Organizational moral learning by spiritual hearts: a synthesis of organizational learning, Islamic and critical realist perspectives

Whole-of-Nation Moral Learning by Spiritual Hearts: A Case of Brunei’s Transformation to tackle the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…An alternative approach to understanding organizational moral learning is offered by Tarip ( 2020 ), involving the spiritual heart using three perspectives: organizational learning, Islamic and critical realist perspectives. The author utilized the 4I organizational learning framework (Crossan et al, 1999 ) to understand the knowledge flow between the individual, group, and organizational levels; the Islamic perspective explains the noetic of the spiritual heart in line with the traditional (al-Ghazālī, 2007) and contemporary sciences, suited to understand the dynamism of moral learning and action; and the critical realist perspective, as a meta-philosophy (Bhaskar, 2012 ), bridges between Islamic and contemporary sciences.…”

“…All three perspectives underlined the importance of knowledge and learning for change. Tarip ( 2020 ) then conceptualized two antagonistic processes for organizational moral development: on one extreme is organizational moral learning by virtuous hearts, defined as ‘the principal means of moral, strategic renewal of an organization towards achieving a moral end’; and on the other extreme is organizational immoral learning by corrupted hearts, defined as ‘the principal means of immoral strategic renewal of an organization towards achieving an immoral end.’ These two are at the two extreme ends of organizational development. The dynamics between the two extremes were also explored further.…”

“…This is the case of bad apples corrupting other apples in the barrel and the apple orchards, e.g., lousy police corrupting police department and the whole policing system in a particular country (Kish-Gephart et al, 2010 ; Thoroughgood et al, 2011 ). Hence, the need for continuous purification within the organization/nation (Tarip, 2020 ).…”

“…Subsequently, the heart's (im)moral intuition can aggregate to the collective or societal levels through the sub-learning processes of 'interpretation' (i.e., communicating and clarifying intuitions to self and others) and 'integration' (i.e., the formation of shared understanding and ensuing co-operative actions) (Crossan et al, 1999(Crossan et al, , 2011Tarip, 2020), creating a community-of-practice (Brown & Duguid, 1991).…”

“…Subsequently, moral learning on the individual and group levels can be 'institutionalized' in systems, structures, cultures, procedures, rules, and strategies (Crossan et al, 1999(Crossan et al, , 2011Tarip, 2020). The literature is more concerned with organizational learning repositories.…”