The Influence of Islam on GCC Businesses and their Ethical Behavior - Essay Example

Ethical Procedure of Businesses with GCC Countries The Influence of Islam on GCC Businesses and their Ethical Behavior Literature Review Islamic values have a great influence on the Gulf Confederation Council (GCC) Businesses. The values impact on the way these GCC businesses run their finances. The financial structures of the GCC countries including United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman greatly relies on the values laid by the Islamic community. All Islamic countries within the GCC are expected to be ethical in ways alike to their conformist counterparts (Cherokee & Bouchra, 2008, p45). As mentioned in their associations, these ethics include within additional working operations with skills and integrity, diligence, care, avoiding the conflict of interest just to mention but a few. As ethics and values link to the ideas of what is wrong and right in the organizational context, for Islamic countries it will also be impacted by the Islamic principles of morality and legality. As such, Islamic states of the GCC will have extra ethical dimensions coming from their adherence to the morals and laws of Shari’ah. Though major Islamic businesses have discussed problems linked to the application of laws and rules to ethical practice, the association between ethics and morality has at some limit been neglected. In GCC business transactions, when the legal and ethical values are presumed to exist, some might argue, as particular Shari’ah scholars do, that as long as the needs and stipulations of the agreement are satisfied, the business deal will be both ethical and legal. Nevertheless, this argument might not have credence as the result of business transactions can cause adverse effects on the moral and social welfare of the citizens. A particular way of relating ethics to morals is in examining the impacts of actions of companies on the society. As mentioned by Carroll and Schwartz: “a business will be ethical only if it encourages good in the society.” That same logic is used to determine the ethical activities and transactions of the GCC. Precisely, activities of the GCC business will be ethical when it enables welfare (maslahah) and morality of persons within the society. On the contrary, a particular business that poses adverse effects on either Islamic morals or welfare of the people would be seen as unethical. Questions Question 1 The area of research “The Influence of Islam on GCC Businesses and their Ethical Behavior” is worthy of investigation. The major reason to support this is because, the research question tries to investigate how Islamic ethical behaviors and morals Impact on the business activities of the GCC (Preston, 2011, p34). The countries within the GCC all have a code of conduct with which their transactions are done. The knowledge of these ethical values including skills and integrity, diligence, care, avoiding the conflict of interest just to mention but a few will demonstrate a clear picture of the rules that make business within the GCC and other Islamic countries to prosper or to fail. Question 2 The research topic is a good one. And this is because the current global market is built in Business transactions. We are into an era where business is the topic of the day and for a country or individual to be successful or even attain wealth business must be the part of the development strategy. So this topic conventionally works to discuss some of the issues affecting/influencing a business, but to be specific a business within the Islamic nations (GCC). Question 3 The literature review is a critical one and further analysis is presented to show what exactly is happening within the business industry of the GCC. The research covers the advancements of particular GCC countries’ business systems and financial markets. An analysis of the delivery of Gulf banks; and briefly outlines the current moves to make a GCC financial and economic union (Preston, 2011, p36). The paper goes on to discuss that these countries have gone through numerous economic reforms objected at beefing up their economic arrangements. The GCC businesses still dominate the financial systems of the Islamic states. It is mentioned that the Gulf business structure show positive improvement in terms of capital adequacy, asset quality and profitability. Quality 4 The research paradigms and philosophy refer to the development of the research knowledge, background and its nature. Research paradigm involves the wide framework, which consists of the beliefs, perception and the understanding of most practices and theories used while conducting the research. The research has a precise procedure involving steps through which a relationship between the questions and objectives are connected. For instance, some of the philosophies include the “evaluation of the suitability of existing business environment in Pakistan for the application of Sharia based financing plan” (Hanif & Iqbal, 2010, p123). The philosophical traditions involve the use of Qualitative and Quantitative techniques of data collection. This research uses the qualitative method of data collection. Question 5 The type of approach that was considered was that one that involved the use of legal and ethical values in collecting information. Data collection was done through the literature review of published books, Case study analysis and documents on the Islamic financing and business. Question 6 The way of justifying data collection methods and sampling is through observations. Since most of the data collected is from books, case studies and Islamic documents, verification if they are appropriate is possible through observations (Saunders et al., 2007, p43). How the GCC conducts its businesses and financial processes would give the solution to the question “How Islamic Ethical values impact on the GCC businesses.” To explain and justify the overall purpose of the research, aims and objectives, a clear rationale is created and might illustrate how the research processes reports gaps in the present knowledge base, generate new perspectives or dimension, or produce theory about phenomenon that has not be explained initially. Question 7 In this research the methodology used in Qualitative method of data collection. This is since the qualitative methods generate data only on the specific cases studies, and any more common conclusions are only hypotheses (Saunders et al., 2007, p43). The research is theoretical in nature and thus observations are necessary for analyzing the collected information. Question 8 If asked to explain the difference between dependent and independent variables it would be easy. This is since, the dependent variables in this research topic is the GCC Business while the independent variables are the ethical or moral values that should be followed. When the morals or ethical values are followed to the latter, the GCC Business will be much profitable since all the systems will be done in a diligent, integrity and beneficial way (Robbins, 2010, p98). Question 9 Some of the access issues to consider include the Definition of the abbreviation GCC, the countries within the GCC business group, some of the policies that these countries believe in and how these countries disseminate these ethical values and morals. Clarity should also be provided regarding how the data will be analyzed for instance observational method of analyzing data is most appropriate. Question 10 The research work is planned in an appropriate format of which there is an Abstract part, an Introduction, a Literature Review, the Methodology, Data Analysis part that makes use of charts that describe the financial systems within the GCC, Discussion and the conclusion section (Andreas, 2007, p67). Charts are most appropriate for the data analysis section since they give a representation of the actual impacts of Islamic ethics on the GCC businesses. List of References Saunders, M. et al. (2007). Research Methods for Business Students, 4th Edition. London: Financial Times Prentice Hall. Hanif, Muhammad and Iqbal, Abdullah Muhammad (2010). Islamic Financing and Business Framework: A Survey. European Journal of Social Sciences Cherokee, Houda and Touzani, Bouchra (2008). Introduction to Islamic Banking System Advanced Global Risk Management: Shariah Compliant Risk Management. Jobst, Andreas, (2007). “The Economics of Islamic Finance and Securitization,” IMF Working Paper WP/07/117. Preston, A. (2011). 'Now, Investors can put their Money where their Faith is',New Statesman, 140, 5049, p. 21,Academic Search Elite, EBSCOhost. Robbins, HE (2010). 'Soul Searching and Profit Seeking: Reconciling the Competing Goals of Islamic Finance', Texas Law Review, 88, 5, pp. 1125-1150, Academic Search Elite, EBSCOhost. Read More