Islamic Performance Instrument (IPI): An Alternative Servant Leadership (SL) tool for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Abstract

In the search for measures to keep the society sustained, a qualitative study was conducted to explore a Tawhidic Paradigm (TP) alternative for servant leaders, building upon Greenleaf servant leadership (SL) theory. The aim is to ground an Islamic Performance Instrument (IPI) favourable to sustainable development (SD). Adopting Charmaz's (2006) constructivist Grounded Theory Method (GTM), 5 Muslim managers were identified and interviewed through purposive sampling. The coding process produced an IPI-5es principles (expertise, ethereal, emotional, ethical and empowering) essentially required by servant leaders to transform SDGs around the globe. The Islamic constructs of �Aqidah (Creed), Khalifa (Vicegerent) and �Adl (Justice) were critical in grounding these principles. Theoretically, the research outcome contributes to� body of knowledge on Tawhidic Paradigm (TP) and Islamic Servant Leadership (ISL). This paper projects leaders forming polices that synchronizes meeting SDGs with spiritual responsibilities. Practically, it offers leaders the ideal purpose of SL: servitude to the Creator � (Allah) and, also to humanity (fulfilling SDGs), as against the conventional SL theory which excludes the former. By implication, TP projects service to humanity (SDGs) as acts of worship (Ibadah). The paper was limited by fewer GTM research on Islamic SL principles for SDGs. Future study may conduct a time series analysis on servant leaders imbued with IPI-5es principles to determine SDGs success rate. The paper offers a pioneer model (IPI-5es principles) that extends conventional SL theory for SD.

Islamic Leadership for Sustainability: A Systematic Literature Review Using Prisma

“…However, the Islamic leadership has distinct features because it is closely linked to a tawhidic paradigm that is a declaration of the absolute oneness of Allah (Ogunsola et al, 2020;Senam et al, 2014) and Islamic spiritual values such as taqwa that is being cognizant of Allah (Tahir, 2020). These values guided the Islamic leaders in their rulings and practices that are consistent with the adherence to the Islamic legal texts of the Qur'an and the Hadith (Ab.…”

“…In general, it appears that many publications highlighted immediate problems faced by the society and priorities of the leaders to solve the issues as the main purpose of the literature. These publications operationalised sustainability or sustainable development as an indirect objective or merely as a mission statement compared to few literature that specifically focused on sustainable development goals (e.g., see Ogunsola et al, 2020;Rashed & Shah, 2021;Tahir, 2020).…”

“…Other reasons that motivate the Islamic leaders to focus on sustainability were community resistance and prevailing misconceptions about reproductive healthcare in Pakistan (Ahmed et al, 2021); leadership crisis that affected the re-development process of the state in Iraq (Ali et al, 2020); searching for alternative leadership measures to sustain the society in Malaysia (Ogunsola et al, 2020); limited implementation of environmental law in current Islamic legal system in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia (Ramlan, 2020); gender stereotyping and unfavourable attitudes about women and their abilities in Bangladesh (Asadullah et al, 2019); the stigma of fearing Islam as a political instrument to mobilise political parties in Europe such as in Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy, and Greece (Kaya & Tecmen, 2019); insufficient skilled labour force and leadership development practices for Arab leaders (Khattab & Wong, 2018); challenges on poverty, hunger, unemployment that pose serious threats to national security and sustainable development in Nigeria (Abdurraheem & Suraju, 2018); global poverty as major challenges for political leadership across countries (Amir-ud-Din et al, 2018); challenges to implement environmental compliance requirements among the Arab countries (Abdelzaher & Abdelzaher, 2017); Islamic resistance movement in Lebanon (Marusek, 2018); and the gendering of Palestinian citizenship (Jad, 2011a). Therefore, this study found that Islamic leaders had various concerns in relation to sustainable development efforts ranging from individual capacity building to political group influence, to sustainable organisational performance, and national socioeconomic development in general.…”

“…A study conducted by Ogunsola et al (2020) emphasised the role of Islamic leaders to form policies that synchronise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with spiritual responsibilities. The study adopted a constructivist grounded theory method and tested an Islamic Performance Instrument (IPI) among Muslim managers from various industries such as information technology, construction, legal, banking, oil, and gas industry.…”

“…Leaders with Islamic orientation are also expected to engage with today's global agenda that focuses on sustainable growth in every social, economic, and environmental context. However, the state of knowledge about Islamic-oriented leadership in relation to sustainability appears limited and specifically fewer research available on Islamic leadership principles for sustainable development goals (Ogunsola et al, 2020;Rashed & Shah, 2021;Tahir, 2020). Although there has been a growing interest in the Islamic leadership concept in recent years, the role of Islamic leadership in promoting sustainable practices is not well explored (Bakar, 2010;Karia, 2020;Rashed & Shah, 2021).…”