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consultation and consensus. This principle of Shura teaches Muslim managers to treat their subordinates as their equals and to be humble in their dealings with other people (Abuznaid, 2006). Pride and arrogance are not the behaviour of a good Muslim. In organisations, managers are expected to seek advice and to consult with their subordinates before making decisions. Patience (Sabar). Patience is the highest level of Eman (belief in the oneness of God and Mohamed as his prophet and messenger). At the organisational level, patience and humility go hand in hand. Being patient in making decisions reduces the possibility of making mistakes and increasing the chances of success in negotiations.
The crucial question that should be asked therefore is “to what extent the above principles and values of Islamic management are practiced in Arab countries?” The answer is that there is very little evidence of such principles being explicitly advanced by Arab managers because the practice of management in general and HRM in particular is also influenced by non-Islamic traditional norms and values and by Western management practices and theories, as explained next. Characteristics of contemporary management in Arab countries Despite their wealth, most of the Arab countries are economically, socially and industrially underdeveloped. There are problems of unemployment, poverty, health and education, as well as high levels of social and political unrest. Barakat (1993) argued that the Arabs lost their sense of direction and have been in a similar position to that after the First World War, when the victorious Europeans divided them into states that meet their colonial interests. Generally speaking, one might argue that in many Arab countries expectations are very high and far away from what could be realised. It is not only a problem of resources as such, because they have plenty, but of organisation in its broader sense. Such organisational problems have a wide range of consequences. While examples of employee dissatisfaction such as absenteeism, high turnover, corruption and bureaucracy are the outcomes of modern industrial life – and can occur in any organisation where formalisation, centralisation and bad conditions of work are to be found – the situation in Arab countries is especially serious. Such problems lie in the complexity of interaction between dominant social values, technology and level of development achieved. Studies of management in Arab countries (Weir, 2000; Assad, 2002) have found that too much centralisation, overbearing bureaucracy, poor communications, lack of management skills and unrealistic performance issues such as the importance of personal factors over the needs of the organisation exist. Also, a number of studies have reported the problems of expatriation in the Middle East, especially the social isolation, homesickness, fear from and lack of trust by the locals (Al-Salem et al., 1979; Al-Bunyan and Lutfi, 1980; Daher and Al-Salem, 1985). In the Gulf States, for example, expatriates complain about the locals and the locals complain about expatriates, and many multinational companies are happy to employ foreigners for their hard work and commitment, rather than the host country nationals, because of their poor performance; while the governments of those countries insist on creating jobs for their citizens, and so on (see Branine (2010) for more details). Some local employees frequently commented that Western managers did not pay attention to
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