Islamic Work Ethic and Organisational Commitment

Managers with high honesty, integrity and moral standard foster and make positive impressions among their followers and facilitate trust in management and a spirit of cooperative behaviour between managers and employees (Avolio, Gardner, Walumba, Luthans & May, 2004). Perceptions of a leader’s ethical conduct positively affect their satisfaction and commitment (Khuntia & Suar, 2004; Mize, Stanforth & Johnson, 2000; Ponnu & Tennakoon, 2009; Zhu, May & Avolio, 2004). Work ethics not only improve productivity and efficiency but also boost organisational commitment (Khosravi, Rezayi & Eskandari, 2011). Ethical leaders are viewed as credible and role models who encourage their subordinates to enforce standards for ethical behaviour (Brown et al., 2005). When employees perceive ethical behaviour and participative management they will engage more in their jobs (Zhang, Avery, Bergsteiner & More, 2014). This participative approach is also related to a leader’s empowerment behaviour which is derived from theories of employee engagement and participative management (e.g., Spreitzer, 1995). Research suggests that ethical leadership plays a significant role in boosting trust between two parties. When trust is established employees will respond through positive attitudes and behaviours. For instance, Conger and Kanungo (1998) and Kanungo (2010) suggested that ethical leaders by being personal trustworthy and exemplary behaviour endorse loyalty, affective commitment, cooperative behaviour and trust. In contrast, when the moral integrity of the leader is doubtful this will decrease their influence on subordinates. Ethical behaviour is concerned with the development and engagement of followers and will imbue affective benefits and positive psychological states of followers (e.g., trust and gratitude) in that way their commitment to management is fostered (Liden et al., 2008).

Perceptions of empowerment and commitment are positively related (Avolio, Zhu, Koh & Bhatia, 2004). Participative management is a likely antecedent of commitment (Mathieu & Zajac, 1990) and empowered employees are more likely to reciprocate through being more committed (Eisenberger, Armeli, Rexwinkel, Lynch & Rhoades, 2001; Kraimer, Seibert & Liden, 1999; Sims & Kroeck, 1994). Empowered employees are more likely to have greater levels of trust in their management. For instance, employees who find their work meaningful are more likely to immerse themselves more in their roles (May et al., 2004). Dimensions of

organisational justice are consistently found to be related to organisational commitment (Aryee et al., 2002; Cropanzano, Prehar & Chen, 2002). Similarly, procedural, interactional and distributive justice enhance affective and normative commitment (Moorman, 1993; Pillai et al., 2001). Participation in decision making is an important component of procedural justice (Shura) linked to job satisfaction and organisational commitment (Meyer & Allen, 1991). Earlier work has shown that perceptions of justice (fairness) significantly affect satisfaction, commitment, citizenship behaviour and turnover intention (Cropanzano et al., 2007; Colquitt, Greenberg & Greenberg, 2003; Hassan, 2002). Perceptions of organisational support leads employees respond via stronger attachment (Eisenberger et al., 2001; Rhoades, Eisenberger & Armeli, 2001). As explained in the previous chapter, spiritual/religious ethics help to promote productivity and increase engagement (Toney, 2002). This shows the importance of meeting the material and spiritual needs of people rather than material needs only. Leaders should behave ethically and fairly treat their subordinates (leading by example) as it is clearly stated in Quran (61:2, 3) “O you who have believed, why do you say what you do not do? Great is hatred in the sight of Allah that you say what you do not do”.

To rephrase it, ethical behaviour should start at the top, managers can not shrink from their responsibilities in terms of the formal ethical codes and training will be less successful if the actions of managers are inconsistent with what they teach. Likewise, managers should be leading examples for their employees (Brown & Mitchell, 2010). Meglino et al. (1989) found that when managers’ and employees’ values were consistent, satisfaction and commitment increased.Leaders who give negative examples to their subordinates are described as “cancer” for ethical behaviour at the organisational level (Fisher & Lovell, 2003). The role of a Muslim manager does not end with giving instructions only, but they should control and follow up the activities and plans until they are completely achieved (Abuznaid, 2006). Unlike what is proposed in SET, exchange in an Islamic context is free of risk or doubt in God and consequences of these exchanges (punishment, reward). Similar to SET, trust in management implies that managers are credible, sincere and trustworthy, if trust is cheated; a person is responsible for their actions not only in the organisation but also at the Day of Judgement (Possumah, Ismail & Shahimi, 2013).

Trust will lead to the distribution of authority and avoids strict centralisation (Branine & Pollard, 2010). Accordingly, IWE emphasises collaboration, hard work, honesty and accountability among individuals in all aspect of their life including the workplace because the reward and punishment are not only in this world but also in the hereafter (Abbasi et al., 2010;

Ali, 1987; Branine & Pollard, 2010; Yousef, 2000b, 2001). Employees want to be associated with fair, honest, sincere, respectful and credible managers (Collins, 2010; Kouzes & Posner, 2007) and the literature on organisational commitment and its association with work ethics is well addressed (e.g., Koh & Boo, 2001; Vitell & Davis, 1990).

According to Mokhlis (2009, p. 75) “Religion is an important cultural factor to study because it is one of the most universal and influential social institutions that has a significant influence on attitudes, values, and behaviours at both the individual and societal levels”.

Empirical studies have shown links between employee attitudes, behaviour and work ethics with HRM practices (Joiner & Bakalis, 2006; Lok & Crawford, 2001) and McGunnigle and Jameson (2000) believe OC is the most predominant theme in the HRM literature. Prior work supported the significant correlation between OC and Islamic approaches to HRM (Edgar & Geare, 2004; Hashim, 2010; Yousef, 1999, 2001). The impact of OC on organisational development has received less attention (Cullen, Parboteeah & Victor, 2003; Kurpis, Begiri & Helgeson, 2008; Valentine et al., 2011). Elci, Sener and Alpkan (2011) recommended the inclusion of dimensions of commitment in further studies. Religiosity is a part of personal characteristics and personal belief is a part of an individual’s personality (Chusmir & Koberg, 1988). Religiosity influences human behaviour and attitudes and indicates the differentiation between them (Clark & Dawson, 1996; Weaver & Agle, 2002). Kelley and Dorsch (1991) and Ostroff (1993) found a positive association between organisational ethical climate and components of commitment and Hunt, Wood and Chonko (1989) reported that corporate ethical values significantly predicted dimensions of commitment.

Perceptions of the ethical values of the organisation are directly related to affective commitment, perceived procedural justice, turnover intentions, job satisfaction and adaptive behaviours (Herrbach & Mignonac, 2007; Rokhman, 2010). Due to a lack of studies on the relationship between IWE and dimensions of commitment, citations from the linkage between PWE and organisational commitment have been used. In spite of their differences, IWE and PWE share some common points and the association between organisational commitment and PWE can broaden our understanding of the nature of these relationships (Yousef, 2000a). Several studies have also found a significant relationship between work ethics and organisational commitment (Peterson, 2004; Schiebel & Pochtrager, 2003) and have addressed the links between Islam and organisational commitment (Awan et al., 2014; Ntalianis & Raja 2002; Namazi, 2009).

In addition, Yousef (2000b) found that IWE is moderately and positively associated with dimensions of commitment, particularly affective more than normative and continuance commitment. He also found that IWE mediates the relationship between affective commitment and job satisfaction in cross-cultural settings. Ali and Al-Kazemi (2007) found that IWE was highly correlated with loyalty between managers in Kuwait. Although people show different levels of commitment at the workplace some empirical work has shown that religious people are more likely to make decisions which are consistent with their moral conscience in terms of attitudes and behaviour (Pargament et al., 1988). Conversely, Saat et al. (2009) argued that the influence of religiosity on ethical attitudes depends on situations where high religiosity may not necessarily means high ethical values. Past research has shown that when managers allow their employees to participate in decision making they display greater commitment (e.g., Jermier & Berkes, 1979; Rhodes & Steers, 1981), are supportive of them (e.g., Allen & Meyer, 1990; Mottaz, 1988; Withey, 1988) and treat them with fairness and consideration (e.g., Bycio, Hackett & Allen, 1995; DeCotiis & Summers, 1987). Furthermore, a participatory management approach is considered as one of the antecedents of NC (Dunham et al., 1994). Studies on the impact of work ethics on dimensions of commitment and job satisfaction have produced mixed results. For instance, some have found a direct and positive impact of work ethics on affective commitment (Oliver, 1990; Putti et al., 1989; Saks et al., 1996) and IWE on dimensions of commitment (Ali & Al-Kazemi, 2007; Mohamed, Karim & Hussein, 2010) and PWE (Williams & Sandler, 1995). Others have found a negative impact (Arifuddin, 2002) and weak impact (Elkins, 2007). However, Uygur (2009) did not find any influence of work ethics on dimensions of commitment. Trevino et al. (1998) supported the argument that ethical climate and culture affect affective commitment. According to Islam, God is omnipresent, which enhances an employee’s self-control and accordingly increase their commitment because they are accountable to Allah (Swailes & Al-Fahdi, 2011). However, affective and normative commitment are directly associated with job performance and citizenship behaviour, while this relationship does not usually exist or is negative with continuance commitment (Meyer & Allan, 1991). Therefore, the association between work ethics and CC is expected to be negative. Alhyasat (2012) found a moderate correlation between IWE and OC. In light of this it is hypothesised that:

H4a: Islamic Work Ethics are positively related to affective and normative commitment H4b: Islamic Work Ethics are negatively related to continuance commitment.