Islamic Work Ethics in Healthcare Providers
Audai Naji AL Smadi, Safiya Amaran, Ahed Abugabah, and Nader Alqudah reflect on their paper, “An examination of the mediating effect of Islamic Work Ethic (IWE) on the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance in Arab work environment,” which was published in The International Journal of Cross Cultural Management. Their reflection appears below the paper’s abstract.
Islam is currently the world’s second-largest religion after Christianity. There were 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide as of 2015 – roughly 24 percent of the global population. However, Islam and Muslims seem to have been misunderstood by some non-Muslims in the last two decades. Showing the positive side of Islam and Islamic teaching is a big responsibility of scholars and specifically Muslim scholars.
This study attempts to create a conceptual framework that incorporates IWE into the relationship between job satisfaction and performance in the Arab working culture and tries to broaden the cross-cultural management study of religion by investigating the mediation role of IWE in the relationship between job satisfaction and performance. Managers need clear work ethics that ensure a smooth workflow and solve any conflicts that could appear through the operational processes or daily activities of the organization. Likewise, recognizing religion as an integral component of cross-cultural dynamics might help managers deal with the critical issues around diversity and discrimination in a multicultural workplace.
The results of this paper support the positive effect of IWE on healthcare providers’ job performance, and the IWE plays mediating role between the job satisfaction and job performance of Arab healthcare providers. Examples of IWE such as cooperation, consultation, honesty, doing well, and halal work earning. Our findings also support the positive effect of the IWE on two of the most critical factors that affect the hospital’s performance. Considering religion when formulating the code of work ethics, policies, guidelines, and decision-making may positively affect healthcare providers’ job performance. Furthermore, studying the role of IWE on other cultures and/or multicultural environments seemed to be a great opportunity to extend the understanding of Islam and Muslim behaviors in the work environment.
Finally, it is essential to highlight that a piece of work presented by Aldulaimi entitled “Fundamental Islamic perspective of work ethics,” a work by Mohammad et al. entitled “Islamic Work Ethic: An Agenda for Future Research,” and a work by Ali and Al-Owaihan entitled “Islamic work ethic: A critical review” are the most important work in the field of IWE.
