Your task is to offer a detailed critique of a peer-reviewed article that you locate in the CSU Online Library. The article must be related to one of the historic approaches to organizational behavior discussed in Chapter 1 of the course textbook (e.g., scientific management, humanistic, positive organizational scholarship).

In your critique, address the following points:

• Identify the main points and arguments of the author(s).
• Support your opinion of the article with course-related terminology.
• Assess how the article relates to your experience or current job in the public or nonprofit sector.
• Evaluate how the points or arguments of the author or authors can be applied to the public sector.

Your focus of this assignment is to collect your thoughts and opinions on the topic and relate them in an intelligent, critical fashion. This is represented by the second and third bullet above.

Your critique must be at least two pages in length. Adhere to APA Style when constructing this assignment, including in-text citations and references for all sources that are used. Please note that no abstract is needed.

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SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT THEORY: A CRITICAL
REVIEW FROM ISLAMIC THEORIES OF

ADMINISTRATION1

Jafar Paramboor
Mohd Burhan Ibrahim

Abstract

Early management theory consisted of numerous attempts at getting
to know some newcomers to industrial life at the end of the
nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, in
Europe and United States. As far as these newcomers were
concerned, almost all fields of industry expected that they could open
a new way of pattern in the area of conceptualizing the management
field with new ideas and thoughts. One of these newcomers was the
scientific management theory, the theory of Frederic Winslow Taylor
(1896-1915). This paper is a critical review on scientific
management theory looking from the descriptive and normative
angles of Islamic theories of administration. Starting from the
background of the author, and his theory, the paper highlights some
of the criticisms arose from the West, followed by Islamic dimensions
on the theory of administration, focusing on the individual and social
aspects. The paper argues that the values should be taken from
Islamic theories of administration which refers to the present world
as well as hereafter. Further, some of the implications and possible
areas of practicing Islamic theory of administration in higher
education management are presented.

Keywords: Scientific Management Theory, Islamic Theories of
Administration, Shurah, Adl, Itqan, Fard Kifayah, Khilafah

1 Article received: August 2018; Article submitted: November 2018; Article
accepted: December 2018

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Introduction

The fundamental aim of management should be to ensure the
maximum prosperity for the employer as well as the employee. The
term “maximum prosperity” refers to not only large dividends for the
company or owner, but also the development of every branch of the
business to its highest state of quality, so that the prosperity may be
permanent. Likewise, maximum prosperity to the employee refers to
not only higher wages than are usually received by them, but also to
the development of each man to his state of maximum competence,
so that he may be capable of doing the highest grade of work
according to his natural potentials.2

Early management theory consisted of numerous attempts at
getting to know some newcomers to industrial life at the end of the
nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, in
Europe and United States. As far as these newcomers were
concerned, almost all the field of industry expected that they could
open a new pattern in the area of conceptualizing management field
with new ideas, and thoughts. One of these newcomers was the
scientific management theory, the theory of Frederic Winslow Taylor
(1896-1915).3

Taylor rested his philosophy on four basic principles:
1. The development of a true science of management so that the

best method for performing each task could be determined.
2. The Scientific selection of workers so that the each worker

would be given responsibility for the task for which he or she
was best suited.

3. The scientific education and development of workers.
4. Intimate friendly cooperation between management and

laborers.

By analyzing these four principles in the light of literature

some of the fundamental concepts of the scientific management
theory could be detailed. Scientific management theory arose in part
from the need to increase productivity. In the United States

2 Robert Kanigel, “Taylor-Made (19th-Century Efficiency Expert Frederick
Taylor),” The Sciences 37, no. 3 (1997): 1–5.
3 Ibid.

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especially, skilled laborers was in short supply at the beginning of the
twentieth century. The only way to expand the productivity was to
raise the efficiency of workers. Therefore, Frederick W. Taylor,
Henry Gantt, and Frank and Lillian Gilberth devised the body of
principles known as scientific management theory. The success of
these principles required “a complete mental revolution” on the part
of management and laborers. In other words, he believed that both
the laborer and the management have a role-which is called a
common interest-in increasing productivity in any organization; and
this should be done without any disputes between the two.4

Taylor based his management system on production line time
studies. Instead of relying on traditional work methods, he analyzed
and timed a number of workers’ movements while they were
performing various jobs. Using time study, he broke each job down
into its components and designed the quickest and best method of
performing each component. He also encouraged employers to pay
more productive workers higher rate than others using a
“scientifically correct” rate that would benefit both the company and
workers. Thus, the workers were urged to surpass their previous
performance standards to earn more pay. He called this initiative as
differential rate system.

The fundamental principles of scientific management are
applicable to all kinds of human actions; to the management of our
homes, farms, business, religious institutions, universities, colleges,
schools, other formal and informal types of educational institutions,
and governmental departments.5 Taylor argued that the principles
could be applied almost universally. Not only did his thinking have
an impact on various fields, but also Taylor’s scientific management
served as a conceptual reference point for many school leadership
and reform movements.6 In many ways, Taylor was not merely the
father of scientific management, but he also normalized a way of

4 Ibid.
5 Carl R. Metzgar, “The Principles of Scientific Management/The One Best Way:
Frederick Winslow Taylor & the Enigma of Efficiency,” Professional Safety, (2004):
49.
6 David B. Tyack, The One Best System: A History of American Urban Education
(Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1974).

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thinking about the nature of technology. By introducing his
technological perspectives, he envisioned that the present and future
generations could overcome the problems of the past. However,
looking into an ethical and value-based perspective, specifically from
Islamic theories of administration, this paper finds a concluding
answer to whether or not Taylor was aware of the mentioned
dimensions.

About the Author

Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) was born in Germantown,
Pennsylvania on March 20. He was the son of a prosperous, rich
lawyer and mother who traced her Puritan ancestral background to an
ancestor in Plymouth, Massachusetts who had immigrated to this
country in the year 1629.7 Fredrick or Fred, as he was often called,
was encouraged by his family to follow his father into the law
profession. He attended Phillips Exeter to prepare for the Harvard
law exams and with hard work he soon passed the exams with
honors.

At this point in his career, for some reasons Fred chose to or
was forced to turn away from entering Harvard law school because of
poor health and eyesight. Instead, sometime around 1874, Fred took
up a four-year position as an apprentice pattern maker and machinist
with the Enterprise Hydraulic Works of Philadelphia. There were
some thoughts that his move from law school to another level, zero
wage apprenticeship, was perhaps not because of his lack of eyesight
but a result of his thinking that he should not remain in his father’s
choice of a profession for him.8 Fred embarked on an apprenticeship
in manufacturing that would lead to a lifetime career always close to
manufacturing. Then after, Fred moved from Enterprise Hydraulic
Works to Midvale Steel as a common day laborer in 1878. From

7 Paul L. Govekar, and Michele A. Govekar, “The Parable of the Pig Iron: Using
Taylor’s Story to Teach the Principles of Scientific Management,” Journal of Higher
Education Theory and Practice 12, no. 2 (2012): 73–83.
8 Lewis A. Myers Jr., “One Hundred Years Later: What Would Frederick W. Taylor
Say?” International Journal of Business & Social Science 2, no. 20 (2011): 8–11;
Daniel A. Wren, and Arthur G. Bedeian, The Evolution of Management Thought
(New York: Wiley, 2008).

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there, he immediately got promoted from common day laborer to
clerk, to machinist running a lathe, to gang boss of all lathe
machinists. Three years later, he became foreman of the machine
shop; next he was promoted to master mechanic in charge of repairs
and maintenance throughout the plant, and finally to chief engineer
all in the short period of six years.9 During his time at Midvale,
Taylor enrolled in a correspondence course offered by Stevens
Institute of Technology of Hoboken, New Jersey. Taylor attended
Stevens only to take examinations, and graduated with a degree in
Mechanical Engineering in 1883.

In the following part of this paper, the background of the
theory and the main idea of the critique will be elucidated, by
presenting some of its weaknesses. The main idea of the theory to be
criticized comes from the Islamic point of view as everything has to
be a permanent value to be judged from here in order to smoothly
survive in the hereafter. As far as the scientific management theory is
concerned the paper argues that the value and ethics in both holistic
and atomistic perspectives lacks when it comes to the individual and
social role of human as an administrator, being both manager and
employee.

Background of Scientific Management Theory

As mentioned earlier, there are certain fundamental principles for
scientific management theory, as Taylor has highlighted throughout
his different works. Firstly, he states about upbringing of the true
science of management in any field of employment, so that the
method of performance for each task can be easily determined.
Through this concept, Taylor suggested that a true and clear picture
of the notion of science in the management field should be raised in
order to keep the current and further betterment of the employee as
well as the employer.10 It is emphasized that the worker should
always be approached in a cooperative manner, unlike other theories
of management like that of bureaucracy. Then only the employer can

9 Tyack, The One Best System . . .
10 Frederick Winslow Taylor, The Principles of Scientific Management (New York:
Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1911).

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expect some creative outcomes from the former throughout his whole
performance.

Secondly, the author articulates on the selection of the workers
and employees in a scientific manner and he justifies this principle
contenting that there will be a proper distribution of the
responsibilities to the employees. To put it differently, each one of
the workers is to be given the best suited tasks and they have the
responsibility of undertaking it. The selection will be in a scientific
context, and as such, it differs from other competing theories.

Thirdly, the scientific education and development of the
workers are emphasized. According to Taylor, it is important to have
a grip or supporting system for better education and the development
of the employee. In a broad sense, the author meant that the physical
and mental development of the worker has to be always prioritized.

The final dimension of the theory is an intimate friendly
cooperation between the laborer and the employee. This principle is
closely related to the welfare of the employee and relationships with
his master as both the worker and the employer have to be in a
cooperative manner. Here, the absence of a relationship with the
permanent reality, the God, makes things contradictory to the Islamic
conception of an ideal administration process. That is to say, while the
theorist conceptualized an intimate relation and cooperation with the
employee, he has ignored the other end of the hierarchy with regards to
the relation, which is faith and trust in God. To comprehend this point,
the Islamic concept of administration of khilafah, which refers to the
idea vicegerency to God, will be briefly explained while discussing the
third implication of this review paper.

Critical Review on Scientific Management Theory from Islamic

Theories of Administration

A significant amount of literature is available on scientific
management theory. However, the dearth regarding some critical
reviews on the theory from an Islamic point of view still exists
despite the factual significance, strength and weakness of the theory
is found in previous literatures which have discussed the theory from
different angles. The following part highlights some of the criticisms

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from the available literature and demonstrates the stance of Islam
with regards to administration and related theories.

Both the Qur’an and Sunnah (the Prophetic tradition) consider
administration as a sort of obligation with which a man needs to fill
the gap between him and his surroundings. The surroundings here
can be referred to his own individual range of living and also his
social grounds that make him a ‘living man’. As indicated by Prophet
Muhammad, everybody plays the part of an administrator amid his
life compass. It makes him answerable everlastingly and he will be
gotten some information about it in hereafter.

The limitedness, flexibility and openness11 inclined with the
two mentioned references of Islam provide chances for the
researchers to conceptualize all human-related actions within an
Islamic framework, creating and locating the necessity of human life
in its proper place. Thus, using both of these references the scholars
of Islam have been ready to find out the theoretical frameworks for
the administrative strategies in Islam. Finding out new ideas without
making any contradiction with Shari’ah was specifically true in the
case of political and administrative systems for which the verses of
the Qur’an narrations from the Prophet are limited, broad, that is
holistic in nature,12 and flexible which can be interpreted according
to situatedness. This fact leads the researchers to conceptualize
Islamic values and moral dimensions inculcated in sovereignty,
fundamental rights, the security of life, principles of the state,
government and administration, rights of the states over the citizens,
the administration of justice, international relation matters, and the
principles of negotiation (shurah).

Looking from Western perspectives, some negative
impressions from both employers and employees regarding scientific
management theory have been identified.13 The foremost thing is
unemployment. Workers feel that management reduces employment

11 Muhammad Abdullah Al-Buraey, Administrative Development, an Islamic
Perspective: The Possible Role of the Islamists in Development of the Muslim World
(London: KPI. 1981).
12 Ibid.
13 Stephen P. Waring, Taylorism Transformed: Scientific Management Theory Since
1945 (North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1994).

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opportunities from them through replacement workers. By increasing
human productivity, fewer workers are needed to do work. In fact,
they as workers are insecure in their posts and they always have the
thought of less chance of surviving. For the betterment of the
productivity as well as the creativity, the safety and security of the
employee in terms of his job opportunity is important. 14 The
negotiation (shurah)15 aspect of Islam contrasts with the theory in
this respect. In administration field, the leader has an accountability
of consulting his followers whenever a decision is going to be made.
This is to avoid all potential disparities among the former and later.
Negotiation is one of the characteristics of an ideal leader, as God has
admonished His messenger (3: 159) to consult his followers in
matters.16

Exploitation is another issue which lies in this particular
theory.17 Workers always feel that, they are being exploited as they
are not given due share in increasing profits which is due to their
productivity. Wages do not rise in proportion as rise in production.
Wage payment creates uncertainty and insecurity in them. That is to
say without a standard outcome, there is no any guarantee of
increasing their wage rate. This is in contrast with the Islamic
concept of giving reasonable wage to the employee before his sweats
wet out of his body. The productive way of allowing reasonable
wage, which is due to the right of the labour, is to be undertaken by
the employer. Otherwise, the ethics and values with regards to the

14 M. Thenmozhi, “Evolution of Management Theory.” National Programme on
Technology Enhanced Learning, 2007, https://nptel.ac.in/courses/IIT-MADRAS/
Management_Science_I/Pdfs/1_2 .
15 Ahmad Al-Raysuni, A- Shura: The Qur’anic Principle of Consultation (Herndon,
VA: International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2012); Niklas Potrafke, “Islam and
Democracy,” Public Choice 151, no. 1-2 (2012): 185–92, doi:10.1007/s11127-
010-9741-3.; “The Principle of Shura and the Role of the Umma in Islam,”
I-Epistemology. Accessed November 30, 2015. http://i-epistemology.net/politics-a-
government/330-the-principle-of-shura-and-the-role-of-the-umma-in-islam .;
“Shura/Consultation: A Strategy For Governance,” Forum on Public Policy.
Accessed November 30, 2015. http://forumonpublicpolicy. com/ summer09/
archivesummer09/mansir .)
16 Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Meanings of the Holy Qur ’ an, (Brentwood,
Md.:Amana Corp, 1992).
17 Waring, Taylorism Transformed . . .

https://nptel.ac.in/courses/IIT-MADRAS/

http://forumonpublicpolicy/

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laborer would be neglected. This idea derives from the Prophetic
tradition, as he has been reported saying that ‘Pay those who work
for you their wages as soon as they have completed their work, even
before their sweat dries.’18

In spite of these mentioned weaknesses, negligence of
employee unions is also a problem in the scientific management
theory, according to the perspectives of workers. It is viewed19 that
everything is fixed and predetermined by management. Therefore, it
leaves no room for unions to bargain as everything is standardized
such as standard output, standard working conditions, and standard
time. This creates a rift between efficient and inefficient workers
according to their wage differences. As for the workers, they do not
want the powerless unions so that they cannot achieve their proposed
goals in developing their organizational culture and behavior. The
fixed and fully structured nature of an organization will decrease the
creativity among workers and both the capable and incapable
workers will have to be maximized to the same root of behavior
without having a proper agenda of behavioral progression in their
institution. This will gradually lead to the worst outcome of the
organization causing an imbalance among the laborers.

In Islamic worldview, this is referred to a situation of injustice
whereby, equal treatment to employers in same range lacks. The
concept of adl,20 which means justice, plays a key role in assuring
that the laborers are being treated with equal importance to everyone
as an organizational member. The Qur’an has emphasized on
practicing justice in every human action, including administrative
matters; it is viewed as a regular social practice in Islamic way of
life, where all human beings have the right to get justice from the
authority irrespective of any demographic variations. This is
manifested in the following verses of the Qur’an:

18 Muhammad ibn Yazid ibn Majah, Sunan Ibn-I-Mājah (Delhi: Kitab Bhavan,
2003).
19 Carl Metzgar, “The Principles of Scientific Management . . .
20 “Islamic Concepts of Justice and Injustice,” Oxford Scholarship Online. Accessed
November 30, 2015. http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/
9780198298854.001.0001/acprof-9780198298854-chapter-9.

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“O ye who believe! Be ye staunch in justice, witnesses
for Allah, even though it be against yourselves or (your)
parents or (your) kindred, whether (the case be of) a rich
man or a poor man, for Allah is nearer unto both (than
ye are). So follow not passion lest ye lapse (from truth)
and if ye lapse or fall away, then lo! Allah is ever
informed of what ye do.”21

In addition to this, the Qur’an talks against exploiting human being,
without giving any value or freedom of rights, as follows:

“Verily We have honored the children of Adam. We
carry them on the land and the sea, and have made
provision of good things for them, and have preferred
them above many of those whom We created with a
marked preferment.”22

These verses highlight the cardinal place of human on this planet as a
minimal form of divine attributes. Therefore, Islam opposes the
negligence of human values, taking labor from others regardless of
their emotional dimensions as human beings. Allah has given respect
to mankind because of his intellect and maturity.23 In other words,
the scientific management theory violates the dignity of human kind,
his freedom of expression, rights of a laborers, justice and fairness
and right of choice, when it comes to the predetermination of
management policies by authority.

The theory of scientific management is time consuming, 24
because it always needs mental revision and in times it may require
complete reorganizing of the institution. A lot of time is required for
work, study, standardization of the firm and its specialization. While
the workers proceed giving their energy to make the institutions
productive, they have to suffer concentrating the overloaded entities

21 Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Meanings of the Holy Qur ’ an . . .
22 Ibid.
23 Abu Al-Hasan ‘Ali Ibn Muhammad Ibn Habib Mawardi, Al-Nukat Wa Al- ’Uyun,
(n.p: Turath For Solutions, 2013), https://drive.google.com/file/d/
0Bw9eKauIMdWPVnk0R0ZLM05xaFk/view?ts=565c25ea. 2015)
24 Robert Kanigel, “Taylor-Made . . .

https://www.google.com.my/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Abu+Al-Hasan+%27Ali+Ibn+Muhammad+Ibn+Habib+Mawardi%22

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within the organization. 25 This makes difficulties even in their
personal matters. Time consuming works lead to deterioration of the
quality of the product as well as the institution. 26 The quality is
determined in every field by looking to the outcome of the firm. As for
various disciplines of business and management, such as accounting
cost control, compensation management, human resources
management, organized laborer relations, operations process control
management, operations service sector management, quality
management, and technology management, the quality of the product
and the organizations is a much concerned entity. In Islamic
worldview, itqan, which is being perfect in quality,27 is in line with
promoting quality in work. Moving towards excellence is normatively
presented in the following Prophetic idea that Allah loves those who
do things perfectly. This implies that once timeframe influences
negatively on quality of work, it should be solved accordingly.

Although the Western theories of administration make the
headways towards a better understanding and contribute to
developing performance, these theories have their own shortcomings
as some of them focus only on economic motives.28 In other words,
workers are not allowed to get their rights and human needs. Some
others emphasize on organizational aspects ignoring the ethics and
values to be inculcated in an institution. This will consequently lead
to corruption in political, religious, ethical and personal connections,
and exploitation and abuse of administrative positions.

Al-Buraey has criticized these theories, including scientific
management theory, highlighting three negative factors. Firstly,
almost all Western theories ignore the morals and ethical values
without placing the ultimate reality, the God, in the highest position of

25 M. Thenmozhi, “Evolution of Management Theory . . .
26 Metzgar, “The Principles of Scientific Management . . .
27 Ahmad A. Ajarimah, “Major Challenges of Global Leadership in the
Twenty-First Century,” Human Resource Development International 4, no.1 (2001):
9–19, doi:10.1080/13678860122512.; Abdi O. Shuriye, and Ibrahim A. Adam, “The
Concept of Itqan and Culture in Muslim Professional Life,” in Ethics of Engineering
Education, ed. Abdi O. Shuriye, Ahmad Faris Ismail, and Azweeda Dahakan @
Ghazali (Kuala Lumpur: IIUM Press, 2009), 99–105.
28 Ali Mohd Jubran Saleh, Educational Administration: An Islamic Perspective
(Kuala Lumpur: A.S. Nordeen, 2002).

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value-hierarchy. Although he admits that only certain theories are
exceptional from this, these exceptional cases are not considering
values and morals from a religious perspective, which give emphasis
on the other worldly life. Rather, they are labeled as universal ethics
which has no permanent existence in the case of human narrative.
Looking from Islamic point of view, if the values are underpinned by
religious norms, the believers, in this case the workers can ensure their
moral aspects of living as responsible employees.

Secondly, Western theories have studied the administration
separating it from an individualistic perspective. That is to say, the
environmental changes have not affected the existence and practice
of any of these theories which lead to the negligence of changes
occurred in individual behavior.

Thirdly, he states, a holistic approach toward the Western
theories of administration, including scientific management theory,
have severely lacked throughout all the studies conducted. Western
theories are based on micro studies. For instance, scientific
management theory concentrated mainly on the economic factors and
regarded them as the major motivation for the organizational
community members. This view is in line with the view29 that,
Western theories do not interfere with religion, whereby intrinsic
motivational aspects have a significant role to play. In Islamic
ideology, a Muslim is entrusted with certain duties and
responsibilities to fulfill, and intrinsically motivated by mainly two
primary sources which are Qur’an and Prophetic traditions. The
Divine and Prophetic promises for those who fulfill their duties in
proper manner are expected from hereafter, which implies the
material benefits are not worthy compared to the other world. Thus,
there should be an ultimate goal for both the employee and employer,
which is fulfilling their respective duties to satisfy their God.

Mintzberg argues, as he was a great critic of Taylor, that the
social values are left behind in scientific management theory, being
the workers are always forced to focus merely on the efficiency and

29 Thomas Kenneth Frizelle, “Developing a Critical Dialog for Educational
Technology: Understanding the Nature of Technology and the Legacy of Scientific
Management in Our Schools” (PhD dissertation, University of Washinton, 2012).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mintzberg

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productivity. 30 Consequently, less quantifiable social benefits are
overloaded. Social values are not to be ignored by any means as
human is a social animal with a nature of dependence on his
surrounding humans. That is why the concept of fardh kifayah
(collective obligation) has a key part in Islamic worldview, as it
manifests the collective responsibility of a society other than
individual liabilities.31 Once fardh kifayah is fulfilled by a group,
everyone in the society is rewarded as part of the Divine justice.
Hence, social values, which lead to social justice, are positively
approached from Islamic theories of administration.

Implications

Based upon the known facts, shortcomings and negative impressions
about the theory of scientific management specifically, and western
theories in general, we can make the following points comparing the
theories with Islamic concept of administration: Firstly, the scientific
management theory has no any ultimate value or goals while Islamic
administration theories have absolute and clear values and goals,
relating the concept of responsibility, justice and collective obligation
with complete Islamic code of ethics.

Secondly, the theory proposed by Taylor is materialistic in
nature, without concerns on the spiritual dimensions of individual as
well as the society. Islamic theories of administration oppose this
concept as it always emphasizes on true belief in akhirah (hereafter)
which reminds the believer about the ultimate goal to accomplish. In
other words, akhirah should be a way for the believer to be
intrinsically motivated while performing his duty as an administrator
as well as a laborer.

Thirdly, the theory concentrates on the relationship between
the administrator and the worker while Islam has a permanent view
of making the relationship not only between the worker and employer
but also between them and the ultimate reality i.e., God. The notion

30 Henry Mintzberg, “The Case for Corporate Social Responsibility,” Journal of
Business Strategy 4, no. 2 (1983): 3–15, doi:10.1108/eb039015.
31 “Fard Al-Kifayah,” Oxford Islamic Studies Online. Accessed November 30, 2015.
http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e625.

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of vicegerency 32 proposes that, everyone of the mankind is a
khalifah, vicegerent and representative of God to implement justice
and proper conduct on the earth. Thus, once a man comes to
existence, his nature seeks a spiritual connection between himself and
his God before any other connections take place. The process of
being a khalifah starts from the moment and it continues until the
other world, akhirah. The point is that the primary concern of any
khalifah should be to revive his particular connectedness with God,
which may happen through different ways. In the case of an
employer and employee, this happens through a sense of
acknowledgement and mutual respect which are to be timely
cultivated and nourished.

Possible Areas to Practise Islamic Theories of Administration in

Higher Education Management

The theoretical dimensions of Islamic theories of administration
indicate that for the purpose of quality assurance in higher education
sector, it is by all means practical to enact each of these aspects.
However, it cannot be overlooked that there is a need to have
experienced leaders with adequate knowledge and skills in Islamic
theories at least in its minimal form. The flexibility and holistic
approach of Islamic worldview toward the field of administration
enlarge the scope for the practitioners, planners, and policy makers of
higher education institutions to apply and envision an Islamic, yet
universal way of practicing the theory. Based on this assumption, the
following section of this paper proposes some plausible areas of
practicing the mentioned dimensions of Islamic theories pertaining to
administration, in higher education management field.

Shurah (negotiation): With regards to the management of
higher education, to conceptualize and implement this particular
dimension is a collective responsibility for all members of the
administrative body as well academic and non-academic staff. In
other words, the role of the administrative authority is to provide
each of the organizational members adequate chances for

32 Fadzli Adam, “The Concept Of Khilafah According To Selected Sunni And
Shi’i Qur’anic Commentaries”, (PhD dissertation, University of Leeds, 2001).

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consultation and negotiation. Once, the former have fulfilled this
criteria, it can be asserted that they have gone through the process of
fulfilling fard kifayah, of which all the members of institutional
community are in charge. In the case of the followers, here the
academic and non-academic staff, they should initiate to have a
culture of negotiation, not only among themselves, but also between
them and their authority in order to avoid possible disparities
between the two. This would possibly decrease the level of
bureaucracy in any organization as both groups of the leaders and
followers apply a standard way of communication.

Adl (justice): Conceptualizing justice is easy; however, when it
comes to practice, especially in organizational contexts whereby
social interactions are frequent, the theories often fail. Nevertheless,
its normative importance is comparatively greater than all other
dimensions discussed. Practising justice should be a culture of
administrative body while they deal with any area of managing their
institution, for instance, in the promotion of staffs, giving wages and
allowances, and asking for overtime jobs.

Itqan (being perfect or at least excellent in nature): This is
more related to the internal and external quality assurance of any
higher educational institution. Institutional quality-oriented culture,
institutional strategic marketing, faculty competencies and practices,
traditional academic values, contemporary ethos, enrollment of
students and their contributions to learning, competitiveness of
students, learning experience, and social-cultural orientation are
among the notable factors of quality assurance.33 In order for the
institutions to be competitive in performance, implementing a culture
of itqan in all these dimensions is a need in higher education
management context.

Itqan is also applicable to human resource management of
higher education institutions. The administrators should be concerned
with recruiting the best potential candidates who are suitable for
performing the assigned task in the best possible way. This would
automatically influence the institutional quality performance.

33 Peter Materu, Higher Education Quality Assurance in Sub-Saharan Africa
Practices Higher Education Quality Assurance in Sub-Saharan Africa (Washington
DC: The World Bank, 2007).

JAFAR PARAMBOOR

336

Khilafah (the vicegerency approach): This aspect is practical in
relation to the management body as well as the institutional staff in a
sense that both should be aware of the supreme authority, God, who
has appointed them to play their role as his vicegerents. Being aware
of God, who is at the highest level of management hierarchy, would
ease the proper development of mutual recognition and cooperation
among the organizational members. This would also ease the process
of envisioning the ultimate purpose, of an individual as a vicegerent
of God, which is satisfying the later by fulfilling his expectations in
all possible ways. Thus, as for the administrators, they should
perform at their highest level in fulfilling all the individual and social
needs of their staff in an organizational context whereas the staff
should do justice to their tasks assigned to them with proper conduct.

Conclusion

Presented here is a critical view on the theory of scientific
management looking from the Islamic theories of administration. The
theory has been criticized by previous literatures, mainly from the
West, due to several reasons including the problem of
unemployment, exploitation of laborers, negligence of employee
union as well as human values, problem of time constraint and mere
focus on economic motives, lack of holistic approach, and negligence
of social values. By critically analyzing all these negative aspects
referring to the concept of shurah, adl, itqan, and khilafah, some of
the remarkable dimensions in the administrative theories of Islam,
this paper found that scientific management theory has also ignored
the concept of justice, trust, love, empathy, humility, from an
individualistic perspective, and awareness of a collective
responsibility, ultimate purpose, and superior authority from an
holistic perspective. Hence, it could be argued that in order to avoid a
spiritual vacuum which is prevalent in all types of organizational
settings, the mentioned dimensions should be positively practised in
at least Islamic higher educational institutions.

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