پژوهشگاه علوم انسانی و مطالعات فرهنگی پژوهش‌نامه انتقادی متون و برنامه‌های علوم انسانی 2383-1650 26 1 2026 05 22 Critical-Documentary Analysis of Explainingthe Concept of the Fourth Paradigm of Management inthe Islamic World with A Review of the Book"The Influence of Islamic Values on Management Practice" تحلیل انتقادی-اسنادی تبیین مفهوم پارادایم چهارم مدیریت جهان اسلام با نقد کتاببررسی اثر ارزش‎های اسلامی بر رویکردهای مدیریت 179 207 14075 10.30465/crtls.2026.50343.2886 FA علیرضا صادق‌پور فیروزآباد دانشجوی دکتری، گروه مدیریت صنعتی، دانشکدۀ مدیریت صنعتی و اقتصاد، دانشگاه تربیت مدرس، تهران، ایران محمود واعظی دانشیار گروه علوم قرآن و حدیث، دانشکدۀ الهیات و معارف اسلامی، دانشگاه تهران، تهران، ایران 0009-0007-5867-6854 حسام قربانی دانشجوی دکتری، گروه علوم قرآن و حدیث، دانشکدۀ علوم انسانی، دانشگاه تربیت مدرس، تهران، ایران، Journal Article 2025 12 31 In today's era, organizations are one of the main foundations of society and their management is the most important factor in their life, growth, and development. Managers use a set of management approaches to manage organizations efficiently. Many factors influence these approaches, and Islamic values are also among these influential factors in Islamic societies. Following the study of the influence of Islamic values, Gillian Forester has compiled a book called "The Influence of Islamic Values on Management Practice". Accordingly, the purpose of this article is a deep analysis of this book. Since this book has not been translated in Iran, the criticism of this book can open a way to remove the ambiguity and clarify the thinking of the author of this book. For this purpose, relying on the documentary method, in the first step, the book is examined from the point of view of content and then from the point of view of structure. After the investigations, the points that can be developed in the book have been mentioned in order to enrich and improve it in the next editions.IntroductionThis study offers a critical review of Gillian Forster’s “The Influence of Islamic Values on Management Practices”, a book that examines the relationship between Islamic values, cultural context, and managerial behavior in Morocco and the broader Arab world. The reviewed work is significant because it attempts to move beyond universalistic management models and explore how religion, national culture, gender, colonial legacy, and social norms shape organizational practices in a specific Arab-Islamic context. This article has been developed in line with a critical review of the book and seeks to evaluate its theoretical and methodological contributions to the field of Islamic management studies.Materials & MethodsThe article adopts a documentary and analytical approach, using the book itself as the main source of data. The analysis is structured around three levels: content review, methodological review, and critical assessment of the book’s innovations and shortcomings. First, the book’s chapters are summarized to provide a clear picture of its overall architecture, including the introduction, the Moroccan socio-cultural context, the discussion of Islamic values, the theoretical framing of management in the Arab world, and the findings based on fieldwork. Second, the methodological foundations of the book are examined through the lens of major approaches to Islamic management, including inferential, reformist, and foundational perspectives. Based on this framework, the book is positioned within an integrative and interpretive methodological orientation, relying on qualitative inquiry and purposive sampling.The reviewed book uses interviews with 24 senior managers in Moroccan and multinational organizations, organized through a funnel-shaped qualitative structure and coded through open and selective coding. The article assesses this design as a meaningful attempt to capture lived managerial experience, while also noting the need for deeper case-based evidence and more explicit discussion of limitations. The review further evaluates whether the book’s arguments remain faithful to Islamic textual sources, especially the Qur’an and Sunnah, and whether its claims about concepts such as consultation, gender, leadership, and values are adequately supported by primary religious and empirical evidence.Discussion & ResultThe review finds that the book’s main strength lies in its broad and multi-layered treatment of management in Morocco. It does not reduce management to technical procedures; rather, it situates managerial practice within a wider matrix of Islamic values, family structures, colonial history, education, gender relations, and Arab cultural identity. This contextual depth is one of the book’s most valuable contributions. The discussion of Morocco as a social and cultural setting is especially useful because it demonstrates how management cannot be understood apart from historical and civilizational background. Likewise, the book’s effort to derive Islamic values from the Qur’an and integrate them with management theory is a noteworthy contribution to the field of Islamic management studies.Another major contribution is the proposal of a “fourth paradigm,” which attempts to reinterpret management through the intersection of religion, culture, and gender. This paradigm is particularly relevant for understanding the participation of women in Arab organizations and the role of patriarchal cultural structures in shaping managerial opportunities. The book also presents a useful exploratory framework and combines field insights with theoretical literature, thereby generating a richer understanding of management than conventional quantitative studies often provide. In this sense, the work contributes to knowledge production by linking practice with theory and by identifying a gap between formal academic discourse and the lived reality of managers.At the same time, the review identifies several limitations. The relatively small sample size of 24 managers restricts the generalizability of the findings. The book also lacks deeper case studies and more concrete examples showing how Islamic values actually influence decision-making, leadership, and organizational culture. In some sections, the relationship between Islamic principles and practical managerial outcomes remains underdeveloped. Moreover, certain interpretive claims, especially those concerning Qur’anic and exegetical issues, require greater precision and stronger scholarly grounding. The review therefore concludes that although the book is intellectually ambitious and conceptually innovative, it would benefit from sharper empirical support, clearer distinction between Islamic teachings and cultural practices, and more nuanced treatment of internal tensions within the Moroccan and broader Arab context.ConclusionOverall, the book represents an important step in Islamic management scholarship because it explores the possibility of building a culturally grounded and value-oriented management model for Arab societies. Its most important achievement is that it challenges imported managerial frameworks and proposes a context-sensitive understanding of organizational life. However, its theoretical claims would be stronger if supported by richer empirical evidence, more rigorous source criticism, and a more explicit analysis of the practical implications of Islamic values. The review ultimately shows that the book succeeds as an exploratory and thought-provoking study, but it also leaves room for future research to refine the conceptual model, expand the evidence base, and further develop the relationship between Islamic ethics, organizational leadership, and gender-sensitive management. در عصر حاضر سازمان‎ها از شالوده‎های اصلی اجتماع و مدیریت آن‎ها، مهم‎ترین عامل در حیات، رشد و بالندگی آن‎ها است. مدیران برای اینکه بتوانند سازمان‎ها را کارآمد مدیریت کنند از مجموعه‎ای از رویکردهای مدیریتی استفاده می‎کنند. عوامل زیادی بر این رویکرد‎ها تأثیرگذار است، در جوامع اسلامی نیز از جمله این عوامل تأثیرگذار ارزش‎های اسلامی هستند. به دنبال بررسی تأثیر ارزش‎های اسلامی، گیلیان فارستر کتابی به نام "بررسی اثر ارزش‎های اسلامی بر رویکردهای مدیریت" تدوین کرده است. بر همین اساس هدف این مقاله نیز نقد و تحلیلی عمیق بر این کتاب است. ازآنجایی‎که این کتاب در ایران ترجمه نشده است، نقد این کتاب می‎تواند راهی به‎سوی زدودن ابهام و روشن‎سازی حوزه تفکر نویسنده این کتاب باز نماید. بدین منظور با تکیه بر روش اسنادی در قدم اول کتاب ازنقطه‎نظر محتوایی و پس از آن از لحاظ ساختاری مورد بررسی قرار می‎گیرد. پس از بررسی‎های انجام گرفته، نقاط قابل‎توسعه کتاب، جهت هرچه غنی‎تر شدن آن و پیشرفت آن در چاپ‎های بعدی عنوان شده است. https://criticalstudy.ihcs.ac.ir/article_14075_69ee114722e3e7df044c4eaec11ff77c.pdf