An Investigation into the Implications of Islamic Work Ethic (IWE) in the Workplace

Abstract

There has been an increasing interest on the work ethics and its various aspects among the academicians and practitioners. This is partly because of the ethical scandals that have occurred in the recent years and got attention from media and public and therefore raised the questions regarding ethical standards of companies and its practical use in the business life. This interest has prompted several research into the topic both theoretical and practical levels. Although the studies have accumulated in the Western World, the studies coming from the developing countries are limited and thus call for the studies to further investigate the dynamics and implications of the work ethics. This study particularly pays attention to Islamic work ethic and aims to identify whether Islamic work ethic values differ across various demographic variables and firm characteristics. The study also investigates the relationship between the Islamic work ethic and innovation capability and firm performance. The study is supported with a field study conducted on the firms operating in KahramanmaraÅŸ in Turkey. The obtained data was analyzed by using Correlation, ANOVA, T-test and Regression in SPSS. The results showed that IWE values differ across some characteristic of the respondents and firms. The results also indicate the positive influence of IWE values on innovation capability and firm performance.