If you hang around management theory long enough you will generally see the same models tweaked, re badged and relaunched as the next best thing. You will also come to realise that many of the questions we are grappling with today are essentially no different to what managers were addressing 50 years ago. It’s just a question of scale and the speed of change that is different.
So the idea of reinventing the wheel is not that controversial – it happens all the time. But over the last decade what I have come to realise is that this reinvention does not extend just to the last 50 or even 100 years. It goes back much further than that – in fact over 1400 years. Much of the ‘modern’ thinking and theory on management and leadership is consistent with very basic and fundamental principles of Islam which the Prophet Muhamed (saws) expounded in the 7th century. So for all the Islamophobes out there be prepared to throw out all these practices if you are also set on opposing everything that is Islam.
This is particularly so once you get into the areas of Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility. In future posts I’ll expand on my thinking on this whole concept
Sakinah 