ABSTRACT
The general system model is a process-orientation of learning dynamics in and across complexly interrelated orders. Within such a general system model is found the specific field of the unified – that is, organic and endogenously circularly interrelated – embedding between the economic, financial and business world-systems. Business social ethics or socio-business ethicality is a problem of the epistemological genre. It combines the circularly interrelated sub-systems and their representative behavioural preferences and variables in an explanatory way.
The formulation of the emergent analytics in comparative perspectives between mainstream and Islamic economic, financial and business world-systems according to their distinct moral and ethical episteme is the objective of this chapter. The true epistemological direction to the systemic understanding of socio-business ethicality is opened up for conceptual and applied investigation.
The comparative study of morality and ethics that characterizes the social ethicality of the organizational and business world with embedded human and social consciousness within it belongs to the generalized epistemological premise of unity of knowledge as mentioned above. But this methodological approach assumes a distinctive character in the Islamic worldview from the moral and ethical understanding in mainstream business ethical theory. The emergent methodology is thereby of a heterodox epistemological nature.
The Islamic heterodox difference, which is of a significant proportion, replaces the rationalistic individual behavioural aggregation of ethical preferences into social business ethicality, is a utilitarian model. In it lateral aggregation fails to explain the interactive, integrative and evolutionary learning natures of social ethicality that the Islamic episteme of oneness establishes. Business and organization become embedded in ethics as generic forces derived from the episteme of oneness of knowledge. Thereby, ethics derived from epistemic oneness plays its role throughout the social structure of such institutions. Individual ethics and social ethics are causally interrelated in the social reconstruction of business and organization by evolutionary learning according to epistemic oneness. This universal epistemic worldview remains in action in ethical-social reconstruction.
An extensive review of the literature is undertaken both for mainstream and Islamic cases against the emergent moral reconstruction of the social ethicality of businesses and organizations. It is found that the epistemological approach 164of unity of knowledge explains the social ethicality of business organization in terms of the resulting extensively systemic worldview. Such a perspective is not usually understood in the traditional theory of business ethics. Consequently, the theory of business social ethics remains deficient of its otherwise systemic meaning. Social business conveys the overarching ethics in business and organizational behaviour.
The focus and objective of this chapter is to develop the Islamic heterodox epistemological theory of social ethics and point out its inner dynamics and potential application. This task is carried out in contrast to the mainstream and prevailing Islamic perspectives of theory, comprehension and conduct of business ethics on epistemic grounds.
