Characteristics of Competent Managers from the Perspective of Quran and Nahj al-Balaghah

Competency is a set of job-related knowledge, skills, personality traits, interests, and experiences that enable the holder to perform tasks and responsibilities at an above-average level. Since the Holy Quran and hadiths emphasize the principle of selecting the most competent people according to specific characteristics and skills, there is a need to define the needed competencies for selecting efficient and capable managers. Based on this, the general and specialized competencies of managers were extracted from the valuable sources including the Quran and Nahj al-Balagha.

In this qualitative developmental study, the qualitative content analysis research method was conducted to investigate the texts of the Holy Quran and Nahj al-Balagha using a Quranic-narrative approach to extract the characteristics of competent managers.

After extracting all concepts (354) and classifying them, we finally achieved 21 competencies and placed them in consecutive classifications (3 stages of codification, preparation, and summarization) in 2 groups of general and specialized competencies.

According to the Islamic criteria in selecting managers of an Islamic society, these competencies should be considered using a systemic approach.