What Makes a Balanced Leader?: An Islamic Perspective

Despite continuous public interest in leadership studies as well as the abundance of extant literature, the world continues to face leadership predicaments. Given the global crises mankind has been recently exposed to, which include the financial crisis of 2008 as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, further exploration of leadership concepts seems warranted.

This edited book aims at introducing the concept of Balanced Leadership from an Islamic perspective. Drawing on both leadership and Islamic studies, the book synchronizes between secular and religious knowledge domains whilst introducing the notion of balance to mainstream leadership literature.

The conceptualizations presented in the book serve to dissect the leadership literature, present historical and philosophical accounts of the balanced leadership concept and infuse that with Islamic theology. The book is useful for practitioners interested in leadership studies as well as scholars and researchers aiming at extending the leadership literature.

Noha El-Bassiouny is Vice Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor and Head of Marketing at the Faculty of Management Technology, the German University in Cairo (GUC), Egypt. She has wide international exposure and has published her works in reputable journals including the Journal of Business Research, the International Journal of Consumer Studies, and the Journal of Cleaner Production, amongst others. She is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Management & Sustainability: An Arab Review (MSAR) as well as Associate Editor of the Journal of Islamic Marketing. She has also received many international awards including the prestigious Abdul Hameed Shoman Arab Researchers Award (2019) as well as several Emerald Outstanding Reviewer Awards and Highly Commended Paper awards.

Professor Ahmed Amin received his Ph.D. in organizational theory from the University of Mississippi in 1996. He served as a faculty member at several American and Egyptian universities. In 2006, he became a Fulbright scholar. He is currently Professor of Management and Director of the MBA program at the German University in Cairo, Egypt. His research interests include values, institutional theory and leadership.

Jonathan A. J. Wilson is a Professor of Brand Strategy & Culture at Regent’s University, London, UK. He has spent over 20 years in industry and academia as a practitioner with two doctorates - specialising in what he calls the ABCDs of Business and Culture: Advertising, Branding, Communications, and Digital. He has published over 200 pieces of work, spoken at over 100 conferences across the globe, and featured in LinkedIn’s annual Top Voices awards list for 4 consecutive years. Professor Wilson has been Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Islamic Marketing for over nine years and is author of the book, Halal Branding, which was covered in Forbes.