Answering the Call: Establishing a Transformative Social Service

Answering the Call: Establishing a Transformative Social Service is a book journeying the evolution of a transformative social service of Tabung Haji, the central organization in Malaysia that provides and manages hajj-related services as well as serves as the foremost savings institution for Malaysian Muslims who intend to perform the hajj pilgrimage to Makkah. Hajj pilgrimage, which involved journey to and stay in Makkah, is a religious ritual that is observed by the Muslims as one of the five pillars of Islamic faith. Tabung Haji’s establishment is said to be an answer to the call of the Malaysian society who needed an intervention to aid them to manage their finance to enable them to perform hajj. Today, Tabung Haji is recognized as one of the worlds’ most respected service organizations that manages the hajj-related affairs of Malaysian Muslims.

The focus of this book is on the development of transformative social service offered by organizations, which is, understanding the nature of transformative service and the organization that diffuses them, particularly on the processes and the strategies involved in developing such service and organization. It also seeks to unravel the philosophies that permeated the creation and development of such organizations as well as the dimensions of the transformation brought about by their social services. This objective is achieved through a historical-processual qualitative case study, in which the history of the phenomenon being researched is traced and interpreted.

The chapters in this book are structured into the theoretical aspects related to the concept of transformative service, social innovation and the usefulness of the design of single case study as a method of inquiry, then followed by deliberations that centered on the development of a transformative social service within an organization, the philosophies that underlie the creation of the innovation and organization, the strategies utilized by the organization in its development, as well as the dimensions of the transformation brought about by the introduction of the social service.