Islamic Values and Principles in the Organization : A Review of Literature

This paper attempts to review the literature on the Islamic values and principles in an organization, then presents the importance of its delineated dimensions. Two main theories of Islamic work ethics and practices are discussed comprehensively based on the Qur’anic verses as the ultimate source in Islamic thinking. The review includes the comparison between certain components’ implementations and the views of other religions in several countries. This reveals that each of dimensions are clearly functional in organizations. It suggests that Islamic emphasizes on commercial activities which denied the authors’ opinions on its’ teaching for not governing the materials aspect or success in business performance. The Islamic religion seeks to deliver the goodness to all mankind according to its rules and principles. The integrated system of the Islamic worldview encompasses all aspects of both worldly and hereafterincluding the aspect of business.


Introduction
Religion is one of the most influential social institutions that is significantly associated with people's attitudes, values and behaviours.It tells specifically the effects to the organization matters include on the managers and employees' approaches and decisions.Spilka et al. (2003) asserted that religion plays an inseparable role in numerous forms of human interactions.As a comprehensive religion, Islam governed all aspect of life as an integrated system that clearly stressed on the importance of its values and practices in order to seek Allah's blessings and mercy (rida).While, in business field, a combination of profit and mashlahah maximization would bring the business into achieving real success.
The researches examine both relationships of religious and work attitudes on the linkage at the individual or firm level (Niles, 1999).However, further works need to examine both relationship with other religion perspectives like in Islam.Table 1.below is the summary of the impact of the religious elements in an organization.(2002); Kale and Shrivastava (2003); Fleming (2004); Anderson (2005); Kinjerski & Skrypnek (2006); Milliman et al. (2003) Creativity, honesty and trust, personal fulfillment, commitment, motivation and job satisfaction, and organisational commitment.
Emotional development and spiritual competence, encouraged holistic ways of working, developed community at work, empowered the workforce and human society, risk aversion and ethics, stress management and career development.

Islamic Work Ethics (IWE)
The implementation of the Islamic ethics or akhlaqul karimah was the first message of Allah given to His Messenger, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).A Hadith clearly conveyed a message on the importance of akhlaqul karimah in Islam as narrated by Bukhari whereby: "I (Muhammad) have only been sent to complete good manners (Makarim Al-Akhlaq)" (Note 1).Ahmad (2006) has added that Muslims who wish to be granted the pleasure of Allah, may achieve this by applying the core values of ethics.
Islamic work ethics is rooted based on Al-Qur'an and Sunnah which concern with Islamic values, belief and practices (Arslan, 2005) which defined as the set of moral principles that differentiate what is right from what is wrong (Beekun, 1997).It inspires confidence in the workplace, reinforces social business responsibilities (Ali, 2005) and has a work-orientation as a virtue in human life (Rizk, 2008).These are also applied in any business applications and behaviors that every Muslims should observe and engage in as the servants of God (Beekun & Badawi, 2004) through hard working, commitment, dedication, work creativity, avoidance of wealth accumulation, cooperation and competitiveness at the work place (Yousef, 2001).It is noted that Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) encouraged Muslims to work as much on his/her ability (Ali, 2005).The IWEs' items are summarized in Table 2 as proposed by Ali (1988) and the reference in Al-Qur'an.Many studies conducted by the following authors, i.e.Al Habtoor (2001), Yousef (2001), Ali (2005), Ali and Al-Owaihan (2008) have concluded that the IWE contributes to higher performance and brings widespread prosperity and societal welfare.They also agree on the adoption of the IWE in managerial, business operations and economic activities.One of the popular measurement scales of Islamic work ethics was constructed by Ali (1988).He ran a test, among 150 Arab students in major universities in the United States.This scale has been used by researchers in both organizational and management contexts (Yousef, 2001;Rahman et al., 2006;Ali & Al-Kazemi, 2007;Khalil & Abu-Saad, 2009;Kumar & Rose, 2010).They conducted the studies in respective countries, such as the United Arab Emirate, Malaysia and Kuwait and concluded that the IWE is directly affected and that it has a strong relationship with organizational change, committment, and work satisfaction.However, in his in-depth interviews of 32 business people in Turkish SMEs, Uygur (2009) establishes that the IWE is not a significant factor for their attitudes.
Comparatively, the studies on work ethics of the conventional version have been conducted by Koh and Boo (2001) and Lambert and Hogan (2009) for the cases in Singapore and United States respectively, whereby work ethics has been indicated to have the largest impact on work satisfaction.However, Elkins (2007) argues that there is a weak correlation between work ethics and work satisfaction in relation to the Japanese manufacturing company.Regardless of the positive or negative findings in terms of studies on work ethics and success either in the conventional concept or the Islamic concept, Muslims are obliged to adopt the IWE as instructed in Al-Qur'an and Hadith.

Islamic Practices and Firm Performance
Islam is a universal religion that is meant for all human beings on earth and could be implemented at any time at all, while the word'comprehensive' relates to the complete and perfect teachings (syumul).This is stated in Al-Qur'an.Al-An'am 6:38.As stated earlier by Rivai et al. (2012) Islam has three pillars of tawheed, shariah and akhlaq.Ahmad (2006) briefly explains each of these three items; Tawheed is a basic belief of Muslim that means the establishment of the Unity of Allah; Shariah can be described as Muslims' code of conduct based on Al-Qur'an and Hadith; Akhlaq refers to the practice of virtue, morality and manners.A Muslim entreprenuer is required to have Tawheed as a total conviction to Allah as the Only Sustainer and the acceptance of His divine assistance that provides the Muslims with a source of security.The Tawheed paradigm can address the issue of integration in organisations and it provides an intellectual understanding of the unity of the creation and existence (Ahmad, 2006).This is asserted in the Al-Qur'an.Al-ikhlas 112:1 and Al-baqara 2:186.The involvement of Islam in business and management has been explained in detail.All of these influences of Islamic practices on an organisation aim at achieving al-falah (success in this world and the hereafter).This, therefore, negates the notion that Islam does not emphasize commercial activities or that it is unrelated to any of the organisational behaviors.Some studies on Islamic management practices in various countries are depicted in Table 3.
Table 3. Islamic management practice
Self-management, managing people, managing business transactions, and managing time Moursi (1995) Planning, collectivism, leading, competition and conflicts Jabnoun (1994); Al-Buraey (1990); Abu Sin (1981) Strategic Management Khalifa (2001) In regard to the implementation of Islamic practices, it prescribes an extensive set of ways and regulations based on the four servitude principles namely the devotion to God, a committed heart, truthful words, and rightful deeds (Angha, 2002).It is also a framework that shapes the behavior of one-fifth of the world's total population including those who are engaged in business and other facets of life across 50 countries (Jamaluddin, 2003).The reference from Al-Qur'an as the guidance on the adoption of Islamic practices is summarized in Table 4.  Ahmad (2006) and Rivai et al. (2012) In adopting Islamic practices, Muslims are driven by a kind of faith which is otherwise known as iman.Islam considers iman as the basic motivating factor for believers which determines their conscience.All business decisions must be guided by iman, which practically means abiding by the shariah law, engaging in the things that are permitted (halal), avoiding those thatare forbidden (haram) (Alawneh, 1998).Business decision makers are free to make choices, but religious principles provide a framework for the appropriate exercise of that choice (Ali & Gibbs, 1998).

Conclusion
The Islamic values and ethics are based on the statements in Al-Qur'an and Hadith that may be cited in other religious thoughts but the tawheedic view may differentiate between Muslims andother adherents.Those elements are seen to be able to be adopted in analyzing business performance in the organizations through their beneficial concepts and functions; however, the empirical studies which argue on, and compare between the Islamic and the conventional methods used by many researchers for years, should be conducted.The shariah-compliance concept should be superior to other concepts.Muslims are obliged to implement all elements as an act of an ibadah, aiming to get the rida'or blessings from Allah SWT in their life endeavours.

Table 1 .
The impact of religion elements to the organization

Table 4 .
The Islamic practices' sources from Al-Qur'an