The role of Islamic work ethics in developing organizational citizenship behavior at the Jordanian Press Foundations

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the effect of Islamic work ethics on the organizational citizenship behavior in Jordanian press organizations, and single out the most significant element of Islamic work ethics. Design/methodology/approach – The present study adopted the descriptive analytical approach based on field survey. The population of the study consists of seven daily newspapers in Jordan in 2010. A stratified random sample of the top management and executive management was taken, proportionate to the size of each organization. In total, 66 questionnaires were distributed to 30 per cent of the 218 targeted managers, and 175 questionnaires were distributed to 15 per cent of the employees, who totaled 1,163. In total, 204 questionnaires were collected. Frequencies and percentages were used to identify the characteristics of the community, while means and standard deviations were used to answer the questions, along with the multiple regression and the single-factor analysis of variance. Findings – The study found that the level of commitment on the part of workers in Jordanian press foundations to Islamic work ethics was high. In addition, there was a statistically significant effect of abidance by Islamic work ethics (kindness and forgiveness in dealing with employees and clients, obedience to the people in power and respecting job ethics in organizational citizenship behavior among employees in these organizations. Meanwhile, there was no statistically significant effect of abidance by the Islamic work ethics (proficiency, giving advice to Muslims, sense of responsibility, justice and fairness, integrity and teamwork) in organizational citizenship behavior. Practical implications – The paper involves a set of components of organizational citizenship behavior derived from Islamic work ethics. These ethics can be integrated into the human resources systems in media organizations, and other types of entities. These ethics can be incorporated into any code of conduct, stating the behaviors expected from every employee. Originality/value – The researcher conducted a comparative study based on related literature. Obviously, previous studies addressed work ethics generally, but they did not address the specific components of ethics which this study did). It is also worth indicating that all previous studies were conducted in foreign contexts, whereas this study has been conducted in an Arab context. Additionally, there are studies on organizational citizenship behavior, but this one linked between Islamic work ethics and organizational citizenship behavior.