An examination of the mediating effect of Islamic Work Ethic (IWE) on the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance in Arab work environment

Abstract

Studying the role of religion and its relationship to work outcomes is not new in cross-culture management, especially in globalization with the increase of interaction in cross-cultural settings. Islamic work ethics (IWE) have attracted the attention of academics studying the attitudes and behaviors of workers in Muslim societies. This study investigates the role of IWE as a mediator in the relationship between job satisfaction and performance. A stratified sampling technique was used to select 11 emergency departments from hospitals in Jordan. In total, 475 questionnaires were distributed to healthcare providers. Only 299 questionnaires were completed and returned to the research team. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 25. Descriptive analysis, correlation, Cronbach alpha, and regression analyses were performed. The findings indicated that job satisfaction has a significant positive impact on IWE and job performance (B = 0.66, p < 0.001), (B = 0.58, p < 0.001), respectively. The findings also indicated that IWE directly and positively affects job performance (B = 0.70, p < 0.001). Overall, the results supported that IWE partially mediates the relationship between job satisfaction and performance. Similarly, job satisfaction was also found to be an essential predictor of IWE. In addition, job satisfaction indirectly affects job performance through IWE. Therefore, IWE plays an essential role in job satisfaction and performance relationship. This study is an attempt to create a conceptual framework that incorporated IWE into the relationship between job satisfaction and performance in the Arab working culture and tried to broaden the cross-cultural management study of religion by investigating the mediation role of IWE in the relationship between job satisfaction and performance. The current study contributes to expand our understanding of the importance of IWE to the relationship between job satisfaction and performance in the Arab cultural context, which has received less attention in management research.