Ethical Challenges of Development in Organization from Islam Perspective

Abstract

The ethical challenges of development in organizations from the perspective of Islam are complex, persistent, and emerging issues that each society and organization must seek to understand, analyze, and explain in accordance with their culture, values, and ethical standards. This article, using thematic analysis research methodology, attempts to identify the ethical challenges of development in organizations from an Islamic perspective. After extensive examination of Islamic sources, the researcher has determined that the ethical challenges of development in organizations from an Islamic perspective can be categorized under more than 120 fundamental themes at three levels: belief, behavior, and organizational structure. These challenges are identified as anti-development themes. Challenges at the belief level include fatalism, condemnation of worldly life, asceticism, contentment, patience, acceptance and submission, superstition, nostalgia, ancestor worship, and rigid traditionalism. Anti-development behaviors include dogmatism, violence, sectarianism, political movements, internal discord, fragmentation, tribalism, apathy, negligence, and resistance to modernization. Anti-development structures consist of authoritarianism, totalitarianism, and centralized governance. The most significant challenges contributing to the lack of development and progress in organizations and societies are: at the belief level -condemnation of worldly life, fatalism, superstition, nostalgia, and rigid traditionalism; at the behavioral level -dogmatism, violence, negligence, resistance to modernization, and tribalism; and at the structural level -authoritarianism, totalitarianism, and centralized governance, which have played a major role in the underdevelopment of organizations in Islamic countries.