The Lakatos-Kuhn; a Methodological Model for Theorizing in Islamic Management

The basic and serious problem in humanities and in particular syncretistic studies is the lack of a specific and comprehensive methodological model, in a way that one can separate different theories coming from related fields as a regular, orderly, relative and cohesive structure. In this paper, we deal with the pathology of interdisciplinary studies as the most important barrier in humanities development. After introducing "methodological exclusivism” as the most important problem, we pose "methodological pluralism" as a solution to this problem in interdisciplinary studies. The result of this problem solving is a conceptual syncretistic model based on documental studies. The Lakatos-Kuhn syncretistic model, as a methodological model, helps to understand proportion and cohesiveness between Islamic management studies and current managerial issues and theorize interdisciplinary studies of Islamic management.The basic hypothesis of this paper directed to explain the developed syncretistic model is that Islamic management studies in general are non-holistic and done without any specific research plan. In fact, the two paradigms of Islamic and current management studies are adapted and compiled with each other without considering their proportion and cohesiveness. This hypothesis is tested by using the content analysis approach based on the theoretical history of Islamic management and selected studies related to this field since 1980s in Iran.