Document Type : Original
Author
Assistant Professor, Department of Islamic Teachings, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
In complex and volatile environments, organizations require the capability to perceive, collect, validate, and interpret environmental information to ensure effective decision-making and organizational sustainability. Conventional models of control and surveillance—particularly under heightened uncertainty—face significant constraints arising from bounded rationality, perceptual gaps, data filtering, and cognitive biases. Aiming to articulate a conceptual model of strategic environmental mastery for organizations, this study investigates the semantic network of the root ḥ-w-ṭ and the concept of Iḥāṭah (encompassment) in the Holy Quran.
Employing a qualitative descriptive-analytical approach grounded in conceptual modeling, the analytical process was conducted in four systematic steps: (1) extracting the core meaning and paradigmatic axes; (2) analyzing syntagmatic relations and contextual Quranic applications; (3) conceptual abstraction by delineating the exclusive attributes of divine encompassment from human/organizational constraints; and (4) conceptual mapping of findings onto interdisciplinary organizational and management theories.
The findings indicate that strategic environmental mastery can be conceptualized across five interrelated dimensions: epistemological, cognitive, structural-situational, operational, and pathological. This model is underpinned by continuous environmental perception, information architecture and layering, situational coverage, data validation, networked distribution of observation, and the identification of perceptual and organizational impediments.
The study concludes that strategic mastery extends beyond mere external surveillance; rather, it constitutes an integrated capability encompassing internal safeguarding, environmental cognition, and resilience against uncertainty, which—in correlation with the Quranic concept of Iḥṣāʾ (exhaustive enumeration/quantification)—assumes a graded and hierarchical (gradational) nature.
Keywords
- Iḥāṭah (Encompassment)
- Strategic Environmental Mastery
- Semantic Network
- Situation Awareness
- Uncertainty Management
- Organizational Surveillance (Organizational Oversight)
Main Subjects
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