Contrast on leadership approaches: an empirical study of majority and minority Muslims

Islamic leadership is a psychological contract between a leader and his followers where he will try his best to guide them, to protect them, and to treat them fairly and with justice. The objective of Islamic leadership principles is to encourage Muslim followers to practice and develop human qualities for a better place in a society and a better life for the Muslim Ummah. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the application of transformational, transactional and servant leadership styles in Muslim majority and a minority countries in Southeast Asia. This study shows differences or conformance between two: one Muslim majority and minority countries on Islamic leadership practices by adopting Islamic leadership principles. This study conducted an empirical survey in two different but neighboring nations in Southeast Asia, namely Malaysia and Thailand. The research data was analyzed through non-parametric analysis such as one independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVA. The findings of the empirical study indicated some significant differences in the Muslim minority country as compared to that of the Muslim majority. Possible reasons and policy prescriptions are offered in the conclusion