The sythesizing process of work motivation between western and islamic perspectives: an analysis

Motivation is probably one of the most frequently and extensively studied psychological concepts. The theoretical framework of motivation focuses on understanding and predicting the rationale underlying of human behaviour. It is a multi-faceted psychological process, which energizes individuals’ behaviours toward a desired goal or objective. This is what Islam tries to apply – the techniques of motivation to enhance morale and commitment of employers - employees; and problems occur when administrators fail to integrate both the Western and Muslim perspectives of motivation. In this respect, this study aims to determine why and how this knowledge gap can be overcome particularly in organizations so as to drive administrators to become excellent workers. Among the objectives are to elucidate the prevailing concepts of work motivation from both the Muslim and Western perspectives as well as to study the similarities and differences of work motivation in both perspectives in terms of definitions, rewards, evaluation and implications to management. This study is based on a qualitative research project which is designed to inductively build concepts, hypotheses and theories rather than to test them. The framework of the study will draw upon the concepts, terms, definitions and theories of a particular literature and disciplinary orientation. The focus lies to thematically compare the Muslim and Western perspectives.