People Recruitment Model for Effective and Sustainable Mosque Management

Abstract

Mosque has a pivotal role in da’wa and Muslim community development. Unfortunately, many of them have lost such functions nowadays and the caretaker is among the main reasons: an active board of caretaker results in an active mosque and vice versa. Thus, a model of effective and sustainable people recruitment is needed for mosques to be optimally functional. This research analyzes two long-lasting mosques in Surabaya, Al-Falah, and Al-Abror, to develop the model. Al-Falah is a downtown mosque while Al-Abror is located in a suburban area. Both are regarded as sustainable mosques due to their ability and consistency in performing community development through their programs and people management in more than 40 years of their existence. The objective of this grounded research is to understand the people recruitment planned and implemented by both mosques’ board of caretaker. Using an in-depth interview and inductive analysis, this research reveals three important points of findings. Firstly, the strategic value proposition in mosque people recruitment consists of mosque organizational vision, work-related spiritualism, personal track record alignment, and material incentive. Secondly, although the recruitment source primarily is from internal (within the recent or previous board of caretaker), an external source (people from any background and residential area) is proven to be effective. Last, personal and word of mouth through social media platforms such as WhatsApp are the preferred method for recruitment.