Managing workforce diversity: an Islamic perspective

Workforce diversity is an inevitable phenomenon of the day. Diversity management is then developed in response to this reality. The discourse has been widely implemented in many western countries and some other countries across the world. Yet, it does not sound loudly in the Muslim countries. The objective of this paper is to discover Islamic perspective of workforce diversity management. The results show that pluralism and multiculturalism values are strongly promoted in Islamic teaching. Although, some conceptual problems regarding conservative views on diversity might constrain diversity workforce management, but a strategic solution to this issue is not impossible. This paper basically favors the idea of implementing the Lewin-Schein change model (i.e., unfreezing – change [moving] – refreezing) for managing diversity in the Muslim society context but with a more focus given to the substantive aspects of diversity management (i.e., elaborating Islamic values on diversity). The role of such qualified Islamic scholars is crucial in this regard.