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English 2021 PDF
English 2021 PDF
English 2021 PDF
1. Introduction
The Islamic work ethics is an orientation toward 'work' which is rooted in
Islamic Shariah principles. Since work ethics is proven to have a significant
influence on the individual and organizational outcomes, it is helpful to
understand this concept (Jihad Mohammad and Farzana Quoquab,
comparative study on Islamic work ethics). The individual's perception of work
ethics is produced by their religious faith as well as cultural values. The
concept of work ethics has received significant research attention since 1980s
[Ali (1988), Cherrington (1983), Kleiber and Crandall (1981) and Nasr (1984)].
Those researches have defined work ethics as a dispositional variable which
is different among the individuals. According to Al-Modaf (2005), work ethics
are necessary for any organization to function, make profit and maintain in the
future. Additionally, Abeng (1997) indicated that organization can work more
________________
* Mohamed Farah Abdi, Masters student of Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), Malaysia.
Email: farahabdi88@gmail.com
** Siti Fatimah Dato’ Wira Muhamad Nor, Lecturer with Department of Business Management,
Insaniah University College, Malaysia. Email: iema_fatimah@yahoo.com
*** Nor Zuhairatun Md. Radzi, Lecturer with Department of Accounting, Insaniah University
College, Malaysia. Email: mimieradzi@gmail.com
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Proceedings of 5th Asia-Pacific Business Research Conference
17 - 18 February, 2014, Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-44-3
Islamic work ethics has its origin from the Quran and the sayings and actions
of Prophet Mohammad SAW (pbuh) (Ali and Al-Owaihan 2008: 1999). The
Islamic work ethics includes economic, social and moral elements (Ahmad,
2011). Jalil (2010) noted that 'ethic can be understood in Islamic terms as
Hayy'a (the state of respect and the practice of good deeds). The Muslim
individual must practice the Islamic ethic in all parts of life. Porter (2010)
stated that every nation and culture around the world has its own history and
conditions that influence the meanings given to the work in people's life.
Culture along with religious background has an impact on the people's ethical
thought and behaviors. Quddus et al. (2009) noted that religious background
and beliefs affect ethics and ethical understanding of the people. Therefore,
people reflect their religious thought and beliefs in understanding and
practicing ethic in daily and business life.
Jalil et al. (2010) argued that ethical practices could help organization to
create good relationship with other organizations and long-term relationship
with the future possible customers. Because of the worldwide ethical
dishonors and the increasing of the needs and the importance as well as the
advantages of work ethics in the workplace a lot of work ethic research has
encouraged across the world (Rokhman, 2010).
Ethics has been one of the most commonly discussed and researched topic in
the recent years. Quddus et al, (2009) noted that there is an increasing
importance in working ethics. Similarly Jalil et al. (2010) stated that ethic and
ethical behavior are in the centre of arguments in business community
worldwide. The interest in ethics comes from the fact that the recent years
have witnessed a number of dishonors that are attributed to the lack of the
ethical set of behavior (Hodgetts and Luthans, 2000: Rokhman, 2010).
Practicing ethic at organizational level creates a number of benefits to the
organizations and this in turn creates an interest in work ethics.
Even though there are a lot of researchers focused on ethics in the workplace,
these unethical practices still keep continuing in the organizations, such as
corruption, fraud, lies, sexual harassment and many other associated
secondary behaviors which are considered unethical behavior. In recent
years, a number of practical studies took place to investigate ethical beliefs
and intentions across different cultures (Graham, 1985). There are several
countries and organizations in the region have experienced and still suffering
from the ethical disorder. Moreover the facts that many organizations already
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Proceedings of 5th Asia-Pacific Business Research Conference
17 - 18 February, 2014, Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-44-3
collapse due to the unethical behavior in the workplace. Therefore, this study
is intended to explore the view from an Islamic organization on the impact of
Islamic work ethics on job performance and also to seek for the relationship
between Islamic work ethics, job performance and organizational
commitment.
2. Literature Review
Beekun (1997) defined Islamic work ethics as the set of moral principles that
distinguish what is right from what is wrong. According to Rizk (2008), Islamic
work ethics is a direction towards work and approaches work as a valuable
asset in the human's lives. Islamic work ethics is originally derived from the
Holy Qur'an, the teachings sayings and actions of Prophet Mohammad SAW
as well as the legacy of the four Caliphs of Islam (Ali, 2005 and Rizk, 2008).
According to Hayaati (2007), ethics in the Islamic perspective is an indication
of good values whether in behavior, action, thinking or feeling. The majority of
researchers argue that in Islamic work ethics, work is an obligatory activity
and a desirable quality in the person's need and necessity to create the
strength in the individual and social life (Ali, 2001 and Ali and Al Owaihan,
2008). Rashid and Ibrahim (2005) stated that ethics is the result and the
outcomes of Iman (belief) and it appears in the Islamic worldview of human
life. Moreover, it called akhlaq which is a set of Islamic moral values that have
been approved basically in the Holy Qur'an and derived from the actions of
Prophet Mohammad SAW throughout his lifetime (McGee, 2012).
Muslim scholars also recognize the important of Islamic work ethics in the
modern age, as it became part of Islamic thought which is beneficial to every
generation. Ali & Al Owaihan (2008), classified the work that is associated
with the sayings of Prophet Mohammad SAW into eleven branch, that are
practicing lawful business, the importance of earning wealth, quality of work,
wages, self dependence, monopoly, bribery, deeds and intentions,
transparency, greed, and kindness. They said that Prophet Mohammad SAW
in a clear manner taught and trained the followers that good work is that which
advantages others in the society. Then those who work hard are recognized
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Proceedings of 5th Asia-Pacific Business Research Conference
17 - 18 February, 2014, Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-44-3
and rewarded. The Prophet then stated that ''Worshiping has seventy paths,
and the best of them is the involvement in an honestly earned living''. Meaning
that, work is the best form of worshiping. The Prophet (pbuh) promoted the
people and their work to the highest level if their accomplishments assist
others. He said: ''The best work is the one that results in benefit'' and ''The
best of people are those who benefit others''. In Islamic faith, it is realized that
the people have different abilities, and it is those abilities and the chances
what enables them to obtain wealth. Therefore, practicing economic
movements should be based on moral and legitimate foundations.
Jalil et al. (2010) says that Islamic work ethics positively affect organizational
well functioning. And putting Islamic work ethics into operation in the
organizations generates continuous development of the organization,
increased customer satisfaction and demonstrates good representation of the
business Jalil et al. (2010). Ali and Al-Owaihan (2008) declared that the
successful achievement of Islamic work ethics leads to a higher performance
and widespread wealth. Besides that, many researchers guaranteed that the
values of Islamic work ethics improves the quality and the performance of
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Proceedings of 5th Asia-Pacific Business Research Conference
17 - 18 February, 2014, Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-44-3
both the individuals and organizations (Ahmad, 2011: Ali and Al-Owaihan,
2008: Husin, 2012: Jalil et al. 2010: Kumar and Rose, 2010).
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Proceedings of 5th Asia-Pacific Business Research Conference
17 - 18 February, 2014, Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-44-3
H1 M BLJ
ESSALS WRIS
M CROW CIMALSI
SCICIRM
M LSNWRCAWCCLRWO
IL CC SRC
H2
3.2 Measures
The survey questionnaire was divided into two parts. The first part covers the
demographic profile of the respondents; whereas the second part of the
questionnaire tested the respondent’s level of agreement on the questions of
the Islamic work ethics items. Respondents were asked to indicate their
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Proceedings of 5th Asia-Pacific Business Research Conference
17 - 18 February, 2014, Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-44-3
In the study of Abbas Ali (1988), Pearson correlation analysis and reliability
tests were used to determine the reliability and the validity of the 46 Islamic
work ethics items. The result shows that the Cronbach Alpha reliability
coefficients for Islamic work ethics were .89. The Cronbach Alpha for job
performance by Radhakrishna (1990) were .83 as well as the items for
organizational commitment from the test of Robinson (2010) confirms that the
Cronbach Alpha were .848.
4. The Findings
Table 1. Mean and Standard Deviation for Islamic Work Ethics, Job
Performance and Organizational Performance
Variable Mean Standard Deviation
IWE 4.0074 .50588
JP 4.0650 .63793
OC 3.4100 .74689
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Proceedings of 5th Asia-Pacific Business Research Conference
17 - 18 February, 2014, Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-44-3
Table 4. Model Summary for Islamic Work Ethics, Job Performance and
Organizational Performance
Model R R Square Adjusted Std. Error Durbin
R Square Of The Watson
Estimate
Table 5 confirms that the value of F is 9.711 and proves that this study is
significant.
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Proceedings of 5th Asia-Pacific Business Research Conference
17 - 18 February, 2014, Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-44-3
Table 6 shows that job performance have a positive relationship with Islamic
work ethics; whereas, organizational commitment have a negative relationship
with Islamic work ethics.
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Proceedings of 5th Asia-Pacific Business Research Conference
17 - 18 February, 2014, Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-44-3
The findings indicated that Islamic work ethics has an impact on job
performance and positively correlate with it. As a result, the organizations
need to put Islamic work ethics into practice as it ensures the ultimate and the
continuous success of the organization. As the Islamic scholars such as Ali
(2001) and Ali and Al-Kasemi (2007) mentions about Islamic work ethics that
is of a great importance for the development and success of Muslim societies
and their organizations. This study also proves their statements by showing a
great reliability in term of the employee's performance. This result is aligned
with past research where work ethics positively affect job performance
(Andrisani and Parnes, 1983) the level of job satisfaction (Blood (1969).
However, it found a negative correlation for the second variable;
organizational commitment.
Ultimately this study suggests that organizations can work more effectively
and efficiently by adopting an ethical framework that guides and helps to
organize their work as it has been mentioned by Abeng (1997). In future the
perception of Islamic work ethics should be expanded by attach more
variables to enhance the contribution towards this topic.
References
Al-Farabi, 1971, Fusul muntaza'ah (Excerpt on Ethics), ed. F. Najjar, Beirut
Al-Modaf, O. A 2005, Islamic work ethic code: a conceptual study, Umm Al-
Qura University Journal of Education, Social Sciences and Humanities,
Special issue on the occasion of celebrating Makkah Al-Mukarramah as
the capital of Islamic culture for the year 1426 H., corresponding to 2005
Ali, JA and Al-Owaihan, A 2008, Islamic work ethics: a critical review, Cross
Cultural Management an International Journal, 15 (1), pp.5-19.
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Proceedings of 5th Asia-Pacific Business Research Conference
17 - 18 February, 2014, Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-44-3
Arslan, M 2001, The Work Ethics Values of Protestant British, Catholic Irish
and Muslim Turkish Managers, Journal of Business Ethics, 31, pp. 321-
339.
Cherrington, D 1980, Work Ethic: Working Values and Values that Work.
AMACOM, New York, NY.
Hayaati, SI 2007, Values & Ethics towards Quality Public Delivery System of
Malaysia: An Islamic Perspective, Journal Syariah, 15 (2), pp. 25-43.
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Proceedings of 5th Asia-Pacific Business Research Conference
17 - 18 February, 2014, Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-44-3
Kumar, N and Rose, RC 2009, Examining the Link between Islamic Work
Ethic and Innovation Capability, Journal of Management Development
29(1): pp. 79-93.
Nasr, SH 1984, Islamic Work Ethics, Hamdard Islamicus 7(4): pp. 25-35.
Yunus, OM, Abdul Rahim, A, Shabuddin, and Mazlan, M 1990, Work Ethic of
Furnham, The protestant Work Ethic, London: Routledge.
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