Islamic Banking Management’s Perspectives and Practices on

Stakeholders

Achmad Soediro, and Inten Meutia

Department of Accounting, Economic Faculty, Universitas Sriwijaya, South Sumatra, Indonesia

Keywords: stakeholders mapping, maqasid sharia, maslahah al maal,

Abstract: This qualitative study aimed to explore the perspectives, understandings, and management practices of the

management of Islamic financial institutions on their stakeholders. Information was explored with in-depth

interviews. The respondents were the managers of Islamic banking at different levels of management, and

Islamic microfinance institutions (baitul maal wa tamwil). This study found that there was a diverse but not

deep and comprehensive knowledge about stakeholders are among the personnel of Islamic banking. This

understanding was influenced by the level of education, level of management and division of tasks. This

caused management to have difficulty in mapping and managing their stakeholders. Another finding was

that a good and deep understanding of aqeeda and mu’amala provided awareness and sense of responsibility

to the management to always pursue the benefit for all stakeholders even without the understanding of

secular-based stakeholders. The goal of managing stakeholders in Islamic financial institutions must be in

accordance with the objectives of sharia, namely maslaha.

1 INTRODUCTION

Generally, stakeholders are very interested in

economic and financial performance of an economic

entity (Moneva, Rivera‐Lirio and Muñoz‐Torres,

2007; Akisik and Gal, 2017; Theodoulidis et al.,

2017; Barghathi, Collison and Crawford, 2018). So

is the case with Islamic financial entities. Hasan &

Asutay (2017) recorded the interests of the

stakeholders of the sharia business entities that were

concerned only with economic interests.

Shareholders will always have an interest in

increasing share value and avoiding losses;

governments concern about taxes and economic

stability generated by business entities;

environmental activists concern about the funding

for a nature conservation and. This indicates that all

stakeholders, not limited to shareholders,

management, owners and workers, have an interest

in the economic performance of a sharia financial

entity, explicit or implicit, direct or indirect others

(Mallin, Farag and Ow-Yong, 2014; Zain, Darus and

Ramli, 2015; Lassoued, Attia and Sassi, 2018;

Zainuldin and Lui, 2018)

It is undeniable that every operation of the

financial entity has an impact on the social life of the

community. This condition also occurs in Islamic

financial institutions (Wajdi Dusuki, 2008; Di Bella

and Al-Fayoumi, 2016; Al-Kayed, 2017; Islam and

Rahman, 2017). Stakeholder theory was born from

the need to analyse the impact of interactions

between financial institutions and their social

environments. According to Alam (2006)

stakeholder theory is at least based on several social

theories, namely social contract theory, the theory of

social legitimacy, ethical theory, and institutional

theory where the discussion of this theory revolves

around who the stakeholders are, what interests they

pursue, and how the management's strategy for

managing stakeholders. Al-Shamali, Sharif, & Irani

(2013) defined that the theory of stakeholders is

built on the assumption that there are other parties

besides shareholders and management who have

interests and rights that impact the financial entity.

Furthermore, business entities are also social

institutions that stand and are in the midst of society.

So it can be said that all activities of financial

entities will have an impact on social life and

stakeholders where the entity is located (Oruc and

Sarikaya, 2011; Tse, 2011; Wagner Mainardes,

584

Soediro, A. and Meutia, I.

Islamic Banking Management’s Perspectives and Practices on Stakeholders.

DOI: 10.5220/0008442805840594

In Proceedings of the 4th Sriwijaya Economics, Accounting, and Business Conference (SEABC 2018), pages 584-594

ISBN: 978-989-758-387-2

Alves and Raposo, 2011; Ditlev‐Simonsen and

Wenstøp, 2013)

The absence of further exploration of what

stakeholder is and who stakeholders are from the

view of Islam and how it should manage

stakeholders in Islam provides discussion space for

the benefit of the development of science and

practical applications. As a financial entity that uses

sharia as a foundation, it should be maslahah in

maqasid syariah to become the initial foundation,

spirit and purpose of operation of sharia banking

entity in managing its stakeholders (Abdullah, 2012;

Akram Laldin and Furqani, 2013; Shehu, Ahmad

and Al-Aidaros, 2015; Shinkafi and Ali, 2017;

Soediro and Meutia, 2018; Zaman et al., 2018). So

in relation to the achievement of maqasid shariah

especially maslahah al maal by sharia financial

entities (Kameel, Meera and Larbani, 2006; Akram

Laldin and Furqani, 2013; Alam Choudhury and

Nurul Alam, 2013; Salma Sairally, 2013), it

becomes essential to explore the idea of how Islamic

banking managements define stakeholders and their

interests; and how Islamic banking manages the

interests of its stakeholders. Philosophically and

practically, Islamic financial institutions are

different from conventional financial institutions, so

naturally it has a different foundation of strategy in

managing stakeholders. The results of this study are

expected to contribute to the strategy of how Islamic

financial institutions should be able to prepare their

management in managing their stakeholders,

especially in Indonesia as the country with the

largest number of Moslems in the world with

developing Islamic financial institutions.

2 METHODS

Qualitative interpretative strategy (W.L. Neuman

and Alex, 2004; Lye, Perera and Rahman, 2006) and

in-depth interviews (Berg, 2004; Boyce and Neale,

2006; Bryman, 2008) was conducted on a number of

respondents consisting of respondents from sharia

banking management, respondents from non-bank

Islamic micro-finance institutions (baitul maal wa

tamwil) as comparative respondents, Islamic

banking customers in South Sumatra, Indonesia.

Interview questions were directed to capture

information related to the three parts of the

framework in this research, i.e. Stakeholder

Definition and Mapping; Defining stakeholder

Interests; and Stakeholder Management. Actors in

Islamic banking institutions are the main targets of

extracting this information.

Respondents in this study consisted of ten

respondents with a background in Islamic banking

management, five respondents with backgrounds in

non-bank Islamic microfinance institutions (baitul

maal wa tamwil), and five Islamic banking

customers. Respondents came from different levels

of management and tasks in their institutions.

Interviews were conducted with a span of one to two

hours. Especially for respondents from the

management of Islamic financial institutions,

interviews were conducted to gather information

about their understanding, experience and opinions

about stakeholders and how they managed them. For

the convenience and security of the respondents,

their real names and identities were not published in

this publication. Interviews were recorded with a

recording device; some respondents were not willing

to be recorded. Note taking important things was

also done during the interview. The results of the

interviews were analyzed thematically to harvest the

expected research results.

3 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

3.1 Findings

3.1.1 Defining and Mapping Stakeholders

In general, respondents explain that stakeholders

are parties who have interests to the institution

where the respondents operate. In depth, there is a

difference in the range of what they define as

stakeholders. Respondents at lower-level

management positions define stakeholders as

depositor customers (person or institution who save

or deposit their money in the bank). In mid-level

management there is an addition as presented by

Respondent BS1:

Surely the first is definitely the

customer (depositor), because the

bank is a financial institution that

collects funds from the community to

be channelled back to the community

in the form of financing. ...... (at our

institution) the customer is the first

stakeholder. Then partners,…there are

many partners, from the insurance,

notary, …

Respondent BS3, a top management at an

Islamic bank in South Sumatra, said that the

Financial Services Authority (OJK) was the primary

Islamic Banking Management’s Perspectives and Practices on Stakeholders

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stakeholder and is considered the most important.

The reason was OJK had the power to direct and

determine the policy of the bank even could close

the bank. BS3 also considered OJK to be the most

powerful stakeholders. While Respondent BS2

which was lower level management believed that the

primary stakeholders was the depositor.

3.1.2 Defining Stakeholders Interest

With regard to stakeholder interests in Islamic

banking, all respondents have the same experience

that they consider the interests of the economic and

financial performance of the institution are the most

demanded by the stakeholders. This can be seen

from the information from Respondent BS2 that in

many cases, depositors often ask for negotiations on

the amount of profit sharing they can get. Depositors

always compare the amount of profit sharing from

Islamic banks with the interest rate they can get if

their funds are placed in interest-based banks.

Respondent BS1 also added that the similar

phenomenon. Respondent N1 who was a customer

of an Islamic bank even did not understand about

what Islamic banking, Islamic financial system,

Islamic contract (aqad), and profit-sharing are. This

phenomenon is also found in other Islamic banking

customers who become respondents of this research.

The economic and financial performance of Islamic

banking that have an impact on increasing the

economic benefits of customers are the main thing

for customers although customers do not understand

well the difference between sharia contract and

conventional agreement. As explained by

Respondent BS1:

Well, sometimes they (customers) usually

associate with conventional, 7%, 8%,

especially if we say "Mam, last month the

range was 7-7.5%, but we cannot guarantee

it will be the same because it depends on the

profit that we get”...... .. There are still many

who think the same (same between Islamic

banking and conventional banking).

One thing that is considered specifically from

Respondent BS2 that related to the interests of

customers for the economic performance of Islamic

banking in South Sumatra:

In South Sumatra there are many rich people.

Especially in Palembang and in areas that

have excellent commodities. ….. Competition

in "service" greatly affects the prospective

customer in placing their funds. Perhaps in

Java is fairer, with a high level of awareness

of sharia. In fact there are many customers

who do not want to take their portion of the

profit sharing in several Islamic banking in

Java.

Respondent BS2 considered that the character of

the people of South Sumatra, especially the

customers of Islamic banking, differed considerably

compared with Islamic banking customers in Java.

He considered that customers in Java have a higher

awareness of Islamic banking and sharia law. In

South Sumatra, according to him, there were mental

barriers that must be solved in first stage so that

Islamic banking was well developed.

According to Respondent BMT3, Islamic

financial institutions should prioritize the rights of

Allah through policy making and implementation of

operations that are really based on Islamic law or

sharia. It is because the rights and rules of Allah

SWT are the first and foremost thing to be fulfilled,

then it can be said that these institutions are Islamic

financial institutions. In terms of educational

background, BMT3 is not a graduate of business and

management education but he is only SMEs business

actors. The BMT3 had attended fiqh muamala

training intensively and paid the training fee from

his personal funds. BMT3 admitted that from that

training he gained awareness and understanding of

the purpose of Islamic shari’a (maqasid al shari’a)

and the obligation to fulfil what he called the rights

of Allah SWT. BMT3 cannot fully clarify the term

of stakeholder academically but he well explain that

in Islam man has the obligation to give benefit to all

parties around him as a form of worship to Allah

especially to the parties who are called as

stakeholders. The main purpose is the benefit based

on the guidance of Allah SWT in the form of Islamic

shari'a to all parties concerned in Islamic finance

such as customers, members of BMT, management,

investors, Sharia supervisory board, and government

agencies.

3.1.3 Stakeholder Interest Management

For Islamic banking managements, customers are

the main stakeholders, at least that is the conclusion

of the explanation of some related respondents.

Therefore, the interests of customers are considered

as the main thing to be managed and accommodated.

Some respondents eagerly share how their agency's

strategy in managing their key stakeholder demands.

This is as explained by Respondent BS1 below:

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They have a very great impact on us. If they

are disappointed, not happy with the related

services, then they can reduce their funds, of

course this will affect the bank's assets.

In order to maintain the financial interests of

customers, Respondent BS1 explains:

Like financial reports, our headquarters are

published every 6 months in the middle of the

year ... Usually in printed media.... Islamic

banking products must be owned by

customers and can be enjoyed by all

customers.

This is done to give customers confidence that

the funds deposited in the Islamic bank are not only

safe but also provide satisfactory results. Respondent

BS2 explained that giving the opportunity to

negotiate related to the percentage of profit sharing

on priority customers is their strategy to keep

customers with a large amount of funds. At certain

times when the bank is in need of it (fresh money),

the bank may provide a higher profit-sharing

percentage of the standard to one or more customers

in order to meet the bank's need for fresh funds.

For the Islamic banking’s costumers, economic

and financial interests are not based on an

understanding of the concept of halal and haram

possessions. This is evident in some respondents

who have backgrounds of Islamic bank customers,

for example Respondent N1 was currently back

borrowing money from a conventional bank on the

grounds that interest in conventional banks was

smaller than the Islamic bank. Also, Respondent N2

who assumed that there was no problem in

borrowing some funds from Islamic or conventional

banks. For him, all the same, both in terms of

requirements, as well as instalments those are not

much different. When they were asked why most

people in the region were reluctant to use the Islamic

banks financing, Respondent N2 argued that most

people did not know the mechanism of contract and

financing in Islamic banking. The same thing

happened to Respondent N4 still considered that the

margin given by Islamic bank was similar to the

interest in conventional bank though he said that

“interest” in sharia bank could be negotiated, as

what he said below:

… depending on the size of the loan, if the

loan is above 100 million, interest rate 1.2%,

if the loan is below 100 million interest rate

0.9%, and I can negotiate with the bank how

much the interest rate that I and the bank

want, win-win solution…

All respondents who have background of Islamic

banking management claim that the problem of

unfamiliarity about sharia banking and its contracts

is a great barrier for the development of Islamic

financial institutions, primarily for Islamic banking.

Unfortunately from their acknowledgments the

effort to educate customers and potential customers

is a tough thing and is not considered their duty to

do so. Respondent BS2 considered that it took a long

time to educate people, especially Moslems to

understand about the differences between Islamic

and conventional banking. When asked about

whether there had ever been an effort to raise

awareness and understanding of the Moslem

community especially the prospective customer and

how the strategy, BS2 explained:

... Never, just does not seem to have an

impact because it takes a long time, still we

give the standard approach, we give the

ordinary understanding so, we have a good

product then we offer.

3.2 Discussions

The data obtained related to the understanding of

stakeholders shows that there is a diversity of

understanding about what is the stakeholders among

the management of Islamic financial institutions.

Unfortunately this diversity is without a deep and

comprehensive understanding of stakeholders, but a

general unstructured knowledge. This description

can be seen from the explanations of each

respondent when asked to provide an explanation of

stakeholders according to them.

From the response given, there is no effort or

special program of Islamic financial institutions to

provide a complete understanding of the

stakeholders to the management personnel. It is

acknowledged by some respondents that an

understanding of stakeholders is obtained by what

they are and it is not the result of a particular

program organized by the institution in which they

work. The information and knowledge they get

come from several sources such as information they

have learned at a glance while in college, and other

informal information. Knowledge of stakeholders

gained during lectures, according to the respondents,

is not a complete and in-depth knowledge that

specifically deals with stakeholders but rather to

sporadically obtained information from certain

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587

lecture materials. This also seems to occur a lot in

Islamic banking management (Cader et al., 2013;

Awais Ahmad Tipu, 2014; Ben Abd El Afou, 2017;

Ali et al., 2018). The phenomenon produces an

incomplete understanding of respondents about

stakeholders. In addition, while working in Islamic

financial institutions, some respondents claim that

they have never been specifically given a deep

understanding of stakeholders, both in training and

education programs. They are required to work on

and from materials published by the institutions they

worked for. Therefore, from the above discussion it

can be said that the level of education, both formal

and informal education and; specific reading

materials and discussions, as well as the length of

working age of the respondents can be considered as

factors that determine the depth and diversity of

respondents' understanding of stakeholders. So the

higher the education level of the respondents, the

more reading material and loose discussion on the

topics that pertain to a bit about stakeholders, and

the longer the working age of the respondents the

better their understanding of stakeholders.

Nevertheless, their understanding of stakeholders is

still not profound. This is because there are no

special programs from Islamic financial institutions

that provide discussion and understanding about

stakeholders and all things related to it in detail and

in depth, especially those related to stakeholders of

their institutions. In fact, continuing training and

education are important for strengthening the quality

of Islamic banking management (Estiri et al., 2011;

Ishaq Bhatti et al., 2011; Asrar Mirza and Riaz,

2012; Bailey, Albassami and Al-Meshal, 2016)

The lack of understanding above also occurs

when respondents are asked about the views of

Islam on stakeholders, how Islam defines

stakeholders and who are stakeholders in the view of

Islam. Almost all respondents answers that

stakeholders in Islam are the same as stakeholders in

secular views. From some respondents who

background management on sharia financial

institutions, only Respondent BMT3 who firmly

says that the main party to serve its interests is

Allah. BMT3 assumes that sharia financial

institution is an Islamic sharia-based institution and

must embody its work in order to achieve the goals

of the institution by staying and always aligning to

the sharia and Islamic principles. BMT3 defines that

all human works are worship which is mandatory

command from Allah. Consequently, this is also the

mandatory for human as a servant of Allah and also

sharia financial institutions as a business entity to

always give the best work; and place the command

of Allah as the ultimate goal. Similarly, in the

operational of sharia financial institutions, according

to BMT3, the main stakeholder and the first must be

fulfilled his demands and interests is Allah. From the

above explanation it is clear that good understanding

of Islam especially fiqih muamalah and aqeeda is

able to give awareness to Moslem businessman (in

this case management of Islamic financial

institution) to always be able to bring maslaha to all

stakeholders as a whole in frame maqasid sharia.

According to BMT3 this kind of awareness is not

obtained from formal education that can be

completed in a few years, but from continuous

learning and spiritual activities accompanied by the

commitment of the practice of the knowledge

acquired till the end of life or what he termed as a

madal hayah (lifelong education) (Leader, 2003;

Hager, 2004; Agee, 2005; Boyadjieva and Petkova,

2005; Brendle‐Moczuk, 2006; Williams, 2007; Eve,

de Groot and Schmidt, 2007; Ahlgren and Engel,

2011; Isaksson et al., 2015; Thayaparan et al., 2015;

Corrales-Herrero and Rodríguez-Prado, 2018).

From the fact above, it also can be concluded

that without the knowledge of secular based-

stakeholders, the management of sharia financial

institutions can have an awareness to serve the

interests of its stakeholders. This awareness comes

from deep knowledge and understanding; good and

continuous practices of the teachings of Islam,

especially in Islamic business and financial

institutions. The very important knowledge and

understanding are primarily on Islamic fiqh

muamala and aqeeda. Fiqh muamala delivers an

understanding of prohibitions and obligations, while

aqeeda provides the awareness of servitude to Allah.

This will produce the spirit to serve fellow human

beings and the universe as a form of ultimate

mission as caliph (Allah representative on earth) to

achieve maslaha in the world and the hereafter. The

synthesis of the science, understanding and

awareness of shari'a and aqeeda that is continuously

reinforced can direct human beings (operators of

sharia financial institutions) into efforts to serve

their stakeholders. It will create an effort to

understand who the stakeholders are, what their

interests are, what strategies and how far the

operator can try to meet the interests and demands of

its stakeholders without injuring the interests and

demands of its main stakeholders, Allah. Inadequate

understanding of stakeholders on a conventional

secularist basis should not be an obstacle for

operators of sharia financial institutions to map out,

strategize and fulfil the mandate, demands and

interests of stakeholders in accordance with what

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Allah (ultimate stakeholder) commands in the

Islamic Shariah (Al-Aidaros, Shamsudin and Idris,

2013; Khan and Rasheed, 2015; Attahiru, Al-

Adairos and Yusof, 2016; Zakiah and Al-Aidaros,

2017; Hassan and Aliyu, 2018). This is in fact

consistent with the idea of the Islamic stakeholder

theory according to Hasan and Asutay (2017) which

is based on four basic principles of tawheed, shura,

ownership rights and commitment to both implisit

and explicit contractual, which control the economic

and social behaviour of individuals of society

include ‘adl, rububiyah, and tazkiyah.

Both of the issues have definitely contributed

greatly to the problem of stakeholder mapping in

sharia financial institutions. Due to inadequate

understanding, the management actors in sharia

financial institutions also appear to have difficulties

in mapping and managing their stakeholders. For

respondents with sharia banking background, the

most important stakeholders for them are the

stakeholders closest to the tasks they hold.

Marketing of Islamic financial institutions considers

depositors are the most important stakeholders. This

is because depositors will greatly contribute to

institutional finances that ultimately bring both

career and income benefits to them. For the

respondents in charge of debtor customers, the

debtor customers are their main stakeholders. This is

because when the debtor is treated well then the

debtor is expected to provide a good income as well.

On the contrary, poor treatment will reduce income

and even incur losses for respondent institutions.

Revenue from debtors or financing customers (often

called margin by respondents) is the main income

for Islamic financial institutions. Respondents at

upper level management said that the Financial

Services Authority (OJK) was the most important

for the reason that OJK could close the bank which

they found unfavourable. It is seen that the degree of

significance of stakeholders is determined by the

position, level and responsibility of each personnel

in Islamic financial institutions. This can lead to a

non-holistic and unplanned approach to stakeholder

management. Every management personnel in

Islamic financial institutions has each definition and

urgency about stakeholders in accordance with what

they think is important related to their job, then

managing the stakeholders according to what they

understand. Islamic financial institutions should

have a stakeholder map (Hutt, 2010; Pavlov and

Bourne, 2011; Legget, 2012; Looser and

Wehrmeyer, 2015) with various interests and

management strategies so that operators of Islamic

financial institutions will understand in detail and

complete who stakeholders are, what the interests of

stakeholders are and how to manage them. This can

be fulfilled if the organization always provides

direction to management personnel about the

importance of stakeholders in achieving

organizational goals (Smith, 2002; Simmons, 2008;

de Bussy and Suprawan, 2012; Park and E. Levy,

2014; Erina, Ozolina-Ozola and Gaile-Sarkane,

2015; Shinbaum, Crandall and O’Bryan, 2016;

Chaudhary, 2017; Liu et al., 2018).

The respondents understand that economic and

financial performance are the most important thing

to be achieved by any financial institution, whether

it is Islamic or non-Islamic. The amount of Third

Party Funds, profits and increases in the number of

assets are some indicators to measure good or bad

management performance (Eljelly and Abdelgadir

Elobeed, 2013; Ben Slama Zouari and Boulila

Taktak, 2014; Erol et al., 2014; Mbama and Ezepue,

2018). From this perspective, the business of

achieving economic and financial performance in

Islamic financial institutions generally does not

differ much from its conventional rivals. This is as

explained by respondents with the background of

Islamic banking; especially Respondents BS2 which

explains that so far efforts to achieve performance

targets of Islamic banking is still done in a

conventional way. So it is natural that some

respondents who are Islamic banking borrowers or

depositors do not understand what the differences

between Islamic and conventional banking are. They

do not understand about the contracts and products

of Islamic banking in detail which is much different

from conventional banking products. They consider

the margin in Islamic banking as the interest; both

are considered just the same but different in

mentioning. In fact, borrowers consider conventional

banks better because the interest rates are smaller

than the interest rate of Islamic banks. Depositors

also have the same understanding, that interest and

margin are the same things. This should not occur

and recur if Islamic banking personnel receives

adequate, sustainable and evaluated training

(Duguay and Korbut, 2002; Daniels, 2003; Pollitt,

2010; Redman, 2011; Ghosh et al., 2011, 2012;

Diamantidis and Chatzoglou, 2012; Fawad Latif,

2012; Voegtlin, Boehm and Bruch, 2015; Chukwu,

2016; Mellor et al., 2016; Kucherov and Manokhina,

2017). It is especially in terms of understanding

sharia; and transferring the understanding to other

stakeholders, primarily to customers.

The mapping of stakeholders’ interests in an

institution, especially financial institutions, is very

important for the sustainability of its operations. The

Islamic Banking Management’s Perspectives and Practices on Stakeholders

589

mapping must be based on a deep and

comprehensive understanding of who stakeholders

are and what their interests are towards the

institution. The good stakeholders mapping can

provides great benefits to the process of managing

stakeholders. This can result in trust and legitimacy

of operations for institutions from stakeholders; and

have a positive impact on financial institutions. This

is also applied to Islamic financial institutions.

4 CONCLUSIONS

From the discussion above, it can be concluded

that there is a diversity of understanding of

stakeholders among Islamic financial institution

personnel. Unfortunately this diversity comes

without a deep and comprehensive understanding of

stakeholders, but a general unstructured knowledge.

Because of inadequate knowledge, personnel in

Islamic financial institutions has difficulties in

mapping the stakeholders of their institutions,

moreover managing the interests of their

stakeholders. Every management personnel in

Islamic financial institutions has each definition and

urgency about stakeholders in accordance with what

they think it is important related to their job, then

managing the stakeholders according to what they

understand. The above problems are caused by the

absence of special programs from Islamic financial

institutions for personnel related to the management

of stakeholders. This program can be in the form of

special training related to stakeholder management.

In addition, discussion activities and the provision of

material (printed and electronic) are also programs

that can be carried out by institutions. These things

must be able to facilitate personnel to define, map

and manage stakeholders with all their interests.

Furthermore, the above program should be provided

early on when Islamic financial institution personnel

join the institution, and are provided in a planned,

sustainable and evaluated manner, so that all

personnel have integrated views and actions even at

the level of management.

Furthermore, the respondents who are Islamic

financial institution personnel also cannot

understand how Islamic financial institutions define,

map and manage their stakeholders. The reason is

the same as what it is described above. However,

lack of understanding of the conventional secularist

based stakeholders should not be a barrier for

Islamic financial institution personnel to be able to

map, strategize and fulfil the mandate, demands and

interests of stakeholders in accordance with what

Allah (as the ultimate stakeholder) commands in

sharia. This is because by being a good Moslem and

carrying out the commands of Allah in accordance

with the guidance of the sharia, it is certain that it

will produce the behaviour expected by Islamic

financial institutions. This behaviour is primarily an

attitude to serve the interests of stakeholders which

are the embodiment of the duty of a Muslim as the

caliph on the earth. The behaviour, based on

evidence from BMT3 respondents, comes from a

deep and comprehensive understanding of Islamic

aqeeda and sharia, especially fiqh muamala.

Another thing that can be taken from the

phenomenon of Respondents BMT3 is that in

addition to formal programs from Islamic financial

institutions related to stakeholder management, the

independent, sustainable and lifelong learning

(madal hayah) related to aqeeda and fiqh muamala

is very important and fundamental. This will realize

the personnels of Islamic financial institutions who

are professional and have self-awareness about their

purpose as khilafa fil ardh, to achieve benefit

(maslaha) in the world and the hereafter.

The goal of managing stakeholders in Islamic

financial institutions must be in accordance with the

objectives of sharia, namely maslaha. Maslaha al

maal, in particular, is the main objective of the

economic and financial performance of Islamic

financial institutions. If the understanding of

maqasid sharia specifically maslahah al maal is not

adequate, then the efforts to achieve economic and

financial performance will not reach what is aspired

by sharia. This makes Islamic financial institutions

have no different from conventional financial

institutions; and will surely bring huge losses and

slander to Islamic financial institutions. The

dimension of maslaha al maal does not become a

benchmark for the economic and financial

performance of Islamic financial institutions because

of the constraints of lack of knowledge,

understanding and awareness to always be in

accordance with the maqasid sharia framework

which should be derived from a good understanding

of aqeeda and fiqh muamalah; and carried it out

continuously.

For Islamic financial institutions, good

stakeholder management must begin with the

preparation of good management resources, in

accordance with Islamic sharia and maqasid sharia

guidelines. In contrast to conventional financial

institutions that only pursue profit targets,

management of Islamic financial institutions must be

able to guarantee the strategy and how to obtain

these benefits to not violate the prohibition in sharia

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and harmonize with the goal of sharia. Therefore,

management of Islamic financial institutions must be

chosen, educated and trained not only based on the

perspective of secularist feasibility but more than

that must also based on the perspective of Islamic

ideology. An in-depth understanding of fiqh

muamalah and Islamic aqeeda with sustainable

teaching on management will provide the expected

contribution.

Further empirical research with a wider range of

respondents is needed to acquire information about

the impact of teaching and understanding of fiqh

muamalah and Islamic aqeeda for achieving the

goals of Islamic financial institutions.

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