To sum up, IWE have recently emerged and need to be further addressed to broaden our understanding of their nature and practical implications especially in the workplace. The empirical literature on IWE is not rich which makes it difficult to build a robust platform. Studies on IWE have not been a priority of many government and research centers in the Muslim world. Unstable policital and economic systems have contributed to this neglect. Human resource management practices are not fully adopting IWE especially in recruitment where in many cases people are recruited based on nepotism, connections, political affilliations rather than their experience and qualifications. The principles of IWE if implemented can establish a successful and developed society based on mutual respect and interest where all employees treat each other based on a spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood. Principles of consultation, justice, honesty and hardwork have positive concequences on societies. Muslims
should not only avoid hurting others through their words and actions but should even avoid having negative intention in their hearts as well because actions are evaluated and accounted base on their intention rather than consequences of those actions. The original IWE scale is long, old, and some items were not consistent when the English and Arabic versions were compared. Accordingly, this study aimed to develop the IWE scale based on Hinkin’s (1995) approach. Previous studies have mostly used the short version of IWE which may not represent all aspects of the construct beside the participants were only Muslim Arab students in the US who may not represent the Muslim world. Corruption is widespread in some Muslim countries where in spite of their various natural resources and principles of IWE they face challenges in many aspects of life especially educational, economic, industrial and agricultural sectors. Few examples of organisation or companies that apply IWE in Muslim countries can be found. The development of IWE scale will have practical implications for education and research where researchers can apply it in other contexts to further test its reliability and validity. The principles of IWE are not implemented in Muslim countries or Muslim daily life as is required in particular in the workplace. This all makes implementing IWE in the Muslim world a necessity. Few empirical studies on IWE have linked it to positive organisational outcomes such as satisfaction, commitment, work involvement and citizenship behaviour.
3 CHAPTER THREE: THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
3.1 INTRODUCTION
The previous chapter addressed the background to the Islamic work ethic, its main principles and the importance of work from an Islamic perspective. According to Islamic doctrine, the implications of one’s action are not specific to this life but they (reward and punishment) exceed to the hereafter. This is the logic that Muslims assume to commit to in their daily life (Ali, 2005; Abuznaid, 2009; Rizk, 2008; Rice, 1999) but only a small body of literature on IWE is produced in Islamic and Middle Eastern contexts (Hatem, 1994; Parnell & Crandall, 2003; Robertson et al., 2001). Most work on IWE is theoretical and has not clearly indicated the link between the principles of IWE and underpinning theories and does not clarify the way those connections are established. Accordingly, this study links the principles of IWE to social exchange theory and the norm of reciprocity to create a conceptual framework. This norm indicates that whenever employees perceive fair and just treatment from their organisation in a way that preserves their self-respect and does not discriminate them based on their different backgrounds, they will be ready to devote more effort, show positive attitudes and behaviour and continue the relationship.
In spite of the rich literature on job satisfaction and organisational commitment there are some controversial questions which require further investigation particularly in terms of culture and contexts (Armutlulu & Noyan, 2011; Vilela et al., 2008). The importance of testing the model in this study stems from its applications in a new Islamic and non-Arabic contexts. The effect of work ethics generally on these variables is widely tested in non-Islamic contexts and the aim is to obtain a better understanding of the associations between these variables which are related and used as indicators of other organisational outcomes such as performance and turnover intention. This chapter starts with a brief clarification of social exchange theory which is used to explain the link between Islamic work ethic, job satisfaction, affective, normative and continuance commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour. The next section covers social exchanges in a religious context where alongside exchanges between employees and managers, God is also a partner within these exchanges. However, the high risk and uncertainty associated with the question of the existence of God in other religious contexts is not as applicable in exchanges in an Islamic context. Therefore, this study argues that in an Islamic context, exchanges with Allah (God) exist as a crucial part of Muslim faith or the oneness of
God. As a result, when God exists and high levels of certainty exist this will lead to trust which will increase social exchange relationships in the workplace. This study argues that this component should be added to religious exchange contexts. Inclusion of other variables especially job satisfaction and organisational commitment is based on prior argument made in terms of testing them together with OCB. The second part includes development of hypotheses based on SET and literature related to direct associations between the variables. Figure 3.1 shows a conceptual framework which proposes that higher adherence to IWE is associated with higher satisfaction, commitment and higher citizenship behaviour. This model measures the direct relationships between the variables.
Figure 3.1 The conceptual framework of the association between Islamic work ethic, job satisfaction, affective, normative and continuance commitment and organisational
citizenship behaviour (+) (+) (+)(+) (+) (-) (+) (+) (-)(+) (-) (+) Affective Commitment Normative Commitment Continuance Commitment Islamic Work Ethic
(IWE) Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) Job Satisfaction (JS)