The Influence of Arab Islamic values on Human Resource Performance from the perspective of the Employees in the commercial banks of Jordan

Abstract

Religion is an essential factor or element of human life. It shapes cultural identity for both individual and community. Despite the importance of religion for people, Islam has been the central element for Muslim life. It is a system of faith which has guided Muslims in their total world not only in spiritual but also moral matters. Moreover, it influences and guides attitudes and behaviour.

A few studies exist on human resource management and HR performance in Islamic as well as the Jordan context; however, the role of the religion and its contribution toward HR performance has not been amply crystallized. This is just an endeavour in a hitherto less frequented direction.

For the above reasons this study is conducted to investigate the influence of Arab Islamic cultural values on human resource performance within Hofstede’s five dimensions. It explores the complex relationship between Islam, national culture and human performance in Jordan’s banking sector, which is the strongest segment of its financial services industry dating back to 1948.

The study employed a mixed methods approach, drawing on 2 interviews with two human resource managers form two different commercial banks and 174 questionnaire survey returns from managers, managers’ assistants, division heads, branch heads and employees in five of the commercial banks in Jordan to meet its aim and to increase the reliability and validity of the results. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 22 was used to analyse data from the questionnaire returns.

The results of this study support the conclusions of previous research that Islam, as a religion, still plays an important role in the work environment, national culture and human resource performance. Of the nine Islamic cultural values (Intention/Naya, Taqawa, Eshan, Justice/Adel, Justice trust/Amana, Trustworthiness/Sedq and Consultation/Shura, Self-improvement/Etqan and Patience/Sabar) the results show that only two have an influence and significant effect on human resource performance in the commercial banks in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan from the employees’ perspective. Furthermore, Islamic culture has an influence on human resource performance within Hofstede’s five dimensions (national culture). Moreover, national culture is mediated between Islamic culture and human resource performance.

Recommendations for future research are discussed.

Date of Award	2019
Original language	English
Supervisor	Hefin Rowlands (Supervisor), Caryn Cook (Supervisor) & Brychan Thomas (Supervisor)