Ibn Haldun’s approach to sustainability: a function of spirituality and virtuousness

Abstract

According to Ibn Haldun, royal authority is built up on group feeling (asabiyyah). Obtaining a powerful authority and being spread on a large geographical area require religious coloring. One of the main characteristics of people who have gained control over many lands is their eager desire for virtuous behavior specifically benevolence. Whenever they start to “commit blameworthy deeds and to practice all sorts of vices”, God deprives them of royal authority. This work firstly aims to develop a sustainability model based on Ibn Haldun’s teaching. Religious coloring refers to the spirituality, which is in fact rediscovered in modern ages and transferred to the workplace. Spirituality stimulates virtuousness at personal and organizational level, which in turn generates managerial sustainability meaning the lifespan of a company. While personal virtuousness refers social ethics, organizational level virtuousness could be considered as Corporate Social Responsibility. Briefly, managerial sustainability could be qualified as a function of spirituality, virtuousness and corporate social responsibility. Secondly, it attempts to evaluate the relevance of Ibn Haldun’s approach to contemporary business organizations. In order to demonstrate the relationship between spirituality, virtuousness, CSR, and sustainability; a statistical analysis among Corporate Knights’ Global 100 companies was conducted. The results of the study show; while workplace spirituality leads to ethical conduct and higher CSR/CS score, the relationship between spirituality or CSR and financial performance is not significant. However, it seems that lifespan of business enterprises is related to their CSR score. Companies that are promoting workplace spirituality, emphasizing ethical conduct and initiating socially responsible actions are living longer.