The Quran-Based Human Resource Management and its Effects on

Organisational Justice, Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intention

Associate Professor Dr. Junaidah Hashim, Department of Business Administration, Kulliyyah of Economics and
Management Science, International Islamic University Malaysia

ABSTRACT
An introduction to the Islamic approach of managing human resource is an initial attempt to provide managers
with an effective way of managing and understanding employees. This knowledge would be useful to even non-Muslim
managers. For Muslim human resource managers, it is required for them to not only know but also to apply the Islamic
approach in managing employees. Non-Muslim managers will have a better understanding of the expected behaviours
of their Muslim employees. Muslim employees regardless with whom they work for are expected to be honest,
trustworthy, and determined to continuously strive for the best.
Keywords: Organisational justice, The Quran, Islam, Malaysia, Human resource management.
INTRODUCTION
Effective human resource management (HRM) is crucial for every organisations success. The quality of the
organisations human resources, their sense of fair treatment, their enthusiasm and satisfaction with their jobs, and their
experience, all affect the organisations productivity, customer service, reputation, and survival (Aghazadeh, 2003).
Many HRM issues in organisations have their foundations in religion (Ali, et al., 2000; Tayeb, 1997). All religions call
for justice in treating employees. It is a universal value. The Ten Commandments in Christianity for instance, urges
management to treat employees equally and reward them accordingly. Similarly, Islam urges all Muslims to promote
and practice justice in every field of life. The Holy Qurn often mentions of honesty and justice in trade, and
repeatedly calls for an equitable and fair distribution of wealth in the society. Justice is an important element in Islamic
teaching and should be applied in daily life as stated in the Holy Quran (4:135): O ye who believe! Stand out firmly
for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even as against yourselves or your parents, or your kin and whether it be (against)
rich or poor.
Several studies have been conducted in the past examining the influence of religion on employees behaviour. For
instance, Ali, et al. (2000) has studied the implications of the Ten Commandments of Christianity, Judaism and Islam
on human resource strategy. Past studies have found some relationship between Islamic work ethics with organisational
commitment, job satisfaction, and loyalty (Yousef, 2000; Yousef, 2001; Ali & Al-Kazemi, 2007). However, these
studies have not addressed the important issue of organisational justice. Organisational justice is shown to have
significant relationship with organisational commitment, satisfaction, and turnover (Cohen-Charash & Spector, 2001;
Colquitte et al., 2001, Wong et al., 2002; Hassan, 2002; Hassan & Chandaran, 2005). Organisational justice is
prevalent in most human resource related issues. Therefore, the present study is designed to investigate the effects of
applying Quranic guidelines in managing human resources on organisational justice, job satisfaction, and turnover
intention among the employees.
The present study is potentially useful as it enhances the existing body of knowledge on the contribution of Islamic
management in organisational behaviour. This would be an important source of reference for those teaching Islamic
management and for those who would conduct further research in this area. This study would provide valuable insights
to Muslim and non-Muslim practitioners who are managing Islamic organisations or managing Muslim workforce for
making better decisions as well as for improving the perceived justice among employees in the organisations.
Malaysia in Brief
Malaysia is a peaceful Muslim state, with Islam as its official religion. After 50 years of independence from the
British, Malaysia is currently one of the most developed countries in Southeast Asia, neighbouring Thailand, Indonesia,
Singapore, Brunei and Philippines. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal
government. The total population of Malaysia is 28.3 million consisting of 62 per cent Malays, 24 per cent Chinese, 8
per cent Indians, with other minorities and indigenous people. Malay is the national language of the country. The
Malays, who form the largest community, are defined as Muslims in the Constitution of Malaysia. The Malays play a
dominant role politically and are included in a grouping identified as bumiputra. Malay is the national language of the
country. Native Malays are typically Muslim; Islamic values and beliefs influence their culture heavily. Malaysia is a
democratic country that has undergone a tremendous growth and prosperity over the last two decades (Department of
Statistics, 2004).

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THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Organisational Justice
Greenberg and Baron (2003) defined organisational justice as the peoples perception of fairness in organisations,
consisting of perceptions of how decisions are made regarding the distribution of outcomes and the perceived fairness
of those outcomes themselves. According to Greenberg and Baron (2003), there are three major approaches to
organisational justice - distributive justice, which focuses on the way organisational resources are distributed;
procedural justice, which focuses on the processes used to make those resource-allocation decisions, and interactional
justice, focuses on the fairness of interpersonal communication relating to organizational procedures. It is concerned
with how information is communicated and whether the individuals affected by the decisions are treated in a courteous
and civil manner. Greenberg and Baron (2003) further elaborated that research has revealed several actions which can
be done to make organisational decisions seem fair, among these are: give people a say in how decisions are made,
provide an opportunity for errors to be corrected, apply rules and policies consistently, and make decisions in an
unbiased manner.
In comparison, Ali et al., (2000) in their study has identified a few implications of The Ten Islamic
Commandments for human resource management. Most of the stated implications address the elements of justice and
fairness. For instance, Ali et al. (2000) mentioned that in hiring, priority should be given to qualified individuals,
disagreement with superiors should be voiced politely, employee layoffs and downsizing should be considered as the
last resort to maintain business survival, management should establish a due process in dealing with employees
grievances, performance should be the main criteria for evaluation and management should avoid favouritism and
nepotism.
Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intention
Job satisfaction is usually defined as an affective or emotional response toward ones job. According to Locke
(1976), job satisfaction is a positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of ones job or job experiences. It
results from employees perception of their jobs and the degree to which there is a good fit between the individual and
the organisation. According to Greenberg and Baron (2003), job satisfaction does influence organisations, but its effect
is not always as strong as one might expect. However, the effects of job dissatisfaction are more obvious. Most
conceptual models of voluntary turnover assume that job dissatisfaction is the root cause of employee turnover. Chiu
and Francesco (2003) stated that when the overall job satisfaction level is sufficiently low, the person will develop a
behavioural intention to quit his or her job and seek for alternative employment.
Dick et al. (2004) mentioned that turnover is a major problem for many organisations today because it is extremely
costly for the employer especially of jobs which offer high education and extensive on-the-job training. Intention to
leave is one of the strongest predictors and immediate precursor of employee turnover (Dick et al., 2004; Loi, et al.,
2006).
Past researches have demonstrated that procedural justice has positive relationship with organisational commitment,
job satisfaction, and job performance (Cohen-Charash & Spector, 2001; Colquitte et al., 2001; Hassan, 2002; Hassan &
Chandaran, 2005; Williams, et al., 2002; Wong, et al., 2002). Other studies have also reported strong relationship of job
satisfaction with organisational justice (McDowall & Fletcher, 2004) and organisational commitment (Winterton, 2004).
Meanwhile, Chen et al. (2004) in their study found that job satisfaction mediates the relationship between the turnover
intentions. There are mixed results in relation to the linkage between justice and turnover intention. In response to low
distributive justice, employees choose to quit their job so as to end the inequity. Other studies concluded that
procedural justice is negatively related to turnover since procedural justice reflects organisational norms of decision
making (Cohen-Charash & Spector, 2001; Loi et al., 2006).
Few studies have examined the effects of management in Islamic perspective on organisational behavioural
outcomes. For instance, Yousef (1999) discovered organisational commitment and job satisfaction as predictors of
attitudes toward organisational change in a non-western setting. Another study conducted by Yousef (2001), has
identified Islamic work ethics as the moderator between organisational commitment and job satisfaction in a crosscultural context. Yousef (2002) in his study on organisations in United Arab Emirates found that job satisfaction
mediates role stressor and organisational commitment. In examining the Islamic work ethics in Kuwait, Ali and AlKazemi (2007) found that there is positive high correlation between Islamic work ethics and loyalty among the
managers in Kuwait.
Quranic Guidelines on Human Resource Management
By viewing the significance of organisational justice, scholars and practicing managers who are concerned about
the existence of organisational justice cannot afford to ignore the potential contribution that human resource
management can make in practicing organisational justice. From the Islamic perspective, the Holy Quran often reminds
of honesty and justice in trade, and calls for an equitable and fair distribution of wealth in the society (Ali & Gibbs,
1998, Ali et al., 2000; Yousef, 2001). Islamic management very much emphasises on the principle of justice. This

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requirement is stated in the Holy Quran (4:58), God doth command you to render back your trust to those to whom
they are due; and when ye judge between man and man, that ye judge with justice; verily how excellent is the teaching
is the teaching which He giveth you! For God is He who heareth and seeth all things.
The issue of justice is prevalent in all of human resource management activities. For example in recruitment and
selection of employees, favouritism and nepotism has always influenced hiring decisions. As Ali (2005) has pointed
rightly, selection is one of the most complicated tasks in organisation. This is due to the fact that when there are many
candidates applying for the jobs, employers have plenty of potential candidates to select from. In order to ensure the
recruitment is fairly conducted and a just treatment is given to all applicants, Islam requires the person in charge of
recruitment to be pious and just. Ahmad (1995) elaborated that a manager is obliged to perform prayers, fasting, zakat
and other pillars of Islam so to attain best level of piety. According to Ahmad (1995), the Quranic standard of
eligibility for a job is the required merit and competence for it. It stresses the importance of competence and honesty
since without these pre-requisites one could not be efficient. For example, the Holy Quran states, (28:26) Said one of
the (damsels): O my (dear) father! Engage him on wages: truly the best of men for thee to employ is the (man) who is
strong and trust worthy. Fact is, to overlook the needed competence for a job and to select an applicant for any other
considerations are tantamount to dishonest as well as injustice.
In Islam, employee selection is abided by certain principles. First principle is justice. According to Syed Agil
(1997), Ali Ibn Abi Talib wrote; Do not nominate them (officers) on account of favouritism or egoism. These two
attributes reflect injustice and treachery. Second, an employee is selected based on his competency. The individual is
not to be appointed based on kinship or blood relationship, friendship, wealth, age, race, and political power or alike.
Third principle is honesty. Both the applicant and recruiter have to be honest. Fourth, Islam forbids assignment of
work that will exceed the individuals capacity. For example, the Quran states, (2:233): No soul shall have a burden
laid on it greater than it can bear. This is because the individual may not be able to perform the assigned job due to
his or her inadequacies. Employers are required to inform the truth about the jobs offered to applicants. These include
the job requirements, the criteria of the job holders, and the compensation to be paid. It is important for the information
to be fairly provided to applicants so that they can evaluate and match well the job suitability with their competency,
capability, interest, and rewards.
Performance appraisal is a formal system of setting work standards, assessing performance, and providing feedback
to employees for the purpose of motivation, corrections and continuation of their performance (Dessler, 2008).
Information obtained from performance appraisal is used as a basis for pay and promotion decisions. In Islam, there are
rewards and punishments in worldly life and the Hereafter. Good news and warning from God to humankind are sent
through His Divine sources of revelation and His Messengers, Al- Quran states (18:87-88): Whoever doth wrong, him
shall we punish; then shall be sent back to his Lord, and He will punish him with a punishment unheard of (before). But
whoever believes, and work righteousness, he shall have a goodly reward, and easy will be his task as we order it by
our command.
Performance appraisal is another HRM activity that is subjected to justice. Appraiser biases are well documented.
There are almost a dozen of known phenomena which prove that supervisors tend to appraise employees inaccurately
because of subconscious tendencies. According to Ali (2005), managers at times find it difficult to appraise their
employees effectively. This is due to religious consideration, personal relationship and bureaucratic tendencies. Thus,
Muslim managers should be aware that measuring performance in Islam must take into account the concept of
accountability and responsibility. Given the responsibility to appraise employees, managers must be fair and care for
their employees.
Training is the process of developing qualities in human resources that will enable them to be more productive and
thus to contribute more to organisational goal attainment. According to the Al-Qurn, mans basic qualification for
being the representative of God on earth is to possess knowledge. God Almighty said, (2:30-33): When the Angels
questioned Adams suitability for representation, God cited Adams knowledge to convince them. Two important
points may be drawn from these verses of the Holy Qurn. First, Adams progeny is entitled to a position as Gods
vicegerent on earth on the basis of knowledge. Second, those among the children of Adam who are more deserving of
vicegerents are those pre-eminent in knowledge. Men of knowledge surpass others, and limit the reception of
admonition to those endowed with knowledge and understanding in ranks in the presence of their Lord, and are more
favoured than others. God Almighty said (58:11); Are those who know equal to those who know not? But only they
who are endowed with understanding keep this in mind. Shaddid b. Aus said: Two are the things which I remember
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) having said: Verily God has enjoined goodness to everything; so when you
kill, kill in a good way and when you slaughter, slaughter in a good way. So every one of you should sharpen his knife,
and let the slaughtered animal die comfortably (Sahih Muslim: Chapter 11, 21:4810). God calls for job mastery. Thus,
it is an obligation for Muslims to seek knowledge diligently and obtain excellence in performance. Muslims are urged
to seek knowledge from the cradle to grave. This great concept creates a state of knowledge continuity.
The duty of seeking knowledge lies on the individual as well as the employer. It is obligatory for Muslim
employees to seek knowledge to serve his employer well. The employer, on the other hand, is responsible to provide
opportunities to enable the employees to improve their competencies. The decision on who should attend training

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organized by employer is always subject to the superior. Superior will need to review pertinent information regarding
the employees performance and potentials to recommend the employee for training. Of course, some employees are
more fortunate than others. The unfortunate ones usually perceive they are unfairly treated.
Distributive justice and procedural justice are commonly associated with employees compensation. The purpose
of any compensation, whether direct or indirect, is to recognize the performance value of employees and to establish
ways to motivate them to work with full efficiency in an ever changing business environment. According to Ali et al.
(2005) in the early years of Muslim State, the compensation was based on five foundations. First, employment is a
contract, thus the fulfilment of a contract is an obligation for both employer and employee to meet. The Quran not only
instructs believers to meet conditions, but also to avoid any attempt to go around the contract (7:85), Nor withhold
from the people the things that are their due. Second, Islam emphasizes that workers should be given adequate and
reasonable wages for their work, keeping in view the quality and quantity of work, their needs and requirement, and the
overall economic condition of the society. Ahmad (1995) says that the Quran acknowledges various gradations among
workers on the basis of the quality and quantity of their work (Quran 46:19). Al-Mubarak (1972) elaborated that some
workers need specific skills, whereas some can do manual work. This provides an ample proof that wages for all
workers cannot be equal in all cases. The Quran states, (46:19) And to all are ranked according to their deeds.
Third, compensation must be determined in advance and wage has to be given immediately once the work is completed.
Prophet (p.b.u.h) said; Whoever believes in God and the Day of Judgment, should not employ a worker, until he or she
knows what he or she is going to receives (quoted in Ahmad, 1995). Fourth, compensation can either be monetary or
non-monetary. Fifth, wages and compensations are based on prior agreement and should be increased according to
circumstances. Ahmad (1995) added that Islam forbids any misuse or misappropriation of an employers property by
his employee, who is entitled to the mutually agreed wages only. Appropriation of anything beyond the stipulated
wages is either an act of dishonesty or stealing both of which are expressly prohibited. In addition, wages and
compensation should be sufficient to provide a decent living. Beekun (1997) asserted that if the wage is too low, the
individual may not feel motivated to put in an adequate amount of effort, while Ahmad (1995) on the other hand, stated
that a worker is entitled to a fair and just wage for his work.
The Quran instructs that wages must be determined with mutual consultation and consent (Quran 28:26-28).
Islam strictly prohibits coercion and forced labour. As narrated by Abu Huraira, the Prophet (peace be upon him) has
said; God says that I will act as a plaintiff, on the Day of Judgment against the person who engages some worker on
work and takes full work from him but does not give him (full) wages (Sahih Bukhari, Volume 3:34:430). At the same
time, Islam denounces slavery and gives proper recognition to the dignity of work and employment. As narrated by
Al-Miqdam, the Prophet (p.b.u.h) has said, Nobody has ever eaten a better meal than that which one has earned by
working with ones own hands (Sahih Bukhari, Volume 3:34:286).
Hypotheses
The present study intends to test the following hypotheses:
H1a: Quran-based HRM practices are directly related to distributive justice.
H1b: Quran-based HRM practices are directly related to procedural justice.
H1c: Quran-based HRM practices are directly related to interactional justice.
H2: Quran-based HRM practices are directly related to job satisfaction.
H3: Quran-based HRM practices are negatively related to turnover intention.
H4a: There exists a direct relationship between distributive justice and job satisfaction.
H4b: There exists a direct relationship between procedural justice and job satisfaction.
H4c: There exists a direct relationship between interactional justice and job satisfaction.
H5: There exists a negative relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention.
METHODOLOGY
Sample and Data Collection
Data were collected from eight well-known Islamic organisations in Malaysia. In this study, the Islamic
organisations refer to businesses which either have 100 percent Muslim ownership or partnership with Muslims holding
the majority share. Six of the organisations are of the banking and financial business, and the other two are of the
Islamic services business. The total respondents were 121 Muslim employees, who vary in positions and were
purposively selected to represent each of the eight organisations. The data collection was done by trained enumerators.
The enumerators would approach the human resource manager of the organisations in quest of permission to collect the
data. The questionnaire was left with the respondents and to be collected by the enumerators within three days.
Instrumentation
The following instruments were employed to measure the study variables.

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1. HRM practices: Based on the interpretation of the Quranic verses related to HRM, a specially constructed
questionnaire was developed in order to gather the data. The instrument consisted of 54 items seeking information
about the organisations background and HRM practices among these selected organisations. Specifically, there were
four questions enquiring of the organisation background, the name of the organisation, the number of employees
employed, and the type of organisations ownership. There were ten items each asking about the recruitment,
selection, performance appraisal, training and development, and compensation practices. For each of these functions,
the respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which each of the activities in the questionnaire are being
practiced in their organisations by using the seven-point Likert scales (1 = never, 2 = very rarely, 3 = rarely, 4 =
occasionally, 5 = frequently, 6 = very frequently, 7 = all the time).
2. Distributive Justice: The Distributive Justice Index developed by Price and Mueller (1986) was adopted to measure
the perception of distributive justice construct. The five-item scale measures the degree to which rewards received
by the employees are perceived to be related to performance inputs. Each item asks for the degree to which the
respondents believe that he or she is fairly rewarded on the basis of some comparison with responsibilities, education
and training, effort, stresses and strains of the job, as well as performance.
3. Procedural Justice: Perception of procedural justice was measured by a 15-item scale developed by Niehoff and
Moorman (1993). The items measure the degree to which the decision-making process ensure accurate and unbiased
gathering of information, institution of employees voice and appeal process, consistency, accuracy, correctability,
representativeness, and ethicality.
4. Interactional Justice: Interactional justice was measured by a seven-item scale developed by Niehoff and Moorman
(1993). The items measure the degree to which concerns for employees rights are shown by the management in
decision making, and that employees are given adequate justification and explanation pertaining to the outcome of
any decision.
5. Job Satisfaction: A 14-item scale based on Hackman and Oldhams (1975) Job Diagnostic Survey was used to
measure job satisfaction. The scale measures five facets of job, namely, job security, pay, social, supervisory, and
growth satisfaction.
6. Turnover Intention: This variable is operationally defined as thinking of quitting intent to search for a new job, and
intent to quit (Hom & Griffeth, 1991). The three-item scale used in this study to measure this outcome variable is
taken from the Michigan Organisational Assessment Questionnaire (Cammann et al., 1979).
Responses were
solicited on a 7-point scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree). Before the actual data collection was
conducted, a pilot test was done for the instrument and the results are displayed in Table 1.
Table 1. Pilot test for HRM Variables (N=30)
Variables for HR Practices
Reliability Coefficient
Recruitment
0.787
Selection
0.919
Performance Appraisal
0.826
Training & Development
0.913
Compensation
0.830
HRM: Quran-based
0.951
Distributive Justice
0.941
Procedural Justice
0.984
Interactional Justice
0.881
Job Satisfaction
0.918
Turnover Intention
0.849
Data Analysis
Once the actual data was obtained, every negative-stated item was recoded. Reliability test was then conducted on
the 50 items for internal consistency purposes. The reliability coefficient for all 50 items was 0.951. Next, another
reliability test was conducted for the 10 items in each of the five HRM functions. If they are reliable, then factor
analysis would be conducted for each of these five functions. If the factor analysis produced more than two factors,
then the most reliable factor between them will be selected for next analysis in measuring the HRM practices.
As detailed example: For recruitment there were 10 items asking how the organisation recruits new employees.
The reliability coefficient for recruitment was 0.787. Since this result is reliable, factor analysis was then performed for
all these 10 items. The analysis produced one factor and it was reliable thus the factor was selected. Next, the same
process was repeated for selection practices. The reliability coefficient for the 10 items in selection practices was 0.919.
The factor analysis produced one factor and since it was reliable, all the 10 items were used for the next analysis. For

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performance appraisal, the factor analysis produced three factors, and factor 1 was chosen because it has the most
loaded items and it was most reliable compared to Factor 2 and Factor 3. Factor 1 consisted of seven items. A
reliability analysis was done on these seven items and it shows reliability coefficient values of 0.890. Meanwhile,
factor analysis conducted for training and development function produced two factors, and Factor 1 was selected as it
was more reliable than Factor 2. Its reliability coefficient was 0.891. For compensation function, the factor analysis
produced three factors. Factor 2 which comprised of four items was selected as it was the most reliable factor among
the three factors with coefficient value of 0.855. The details of the items for each factor which were finalized and used
of the measurement for the study are shown in Table 2.
The instruments used to measure other studied variables such as distributive justice, procedural justice,
interactional justice, job satisfaction, and turnover intention were established scales and highly reliable; thus all the
items were maintained in their original form and a confirmatory factor analysis was done for each of these instruments.
The results are shown in Table 3, and Table 4.

Factor
1

Table 2. Factor Analysis and Reliability for HRM Practices Variables

Loaded Item
RECRUIT1
My organisation ensures the manager who is in charged of recruitment is a good
Muslim, pious and just.
RECRUIT2
My organisation informs the candidate about the job requirement and details.
RECRUIT3
My organisation assesses the candidate competency and interest.
RECRUIT4
To what extent does your organisation inform the candidates about the salary they
will receive?
RECRUIT5
To what extent does your organisation reveal the necessary information about the
job and your organisation to the candidates?
RECRUIT6
To what extent does your organisation give equal opportunity to everyone to
apply for a vacant post in your organisation?
RECRUIT7
To what extent does your organisation practice Islamic approach in recruiting the
potential candidates?
RECRUIT8
To what extent does your organisation recruit candidates who are competent and
honest?
RECRUIT9
To what extent do you recruit candidates responsibly and do it with full of amanah.
RECRUIT10 To what extent does your organisation practice Islamic approach in recruitment?
Eigenvalues
% Variance
Reliability
SELECT1
My organisation hires only qualified and competent candidates.
SELECT2
My organisation uses Islamic factor in the criteria.
SELECT3
My organisation considers Islamic understanding is an important criterion in
selecting the candidates
SELECT4
My organisation will reject the qualified candidates if it is proven the candidates
are not a good Muslim
SELECT5
My organisation feels an Islamic practice such as prayers and fasting by the
candidates is very important.
SELECT6
My organisation believes a good Muslim will be a good employee.
SELECT7
My organisation considers trustworthy is an important criterion for an employee
in this organisation.
SELECT8
My organisation interviewing Muslim candidates will include questions pertaining
to Islamic understanding.
SELECT9
The selection decision in this organisation is done by the committee.
SELECT10 My organisation conducts a test on candidates Islamic understanding during the
selection process.
Eigenvalues
% Variance
Reliability
PERFOR1
My organisation measures the employees performance regularly.
PERFOR2
My organisation practices a fair performance assessment for all employees.
PERFOR4
My organisation does not practice any favouritism in evaluating employees
performance.
PERFOR5
My organisation reward employees based on their performance.

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Items
.477
.177
.398
.383
.447
.704
.775
.827
.807
.733
3.730
37.305
.787
.604
.835
.837
.579
.877
.769
.784
.873
.834
.739
6.075
60.749
.919
.530
.553
.615
.688

153

PERFOR6
PERFOR7
PERFOR8

TRAIN1
TRAIN2
TRAIN3
TRAIN4
TRAIN5

COMPEN8
COMPEN9
COMPEN10

Factor
Distributive Justice

Procedural Justice

154

My organisation believes in justice and fairness in assessing employees performance.

My organisation practice Islamic approach in appraising employees.
The appraisal is done by superiors and clients.
Eigenvalues
% Variance
Reliability
My organisation emphasizes on improving ones performance.
My organisation conducts Islamic training programs for employees regularly.
My organisation encourages employees to seek knowledge.
My organisation conduct training regularly in this organisation
This organisation promotes training seriously
Eigenvalues
% Variance
Reliability
It is employers responsibility to pay the employees salary on time.
Cheating will be punished in this organisation.
My organisation is aware of Islamic requirement in paying the salary to
employees.
Eigenvalues
% Variance
Reliability

Table 3. Factor Analysis and Reliability for Organisational Justice

Loaded Item
DJ1 My superior has fairly rewarded me when I consider the responsibilities I have
DJ2 My superior has fairly rewarded me when I take into account the amount of
education and training that I have
DJ3 My superior has fairly rewarded me when I consider the amount of effort that I
have put forth
DJ4 My superior has fairly rewarded me when I consider the stresses and strains of
my job
DJ5 My superior has fairly rewarded me when I consider the work that I have done well
DJ6 Job decisions are made by my superior in an unbiased manner
DJ7 My superior makes sure that all employee concerns are heard before job
decisions are made
DJ8 To make job decisions, my superior collects accurate and complete information
DJ9 My superior clarifies decisions and provides additional information when
requested by employees
Eigenvalues
% Variance
Reliability
PJ1 All job decisions are applied consistently across all affected employees
PJ2 Employees are allowed to challenge or appeal job decisions made by my superior
PJ3 When decisions are made about my job, my superior treats me with kindness
and consideration
PJ4 When decisions are made about my job, my superior treats me with respect and
dignity
PJ5 When decisions are made about my job, my superior is sensitive to my
personal needs
PJ6 When decisions are made about my job, my superior deals with me in a
truthful manner
PJ7 When decisions are made about my job, my superior shows concern for my
rights as an employee
PJ8 Concerning decisions about my job, my superior discusses the implications of
the decisions with me
My superior offers adequate justification for decisions made about my job
PJ9 When making decisions about my job, my superior offers explanations that
make sense to me

.716
.829
.832
4.860
48.600
.890
.524
.695
.825
.926
.850
5.749
57.488
.891
.860
.818
.862
4.277
42.773
.855

Items
0.854
0.854
0.887
0.824
0.859
0.724
0.752
0.773
0.804
5.994
66.601
0.935
0.804
0.845
0.917
0.918
0.833
0.883
0.868
0.879
0.8655
0.767

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PJ10

Interactional Justice

IJ1

My superior explains very clearly any decision made about my job

Eigenvalues
% Variance
Reliability
I usually know how satisfied my superior is with what I do
My superior understands my job problems and needs
My superior recognizes my potential
Regardless of how much formal authority my superior has built into his/her
position, he/she would use his/her power to help me solve problems in my work
Regardless of the amount of formal authority my superior has, my superior
would bail me out at his/her expense
I would defend and justify my superior's decision if he/she were not present to
do so
I have an effective working relationship with my superior
Eigenvalues
% Variance
Reliability

0.873
8.142
74.021
0.964
0.796
0.707
0.713
0.820
0.706
0.751
0.853
4.191
59.874
0.886

FINDINGS
Organisation Background
A total of eight organisations participated in this study. These organisations have their branch offices located at
various locations in Malaysia. The size of the branches are from medium to large with staff strength ranging from less
than 100 employees to more than 400 employees. There were 88 employees working in 100 percent Muslim-owned
organisations, and the other 33 employees working in majority Muslim-owned organisations. The respondents were
obtained from their various branches. The distribution of respondents from each organisation is displayed in Table 5
Table 4. Factor Analysis and Reliability for Job Satisfaction & Turnover Intention
Loaded Item
JS1
The amount of job security I have
JS2
The amount of pay and fringe benefits I receive
JS3
The amount of personal growth and development I get in doing my job
JS4
The people I talk to and work with on my job
JS5
The degree of respect and fair treatment I receive from my superior
JS6
The feeling of worthwhile accomplishment I get from doing my job
JS7
The chance to get to know other people while on the job
JS8
The amount of support and guidance I receive from my superior
JS9
The degree to which I am fairly paid for what I contribute to this organization
JS10 The amount of independent thought and action I can exercise in my job
JS11 How secure things look for me in the future in this organization
JS12 The chance to help other people while at work
JS13 The amount of challenge in my job
JS14 The overall quality of the supervision I receive in my work
Eigenvalues
% Variance
Reliability
Turnover Intention
TT1 I often think about quitting
TT2 It is very likely that I will actively look for a new job in the next year
TT3 I will leave this organization in the next year
Eigenvalues
% Variance
Reliability
Factor
Job Satisfaction

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Items
0.726
0.636
0.712
0.582
0.728
0.766
0.770
0.658
0.611
0.670
0.784
0.676
0.690
0.705
6.785
48.467
0.914
0.831
0.931
0.914
2.393
79.758
0.871

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Table 5. Distribution of Respondents (N=121)

Organisation Identification: Frequency Percent
Organisation1
20
16.5
Organisation2
18
14.9
Organisation3
18
14.9
Organisation4
15
12.4
Organisation5
14
11.6
Organisation6
13
10.7
Organisation7
12
9.9
Organisation8
11
9.1
Type of ownership:
100% Muslim-owned
88
72.7
Majority Muslim-owned
33
27.3
Number of employees:
< than 100 employees
1
.8
101-200 employees
17
14.0
201-300 employees
23
19.0
301-400 employees
8
6.6
>than 400 employees
72
59.5
Table 6. Mean Scores for Islamic HRM Function
N
Minimum
Maximum
Mean
Standard Deviation
RECRUIT
121
3.00
6.80
4.914
.741
SELECT
121
2.40
7.00
5.237
1.159
PA
121
3.00
7.00
4.782
.990
T&D
121
2.20
7.00
5.198
1.097
COMPEN
121
2.33
7.00
5.614
1.165
HRM Quran-based
121
3.26
6.91
5.149
.836
(1 = never, 2 = very rarely, 3 = rarely, 4 = occasionally, 5 = frequently, 6 = very frequently, 7 = all the time).
Item

Islamic HRM Practices

Based on the factor analysis conducted, the items within each of the factors were computed as a total score. This is
to examine the extent to which Islamic HRM is practiced in the selected Islamic organisations. The respondents were
asked to indicate to what extent each of the activities in the questionnaire was being practiced in their organisations by
using a seven-point Likert scales (1 = never, 2 = very rarely, 3 = rarely, 4 = occasionally, 5 = frequently, 6 = very
frequently, 7 = all the time). Table 6 shows that the organisations in which the respondents work; frequently practice
Islamic approach in all the HRM functions. The mean scores for all of the HRM functions were above 5.00 except for
recruitment and performance appraisal functions. Compensation function has the highest mean score of 5.614. The
total mean score for Quran-based HRM practices (recruitment, selection, performance appraisal, training and
development, and compensation) is 5.149. This shows that Quran-based HRM are frequently practiced at these selected
Islamic organisations. Table 7 depicts the mean scores for the three facets of organisational justice, job satisfaction and
turnover intention. The results in Table 8 display the mean scores for all the studied variables for each organisation.
Organisation 6 exhibits the highest mean scores for Quran-based HRM practices, interactional justice, job satisfaction,
and lowest mean score for turnover intention.
Table 7. Mean Scores for Organizational Justice, Job Satisfaction, Turnover Intention
Variable
N
Minimum
Maximum
Mean
Standard Deviation
Distributive justice
121
1.00
7.00
4.969
1.184
Procedural justice
121
1.91
7.00
4.945
1.068
Interactional justice
121
2.86
7.00
5.184
0.915
Job satisfaction
121
3.29
6.86
5.262
0.873
Turnover intention
121
1.00
7.00
3.074
1.717
Valid N
121
(Notes: 1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree).

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Table 8. Mean Scores for All Variables by Organisation

HRM
Distributive
Procedural
Interacional
Job
Turnover
Quran-based
Justice
Justice
Justice
Satisfaction
Intention
Organisation1
5.237
5.067
4.889
5.214
4.992
3.593
Organisation2
5.105
4.440
4.364
4.914
5.029
3.533
Organisation3
5.506
5.493
5.315
5.524
5.476
2.244
Organisation4
4.958
5.643
5.584
5.663
5.275
4.381
Organisation5
5.221
4.985
4.510
5.110
5.209
3.026
Organisation6
5.628
5.111
5.394
5.444
5.587
1.833
Organisation7
5.302
4.600
5.190
5.182
5.234
2.091
Organisation8
3.932
4.367
4.364
4.298
5.369
3.861
(Notes: Scales for HRM Quran-based: 1 = never, 2 = very rarely, 3 = rarely, 4 = occasionally, 5 = frequently, 6 = very
frequently, 7 = all the time). (Notes: Scales for distributive, procedural, and interactional justice, job satisfaction &
turnover intention: 1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree).
Predicting for Organisational Justice, Job Satisfaction, and Turnover Intention
In order to examine the relationships and conclude the hypotheses of the study, a correlation analysis was
performed. The results in Table 9 support all the research hypotheses and the relationships are statistically significant,
except for the turnover intention variable. The Quran-based HRM practices are positively related to distributive justice
(r = 0.372, p<0.05), are positively related to procedural justice (r = 0.493, p<0.05), are positively related to interactional
justice (r = 0.537, p<0.05), are positively related to job satisfaction (r = 0.251, p<0.05) and are negatively related to
turnover intention (r =
-0.139, p = 0.129). There exists significant relationship between all the three facets of
organisational justice with job satisfaction. The results also indicate there is negative relationship between job
satisfaction and turnover intention (r = -0.325, p<0.05).
Table 10 shows the regression analysis results. The procedural justice and interactional justice accounted for 23.7
per cent and 28.3 per cent variance respectively of the Quran-based HRM practices.
Table 9.Correlation Analysis between the Studied Variables
Variable Alpha Mean 1
2
3
4
5
6
______
1. QHRM
0.947 5.149
2. DJ
0.935 4.969 0.372**
3. PJ
0.964 4.945 0.493**
0.686**
4. IJ
0.886 5.184 0.537**
0.687**
0.793**
5. JS
0.914 5.262 0.251**
0.426**
0.549**
0.272**
6. TT
0.871 3.074 -0.139
-0.039
-0.086
0.001
-0.325**
______________________________________________________________________________________
(QHRM=Quran-based HRM, DJ=Distributive Justice, PJ=Procedural Justice, IJ=Interactional Justice, JS=Job
Satisfaction, TT=Turnover Intention, **p<0.05)
Table 10.Multiple Regression Analysis Predicting Organisational Justice, Job Satisfaction, Turnover Intention
Procedural
Interactional
Turnover
Job Satisfaction
Predictors
Distributive Justice
Justice
Justice
Intention
Std. Coefficient
Std. Coefficient
Std. Coefficient
Std. Coefficient Std. Coefficient
Beta
Beta
Beta
Beta
Beta
Quran-based HRM
0.372**
0.493**
0.537**
0.251**
-0.139
R
0.139
0.243
0.289
0.063
0.019
Adjusted R
0.131
0.237
0.283
0.055
0.011
t-value
4.376
6.179
6.953
2.826
-1.530
F-value
19.152
38.183
48.341
7.985
2.341
(Independent Variable: Quran-based HRM practices; Dependent variable: Distributive Justice, Procedural Justice,
Interactional Justice, Job Satisfaction & Turnover Intention; p<0.05)
CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
This study examines the extent to which the Islamic organisations in Malaysia incorporate and practice the Quranic
guidelines in managing their human resources and how this approach would affect the perceived organisational justice,
job satisfaction, and turnover intention among the employees. The findings revealed that the Islamic organisations in
Malaysia frequently practice the HRM practices that are based on Quranic guidelines. This finding is encouraging

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157

although it is expected that these organisations would have practiced the Islamic approach even more frequently. This
is because these organisations are Islamic organisations, owned and managed by the Muslims. They employ Muslim
employees, and they deal with Islamic products and services. It is revealed also that the three facets of organisational
justice and job satisfaction were highly and significantly correlated with HRM practices. This result is consistent with
previous studies (Yousef, 1999; Yousef, 2001), where in those studies it was found that the Islamic work ethics are
significantly correlated to organisational commitment and job satisfaction.
This finding has important implications to human resource managers. Managing human resources in Islamic
approach does influence the employees perception toward organisational justice and job satisfaction. In particular,
more attention should be given to selection, performance appraisal and compensation because these activities are
always subjected to injustice as perceived by the employees. An introduction to Quran-based human resource practices
is an initial attempt to provide managers with another effective way of managing people. For Muslim human resource
managers, it is requirements for them to not only know but also apply the Islamic approach in managing employees.
The knowledge of Quran-based HRM would be useful to even non-Muslim managers. Non-Muslim managers will have
a better understanding of their Muslim employees behaviour at the workplace. For instance, the findings that
procedural and distributive justice correlated to job satisfaction and Quran-based HRM would benefit those managers.
In order to enhance the level of job satisfaction, efforts should be directed to first improve level of organisational justice
and support of the Quran-based HRM practices.
In a multi-religion country like Malaysia, it is not easy for all Muslim human resource managers to practice the
Islamic approach, especially if the organisation is not owned by Muslims. As a start, the Quran-based HRM should be
practiced by the Islamic organisations. It is an obligation for Muslim businessmen who own the organisations to put
into practice the Islamic approach of managing its people and work activities. If Muslim themselves do not practice the
Islamic approach in managing their organisations, they cannot expect others to practice the Islamic approach. What
more nowadays, Muslim employees represent a significant percentage of the total workforce in Malaysia. Thus, an
Islamic approach is timely. Furthermore, as revealed in this study, the Quran-based HRM influences the organisational
justice perception among the employees. Muslim human resource managers should make all efforts to understand about
the Islamic approach in managing human resources and how they are unique from the Western human resource
management practices.
The findings and conclusions of this study are only suggestive and should be interpreted while keeping in mind the
following limitations. First, the generalisability of the findings of the present study might be questionable due to the
limited size of the sample. As shown in Table 5, there are less than 20 respondents in each organisation who
participated as respondents in this study. The organisations however are not of equal size. Some of the organisations
employ more than 300 employees. The quota sampling procedure probably could be employed for future research.
This leads to the second limitation of the study, the non-response bias. There is possibility of different response from
the non-response with respect to the variables in question. For future research, it would be meaningful to explore the
effects of Quran-based HRM practices on other work outcomes, such as employees performance, job stress and ethical
behaviours. It would be worthwhile to conduct a comparison study on HRM practices between the Islamic
organisations and non-Islamic organisations, and examine the effects of both on organisational factors such as justice
and commitment.
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