Continuous improvement in products/services is a vital element of total quality management (TQM). To strengthen competitive advantage in the market, organisations must continuously improve quality of products and services. Whether this process is termed as Jidoka, Kaizen, PDSA, 5-S, Six Sigma, or JIT, the purpose is to continually improve product/service quality or process quality. However, these models focus solely on mundane benefits. Developing a model of continuous improvement from an Islamic perspective is the major objective of this study. By nature, the study is an exploratory one and theoretically based on library research and is rooted in the Qur’?n and Sunnah. The major outcome of this research is development of a new model of continuous improvement, named NAMS cycle. This cycle is composed of four inter-related components: al-N?yyah bi al- Ikhl?s, al- ‘Amal, al-Mu??saba, and al-?hukr. Having the initial letters of the components the model is named. In turn, each component consists of a number of elements, for example al-N?yyah bi al- Ikhl?s consists of intention, objectives, and planning. Organisations have to fulfil two prerequisites for successful implementation of the model in their premises which are top management commitment and strongly motivated work team.

Managing time means engaging activities that generate greater benefits to human beings. To a Muslim, benefits encompass for both worlds, i.e., life in this mundane world as well as life in the hereafter. Previous research on time management resulted in a variety of findings depending on the aspects under study. The objective of this research is to investigate the components of time management that have significant relationship with job performance, especially in the context of Malaysian employees. This research also intends to relate the concepts and attributes of “al-wasatiyyah” that have direct relationship to job performance. To pursue the research objectives, 223 employees working in different sectors in Malaysia were contacted. The researchers found that certain time management factors namely “prioritisation of tasks,” “usage of schedules,” and “time management instrument” sustained statistically significant positive relationships to job performance. Meanwhile, the al-wasatiyyah variables that have been found to have statistically significant positive relationships to job performance are “working with sincerity/pure intention (niyyah),” “following the middle path to avoid excessiveness in working place (wasatan),” “practicing values in working place (qiam),” and “ensuring fairness in task assignment (adl).” These findings have important implications. Most importantly, managers of organisations can practice them to motivate employees in order to enhance their job performance which by and large will improve the performance of the whole organisation in the long run.