Lack of business responsibility: an Islamic perspective

Abstract

This paper applies an Islamic perspective to understand the lack of business responsibility witnessed in recent times. A link is developed between the dominant materialistic-secular worldview and lack of business responsibility. The paper argues that a materialistic-secular worldview tends to disconnect economics from ethics, gives privilege to economic values over spiritual values, and confers primacy to legal/bureaucratic mechanisms over ethical and spiritual mechanisms for ensuring compliance to business responsibilities. It suggests that these orientations could account for the weak sense of business responsibility and unethical behaviours reported in earlier works. To remedy this, the paper proposes the broadening of problem-solving methodologies so that both material and ethical/spiritual dimensions of business responsibility are given due consideration. In addition, the paper offers four suggestions, derived from religious traditions, for nurturing the spirit and letter of business responsibility.