat
menyesuaikan diri dalam masyarakat masing-masing – Al Attas
What is worldview?
Opinion? Perspective? Analysis? Conclusion? Thought process?
Idea? View? Assumption?

6. What is a worldview?

7. World + view = How we
view the world?
What is a worldview?
Our lens
Perspective?
Point of view?
Opinion?
Viewpoint?
View?
How we view of life events?
Our own way of
looking the world
based on our
cultural
background and
upbringing.
One's philosophy,
philosophy of life,
mindset, and outlook
on life, formula for
life, ideology, faith, or
even religion.

8. What is a worldview?
“The vision of reality and truth that appears
before our mind’s eye revealing what existence is
all about; for it is the world of existence in its
totality that Islam is projecting” - Al Attas
“An Islamic design of reality relating it, on the one
hand, to the epistemology of the Divine Unity
and, on the other hand, to the world reality and
system” - Choudhury

9. Western Worldview Worldview of Islam

10. Western Worldview Worldview of Islam

11. Emphasises on human life in this world
and has removed the focus on an
afterworldly spiritual destiny - Tarnass
Western
worldview
Man no longer
appeared so
inconsequential relative
to God, the Church, or
nature.
Modern scientific
thinking, the
fundamental principles
are empiricism,
mathematics and
mechanics - Tarnass
Individualistic,
skeptical and secular
spirit of the modern
age and science
emerged as the
West’s new faith.
Empirical, rational, appealing to
common sense and to a concrete reality
that every person could touch and weigh
for himself.
The West has taken out God from their
equation of life and overly committed
to this life and this world -Salleh and
Ahmad

12. Western
Scientific
worldview
Reductionism
Epistemologically only recognise
observable knowledge
Soulless Empiricism
Positivist -
Comte
Objectivity
Scientism
Classical mechanistic
Newtonian-Cartesian
science
Universe is like a
huge physical
(material) machine
working on a
clockwork
mechanism
Human is viewed as a
machine - Descartes
To Comte, knowledge is limited to only the observable and human or people
were “social atoms” motivated by forces analogous to Newtonian physics
(Rosenblum and Kuttner, 2006).
Social Science underpinned by Scientism & Positivism

13. Worldview of Islam
It includes religious and spiritual issues dealing with God, the soul,
the unseen world, the angels, ilm al-mukashafah, and other
metaphysical subjects, as well as material or worldly issues (ilm al-mu’amalah)
– Al Ghazali
Islamic epistemology is both religious and other-worldly, and
materially oriented and this worldly
Islamic epistemology recognizes two sources of knowledge,
observed knowledge and revealed knowledge
Islamic epistemology is both wholeness and holiness.

14. Worldview of Islam
Soul and Spirit
Tawhidic/Oneness
God presence
Interconnectedness Universe
Vicegerency

15. EUROCENTRIC
WESTERN WORLDVIEW
GOD ABSENCE
SCIENCE AS RELIGION
MECHANISTIC
HUMAN
MECHANISTIC
UNIVERSE
OBSERVABLE
KNOWLEDGE
WORLDVIEW OF ISLAM
GOD PRESENCE
SOUL HUMAN
INTERCONNECTEDNESS
COSMOS
Humans follow command-control rules and
human behavior is predictable
CREATOR
OBSERVABLE AND
REVEALED KNOWLEDGE

16. LIFE : ISLAMIC WORLVIEW VS WESTERN WORLDVIEW
ISLAMIC WORLDVIEW OF LIFE WESTERN WORLDVIEW OF LIFE
LUH MAHFUZ
RAHIM
DUNIA
BARZAKH
AKHIRAT
RAHIM
DUNIA

17. SOCIAL SCIENCES AND MANAGEMENT STUDIES
Hobson (2004) established social sciences rooted in
Eurocentrism.
Management Studies are component of Social Sciences
Social science was influenced by positivism focusing on
knowledge based on actual positive sense experience and
avoiding the negative - Kuper, A., & Kuper, J. (1985). The
Social Science Encyclopaedia.
Auguste Comte divided science into Natural or Physical
Sciences (Science of Positivism) and Social Sciences.

18. SOCIAL SCIENCES AND MANAGEMENT STUDIES
The object of study of the social sciences is human being
(Iheriohanma, 2013).
Human from Western worldview is mechanistic human.
The underlying assumption of human is mechanistic
human, human as resource, homoeconomicus.
Classical Newtonian-Cartesian traditions like locality,
determinism, causality, value-free and objectivity, too,
became the pillars of management theories and the
philosophy of business – Salleh and Ahmad (2008)

19. BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT
Henry Fayol (1841-1925), one of the earliest management
theorists applied scientific approach to the management
problems he encountered (Brunsson, 2007).
Bearing in mind that scientific worldview of the West is based on the
classical Newtonian-Cartesian model.
Classical Newtonian-Cartesian traditions like locality, determinism,
causality, value-free and objectivity, too, became the pillars of
management theories and the philosophy of business – Salleh and
Ahmad (2008)

20. BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT
CONTROL WWV
MECHANISTIC HUMAN
to direct the behavior
to cause to do what you want
IWV
to have power over (something)
to direct the actions or function of
(something)
to cause (something) to act or function in a
certain way

21. BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

22. BUSINESS AND FREE WILL
Entrepreneurs were looked at as free agents who were free to
choose risky business in the hope for reward.
As free agents, people were assumed to behave in a rational
manner. Hence the underlying assumption of rationality prevailed.
Rationale = ratio = devoid of soul, Divine
Free will, from Western worldview, has no divine
intervention.
"the power of agents to be the ultimate creators
(or originators)
and sustainers of their own ends or purposes“ –
R.Kane (1996)
Free will = I can do anything I want

23. BUSINESS AND FREE WILL - WWV
Free will, from Western
worldview, has no
divine intervention.
Free will = I can do anything I want
"the power of agents to be the
ultimate creators (or originators)
and sustainers of their own ends or
purposes“ – R.Kane (1996)
Godless

24. UNDERLYING PHILOSOPHY OF ………..
FINANCE : Debt-based regime & money creation
Financing

25. UNDERLYING PHILOSOPHY OF FINANCE

26. UNDERLYING PHILOSOPHY OF ………..
LEGAL : Caveat emptor
Discover VS Disclose
Human as machines
With machines too, any defects could only
be known through discovery not disclosure

27. UNDERLYING PHILOSOPHY OF ………..
HUMAN
RESOURCE :
Human as resource
Utilitarian code
“products”, robots in
flesh
transparency and disclosure
ethos
“resources” to drive up the pace of
economic growth and national
“success”

28. UNDERLYING PHILOSOPHY OF ………..
Debt is considered as asset
God absence
Overly emphasize on the physical sense perception.
ACCOUNTING :
Who are the stakeholders?
Language of business
Which business
philosophy?
Enforce the concept of rationality
– Weber, Schumpeter, Sombart
Assist in the development of capitalist
methods of production– Weber, Schumpeter,
Sombart
Double-entry
bookkeeping
is essential to
the birth of
capitalism –
Sombart
(1916)

29. UNDERLYING PHILOSOPHY OF ………..
ECONOMY : Puts national economic development goals over individual
human development.
Capitalist
Globalisation
Marxism
Eurocentric/Western
Worldview
Economic
man
“Rational person who
pursues wealth for his
own self-interest “ –
John Stewart Mills,
Adam Smith, David
Ricardo