Rational Decision-Making in Public Organizations: Designing a Model Based on the Teachings of the Holy Qur’an

Abstract

Decision-making is one of the most important managerial functions in public organizations, and its quality has a direct impact on efficiency, justice, and the realization of the public interest. Despite the importance of rationality in decision-making, many prevailing management models are based primarily on purely instrumental and empirical approaches and pay limited attention to value-based and guidance-oriented foundations. In this context, the teachings of the Holy Qur’an, as one of the major epistemic sources in Islamic thought, have considerable potential to explain a rational model of decision-making within managerial systems. Accordingly, the present study aims to design a model of rational decision-making in public organizations based on the teachings of the Holy Qur’an. This study adopted a qualitative approach within an interpretive paradigm. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data collected. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews as well as document and text analysis, including the Holy Qur’an, Qur’anic exegeses, and scholarly sources. To validate the research model, the criteria of credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability were applied. The findings revealed four overarching themes and twelve organizing themes. The results showed that the model of rational decision-making in public organizations rests on four overarching themes: rational governance grounded in divine guidance, ethics-centered managerial decision-making, people-centeredness and social responsibility in governance, and foresight and sustainability in management and implementation. The findings suggest that the proposed model can improve the quality of decision-making, strengthen accountability, uphold justice, and enhance efficiency in public organizations, and can serve as both a theoretical and practical framework in public administration.