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Islamic work
Impacts of spirituality, intrinsic ethics on
religiosity and Islamic work ethics employee
performance
on employee performance in
Morocco: the mediating role of 439

intrinsic motivation Received 1 May 2020

Revised 15 September 2020
21 January 2021
Abderrahman Hassi Accepted 20 March 2021
Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Ifrane, Morocco
Mohammed Amine Balambo
Department of Management, Ibn Tofail University, Kénitra, Morocco, and
Mohammed Aboramadan
Department of Economics, University of Insubria, Varese, Italy

Abstract
Purpose – Given the growing importance of spirituality and religion-related factors in the workplace, this
paper aims to analyze the effects of spirituality, intrinsic religiosity and Islamic work ethics (IWE) on
employee job performance.
Design/methodology/approach – Building on these theoretical concepts and perspectives, the authors
hypothesized that employee intrinsic motivation mediated these proposed effects. To verify these
propositions, the authors examined data collected from 224 full-time employees working for various
organizations in Morocco. The authors conducted structural equations modeling (SEM) analyses using the
AMOS 24 platform and Bayesian analyses to investigate direct and indirect effects.
Findings – First, the authors found that only IWE has positive and significant direct effect on job
performance. Second, the findings indicate that employee intrinsic motivation does not mediate the
relationship between the independent variables of spirituality and intrinsic religiosity and the dependent
variable of job performance. These results may be because of the fact that Islamic principles and values are
implemented and more reinforced in the Moroccan workplace than new and modern concepts such as intrinsic
religiosity and spirituality.
Research limitations/implications – The present paper used a cross-sectional methodology, which
did not allow testing causation between the constructs under study.
Practical implications – Organizations and managers alike ought to resort to IWE insights with the
objective to increase the performance of their Muslim members.
Originality/value – This paper is novel as it represents a study on spirituality in a non-Western context. It
also uses a relatively sizeable sample (N = 224) of full-time employees in the workplace.
Keywords Spirituality, Job performance, Intrinsic motivation, Intrinsic religiosity,
Islamic work ethics (IWE)
Paper type Research paper
Journal of Islamic Accounting and
Business Research
Introduction Vol. 12 No. 3, 2021
pp. 439-456
Globalization and competition have reshaped the workplace by highlighting (Tomlinson, © Emerald Publishing Limited
1759-0817
2003) and enticing an appreciation of workforce diversity (Murtaza et al., 2016). To this end, DOI 10.1108/JIABR-05-2020-0131
JIABR scholars and practitioners are called upon to comprehend the crucial role of different
12,3 religious factors that impact organizations (Eastman and Santoro, 2009). For instance,
researchers have demonstrated a keen interest in understanding diversity-related factors
that influence employee performance, including those of religious and spiritual nature
(Murtaza et al., 2016).
There is increasing evidence suggesting that religious and spiritual factors affect
440 economic outcomes by influencing individual attitudes and behaviors. In this respect,
employees’ religious tradition affects their work-related decisions (Vasconcelos, 2009) and
behaviors (Ntalianis and Darr, 2005). Furthermore, religious role expectations, which people
internalize as a religious self-identity, impact their ethical behavior and values (Weaver and
Agle, 2002). Along the same line, Bierly et al. (2000), Delbecq (1999) and Bickerton et al.
(2014) found that spiritualty positively influenced job performance. More specifically,
McCarty (2007) reported that prayer meetings increased employee morale and productivity
while reducing employee turnover.
Nonetheless, research about effects of religion-related factors on job performance in
Islamic settings is still limited. In this regard, Achour et al. (2016) found that
spirituality and religiosity affect the work performance of Muslim employees.
Similarly, Islamic work ethics (IWE) exerts positive effects on managers’ performance
(Abbasi et al., 2011) and contributes to both organizational and individual success (Ali,
1996). Despite the growing interests in the new streams of spirituality and religiosity,
significant attention is yet to be given to the disentangling of and comparative effects of
spirituality and religiosity, and on how Islam influences employee motivation and
performance in terms of IWE (Murtaza et al., 2016). These limitations are noteworthy
given the fact that Islam accounts for over 1.8 billion followers, reflecting a quarter of
the total world population (Lipka, 2017).
On another note, spirituality, intrinsic religiosity and IWE may yield increased employee
job performance through the mechanism of other intervening variables. In this respect, Garg
(2017) examined the mediating role of motivation between spirituality and performance in
the Indian context and found a partial mediation effect. Following this line of inquiry, we
seek to explore whether intrinsic motivation, which refers to exhibiting interest and
enjoyment, and deploying efforts in doing activities for their own sake (Gagné and Deci,
2005), serves as a mediator through which spirituality, intrinsic religiosity and IWE impact
employee performance. This mediating relationship is because of the fact that higher levels
of employee job performance and productivity are reached when workers feel intrinsic
motivation (Grant, 2008).
It is worth noting that intrinsic religiosity is considered the true spirit of religion
(Stavrova and Siegers, 2014) and is about internalizing religious teachings and resorting to
religion for personal motives. Spirituality refers to inter-relatedness to something higher
(Marques et al., 2007). IWE pertains to ethical practices in business that are entrenched in
the Islamic tradition (Ali and Al-Owaihan, 2008).
Therefore, the present paper contributes to bridging a gap in the literature by examining
the effects of spirituality, religiosity and IWE on employee performance in an Islamic
context among 224 full-time employees working for various organizations in Morocco. In
doing so, the contribution of spirituality, religiosity and IWE to bringing benefit to the
operation of organizations will be assessed. This paper is outlined as follows. The next
section presents the pertinent literature that underlies the research problem, with following
sections discussing the study methodology, and the main findings. The final section deals
with the discussion of the study results.
Literature review Islamic work
Spirituality and job performance ethics on
Although the number of suggested definitions of work-related spirituality exceeds 70,
consensus has not been reached about one agreed-upon definition (Markow and Klenke,
employee
2005). For instance, spirituality has been referred to as a searching for meaningfulness from performance
work, and leading a life based on one’s profoundly held principles and values (Moon et al.,
2020; Dehler and Welsh, 1994), our inner consciousness (Guillory, 2000) and a self-
enlightenment process (Barnett et al., 2000). Spirituality can relate to a capacity to create a
441
meaningful connection between the inner self, people and the divine (Issa and Pick, 2011).
Spirituality at work entails individuals’ quest for simplicity, self-expressiveness and inter-
relatedness to something higher (Marques et al., 2007). It is important to highlight the
distinguishing characteristics of spirituality, compared to religion. (Mitroff and Denton,
1999). Spirituality is a personal and broad feeling that is common to all humans relating to
their connectedness to self, to others, to nature and to the sacred, as opposed to religion
which is structured in a formal way with doctrines adhered to by common group (Vitorino
et al., 2018).
The role of spirituality in the workplace is a relatively new area of inquiry (Benefiel et al.,
2014) that has gained interest in both research and practice (Carroll, 2013; Fry and Nisiewicz,
2013), especially with the advent of globalization (Zsolnai, 2007). Some of the underlying
reasons of this interest is the significant shift in values that has engendered the social
consciousness and provoked a spiritual renaissance around the world (Fry and Nisiewicz,
2013), as well as, an increased interest in Eastern philosophies that has awakened people’s
spiritual yearnings (Goldman Schuyler, 2012). The importance of spiritualty is reflected in
the positive effects it exerts on organizational reality (Wong and Hu, 2012) to counter
negative changes that have occurred in the life of organizations (Petchsawang and Duchon,
2012), which have yielded the demoralization and the spiritual disorientation of employees
(Kinjerski and Skrypnek, 2004).
Several researchers contend that organizations that support and resort to spiritual
experiences have been able to enhance their overall performance and to be more successful
(Korac-Kakabadse et al., 2002; Thompson, 2000). Empirically, many studies have reported
positive impacts of spirituality on organizational performance in non-Muslim contexts
(Bierly et al., 2000; Delbecq, 1999 Bickerton et al.,2014) and in Islamic settings (Achour et al.,
2016).
Despite the rapidly growing interest in spirituality both in theory and practice, evidence
is still evasive on how spirituality influences organizational performance (Karakas, 2010),
particularly in the Islamic context. Hence, to bridge this gap in the literature and respond to
pleas made by several scholars to empirically investigate the relationships between
spirituality and organizational performance (Giacalone et al., 2005), the following statement
can be hypothesized:

H1. There is a positive and significant relationship between spirituality and job
performance.

Intrinsic religiosity and job performance

Several scholars who have approached the concept of religiosity have found it challenging to
define (Hackney and Sanders, 2003; Zumrah et al., 2020). Overall, religiosity has been
defined as an organized set of beliefs pertaining to higher power, supported by rituals,
practices and a shared code of ethics (Helminiak, 2001). To qualify as religious, not only do
JIABR individuals have to hold certain religious beliefs, but they also have to practice the religious
12,3 beliefs in question in their day-to-day life (Morgan and Lawton, 1996).
Empirical evidence has demonstrated that employees’ perceptions and decisions
(Vasconcelos, 2009), as well as their work behaviors (Ntalianis and Darr, 2005), are impacted
by the religious traditions they identify with and consider themselves active adherents of.
For instance, religious role expectations that individuals internalize as a religious self-
442 identity can impact their ethical behavior and values (Weaver and Agle, 2002). Similarly,
prayer meetings were found to enhance employee morale and productivity, and reduce
employee turnover (McCarty, 2007).
On another note, the concept of religiosity has different orientations or dimensions, and
when it is conceptualized as a single unifying construct, it may not be effective in empirical
investigations (Chowdhury, 2018). Hence, it is crucial to resort to a distinct dimension of
religiosity in the present study, namely, intrinsic religiosity. While extrinsic religiosity is
regarded as self-serving, instrumental and dogmatic, intrinsic religiosity is considered as
genuine, just, good and the true spirit of religion (Chowdhury, 2018; Stavrova and Siegers,
2014). In other words, intrinsic religiosity is about internalizing religious teachings and
resorting to religion for personal motives, whereas extrinsic religiosity concerns
instrumental and utilitarian dimensions of religion.
Generally, intrinsic religiosity exerts positive effects on various workplace-related
behaviors and outcomes, whereas extrinsic religiosity has negative relationships in this
regard (Chen and Tang, 2013; Liu, 2010; Patwardhan et al., 2012; Schneider et al., 2011).
Given the relevance of the distinction between these two dimensions of religiosity, the
current research only includes intrinsic religiosity and makes the following prediction:

H2. There is a positive and significant relationship between intrinsic religiosity and job
performance.

Islamic work ethics and job performance

Islam directs all aspects of life of its followers (Ullah et al., 2014). Muslims’ religious beliefs
are manifest in their legislations, interactions, managerial practices and work ethics (Syed
and Ali, 2010). It is worthwhile noting that social norms and values in Muslim majority
societies, which shape people’s attitudes and behaviors, originate more from the religion
rather than from the national culture of their respective countries (Ali and Al-Owaihan,
2008). Given its comprehensive nature entrenched in ethics, the Islamic religion offers
principals that guide all aspects of life such as the social and economic spheres (Rice, 1999).
In fact, Islam values work and strongly deter lethargic idleness and waste of resources by
requiring its adherents to actively engage in productive activities (Yousef, 2001). In addition,
work is considered a valuable tool that helps to advance social relationships and advance
individual development among Muslims (Ali and Al-Owaihan, 2008).
Ethics refer to the moral principles and values that assist individuals in distinguishing
right from wrong. Awareness of ethics in business practices has become an important
subject area in academia, the business milieu, governments and also for the general public
(Crane and Matten, 2007). The notion of work ethics goes back to Weber’s (1905) theory of
the Protestant Work Ethics, which has primarily been concerned with Western settings.
In the Islamic tradition, a similar concept has been developed by Ali (1988). IWE, which
is about ethical practices in business that are rooted in the instructions of the Koran and the
Sunnah of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) (Ali and Al-Owaihan, 2008). The latter
constitute the main sources of the general principals and broad guidelines to steer Islamic
life (Beekun and Badawi, 2005). Ethics in Islam have precedence over economics rather than
economics dominate ethics, as actions are assessed according to Islamic ethics and values Islamic work
(Rice, 1999). IWE orders workers to display a positive attitude and to work collaboratively ethics on
with the objective to reach common and desirable outcomes in the workplace (Javed et al.,
2018).
employee
Previous studies concluded that IWE positively impacted employee job satisfaction performance
(Khan et al., 2013; Rokhman, 2010; Yousef, 2001), attitude toward organizational change
(Yousef, 2001), organizational commitment (Rahman et al., 2006; Rokhman, 2010), employee
involvement (Khan et al., 2013), organizational citizenship behavior (Murtaza et al., 2016),
443
knowledge-sharing behaviors (Murtaza et al., 2016), employee innovation capability (Kumar
and Rose, 2012) and employee turnover intentions (Ahmad, 2011).
Regarding performance, Abbasi et al. (2011) found that the IWE exerted a positive effect
on performance of managers working in the Pakistani telecom industry. Similarly, IWE
allows work to be well organized and contributes to both organizational and individual
success (Ali, 1996). Therefore, it is safe to postulate that workers with high IWE would
display high levels of performance. Consequently, we propose the following research
hypothesis:

H3. There is a positive and significant relationship between IWE and job performance.

Mediating role of motivation

Motivation constitutes the underlying reason of an action and causes the start and
continuation of an activity while setting the overall direction of an individual’s behavior
(Gheitani et al., 2019). Intrinsic motivation, which refers to exhibiting interest and
enjoyment, and deploying efforts in doing activities for their own sake (Gagné and Deci,
2005), may serve as a key mechanism through which spirituality, intrinsic religiosity and
IWE impacts employee performance because of several considerations. First, spirituality,
which is a felt emotion that energizes people into action (Dehler and Welsh, 1994), has been
found to positively influence and increase employee motivation in the workplace (Albrecht,
2012; Clemmons and Fields, 2011; Krishnakumar and Neck, 2002) and intrinsic motivation
(Fry, 2003; Milliman et al., 2003). Second, religious values have been found to exert
significant influence on motivation (DiClemente and Delaney, 2005) as religion is rooted in
the meaning-system of motivation because people use religion as a venue to find significant
meaning for work (Park et al., 2013). Similarly, intrinsic religiosity, which refers to the
fundamental values of religion (Chowdhury, 2018), is expected to positively influence
employee motivation as religion constitutes a spiritual motivating factor for individuals to
reach desired outcomes (Ali et al., 1995). Third, IWE fosters employee motivation by making
commitment to economic activity a compulsion for its followers (Yousef, 2000), dehorting
laziness and exhorting people’s dedication to work (Ali and Al-Owaihan, 2008). Fourth,
higher levels of employee job performance are reached in the case of workers feel
intrinsically motivated at work (Grant, 2008).
On another note, Garg (2017) examined the mediating role of motivation between
spirituality and performance in the Indian context and found a partial mediation effect. In
fact, when employees’ spiritual needs are satisfied, they demonstrate a higher level of work
motivation, which, in turn, leads to higher levels of organizational performance (Garg, 2017).
Hence, we predict that spirituality, intrinsic religiosity and IWE may yield increased
employee job performance through the mechanism of employee intrinsic motivation. Thus,
the following hypothesis is suggested:
JIABR H4. Employee intrinsic motivation mediates the relationship between (a) spirituality, (b)
12,3 intrinsic religiosity and (c) IWE, and job performance.

Methods
The hypothesized research model of the present study uses spirituality, intrinsic religiosity
444 and IWE as independent variables, whereas the dependent variable is employee job
performance. The relationship between these variables is hypothesized to be mediated by
employee intrinsic motivation as shown in Figure 1.

Participants and procedures

Out of a total of 300 distributed questionnaires (Appendix), 224 were gathered from full-time
employees attending professional training sessions and MBA seminars in an executive
education center in Morocco. The age ranges of these participants were as follows: 18–24
(17.4%), 25–34 (48.2%), 35–44 (23.2%), 45–54 (8%), 55–65 (2.7%) and 65þ (0.4%). In terms
of gender, 61.2% of the participants were male. The average number of years of work
experience was 9.130 years (SD = 7.820). A little more than half of the respondents (51.1%)
were middle managers, 27.8% occupied a non-managerial position and 21.1% were senior
managers. Only 2.2% of the respondents had an educational level of less than high school,
and all the others had an educational degree: 10.3% a high school degree, 21.9% college
degree, 39.7% a bachelor’s degree, 22.8% a master’s degree and 3.1% a doctoral degree.
It is worth noting that single-source bias, which is a type of common method bias, may
lead to generalizations about the concepts under study that might influence the ability of
raters to provide specific rating for each concept/variable. To reduce the common method
bias, we gathered data in two measurement waves separated by a five-day lag. In Day 1,
participants completed the measures of the independent variables (IWE, spirituality and
intrinsic religiosity). In Day 6, respondents completed measures of the dependent variable

ccvv

Spirituality
H1

H4a

Employee Employee Job

Intrinsic H4b Intrinsic
H4
Religiosity Performance
Motivation

H2

vv H4c H3
Islamic Work
Figure 1. Ethics
Hypothesized
research model
(employee performance), the mediating variable (intrinsic motivation) and demographics (i.e. Islamic work
age, gender, education, position and work experience). ethics on
employee
Measures
Intrinsic religiosity: We borrowed the five-item scale of intrinsic religiosity developed by
performance
Allport and Ross (1967) and modified by Vitell et al. (2005). A sample item is “I try hard to
live all my life according to my religious beliefs.” The reliability coefficient for this measure 445
was 0.929.
Spirituality: Spirituality was measured by a six-item scale developed by Hodge (2003) and
validated by Hodge et al. (2015). An example of an item is “In terms of the questions I have
about life, my spirituality answers absolutely all my questions.” The reliability coefficient
for this measure was 0.940.
Islamic work ethics: The IWE construct was assessed using a 17-item scale constructed
and validated by Ali (1988). A sample is “Any person who works is more likely to get ahead
in life.” The reliability coefficient for this measure was 0.946.
Intrinsic motivation: Intrinsic motivation was measured with three items from the scale
developed by Grant (2008). These items, which constitute answers to the question “Why are
you motivated to do your work?” were as follows: “Because I enjoy the work itself,”
“Because it’s fun,” and “Because I find the work engaging.” The reliability coefficient for this
measure was 0.842.
Employee performance: Employee performance was measured using a nine-item scale
created by Goodman and Svyantek (1999). A sample item is “You perform well in the overall
job by carrying out tasks as expected.” The reliability coefficient for this measure was 0.925.
Control variables: The variables of age, gender, education and position are held as fixed
effects in our study to account for unmeasured demographic impacts on the dependent
variable that could be associated with these variables.

Results
Reliability and validity of the research constructs
To assess the reliability and validity of the instruments, the average variance extracted
(AVE) and the composite reliability (CR) of the measurement scales were computed (Fornell
and Larcker, 1981). The AVEs of all constructs are greater than 0.5, and the CRs are above
the threshold of 0.7 (Fornell and Larcker, 1981), indicating convergent validity of the
instruments (Table 1).

Confirmatory factor analysis

A confirmatory factor analysis was run to assess the measurement model. The findings
show that the data fit the model well: Chi2/df = 1.462; comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.948;

Composite reliability
Construct Average variance extracted (AVE) (CR) Table 1.
Average variance
Spirituality 0.723 0.940
Intrinsic religiosity 0.726 0.930 extracted and
Islamic work ethics 0.505 0.945 composite reliability
Intrinsic motivation 0.644 0.844 of the study
Employee performance 0.570 0.922 instruments
JIABR Tucker–Lewis Index (TLI) = 0.943; and root mean square error of approximation
12,3 (RMSEA) = 0.045.

Hypothesis testing
Means, standard deviations, Cronbach’s alphas and correlations among the study variables
are displayed in Table 2. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the study scales are above the
446 recommended 0.70 level, indicating an acceptable level of reliability of these scales
(Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994).
Structural equation modeling allowed verifying that the data fit well with the structural
model: Chi2/df = 1.676; CFI = 0.970; TLI = 0.922; and RMSEA = 0.055.
H1 stating that there is a positive and significant relationship between spirituality and
job performance was not supported ( b = 0.013, p = 0.760). Similarly, H2 was not confirmed
as intrinsic religiosity does not have a positive and significant effect on job performance
( b = 0.020, p = 0.670). H3 was supported because there is a positive and significant
relationship between IWE and job performance ( b = 0.419, p < 0.001).
The statistical analyses indicate the control variables of the study were not statistically
associated with the dependent variable: age ( b = 0.033, p = 0.379), education ( b = 0.027,
p = 0.393), position ( b = 0.052, p = 0.198) and gender ( b = 0.054, p = 0.436).
The mediation of employee intrinsic motivation between, on the one hand, spirituality,
intrinsic religiosity and IWE, and, on the other hand, employee job performance was
assessed through the bootstrapping approach along the Bayesian estimation analysis using
the AMOS 24 program. As opposed to more traditional mediation techniques (Baron and
Kenny, 1986; Sobel, 1982), this confidence intervals approach, which is based on bias-
corrected bootstrap, estimates simultaneously the direct and indirect effects while yielding
reliable coefficients (MacKinnon et al., 2004).
The results show that employee intrinsic motivation was only found to significantly
mediate the relationship of IWE and the employee job performance (H4c) because the index
of mediation at the 95% CI was 0.055 and did not contain zero (Boot CI [0.102, 0.013]) using
the 20,000 Monte–Carlo replication (Table 3). The indirect effects of the two other
independent variables (i.e. spirituality and intrinsic religiosity) on job performance through

Variables Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5

Table 2. 1. Intrinsic motivation 3.874 1.015 (0.842)

Means, standard 2. Performance 4.310 0.571 0.318** (0.925)
3. Islamic work ethics (IWE) 4.088 0.537 0.384** 0.455** (0.946)
deviations and 4. Intrinsic religiosity 4.105 1.035 0.220** 0.169** 0.261** (0.929)
correlations among 5. Spirituality 3.761 1.104 0.199** 0.147** 0.228** 0.712** (0.940)
the research
variables Notes: N = 224; Cronbach a is reported on the diagonal between brackets; **p < 0.01; *p < 0.05

Table 3.
Standardized indirect
Independent variables b 95% Upper bound 95% Lower bound
effects of the
independent Intrinsic religiosity 0.014 0.050 0.013
variables on job Spirituality 0.008 0.040 0.022
performance Islamic work ethics (IWE) 0.055 0.102 0.013
intrinsic motivation are not statistically significant (H4a and H4 b). Consequently, this lends Islamic work
partial support for H4. ethics on
employee
Discussion
As the present research was conducted in an Eastern setting and majority Muslim country
performance
(i.e. Morocco), it offers some insights pertaining to the concepts of intrinsic religiosity and
spirituality that have been developed and primarily tested in Western contexts. This study
aimed to contribute to further developing the literature on religiosity, spirituality and IWE
447
by examining their effects on employee performance. Concerning the association between
spirituality and employees’ job performance, the literature is still scarce in supporting how
spirituality impacts performance (Karakas, 2010). Hence, there was a need to investigate
such a relationship, especially in the Islamic context. The key findings of the present study
lend support to the idea that job performance of Muslim workers is impacted by their
Islamic virtues and this impact takes also place through people’s work-related intrinsic
motivation which is about displaying interest and enjoyment in executing work activities.
This study provides interesting findings and reveals that spirituality was not found to
significantly impact employees’ job performance. The results do not corroborate the
empirical investigations that found that spirituality positively influenced performance in the
Western context (Bierly et al., 2000; Delbecq, 1999 Bickerton et al.,2014) and in an Islamic
setting (Achour et al., 2016). Although the literature supports linkages between spirituality
and the overall success of an organization (Thompson, 2000), it is important to note that this
study is based on the Moroccan workplace where spirituality has not been an integral part
of the business culture or philosophy and where the implementation of corporate
spirituality-related activities (e.g. meditation) is very limited.
The findings of this current study indicate that intrinsic religiosity does not predict
employees’ job performance. Intrinsic religiosity is the internalization of the religious
principles and adoption of the religion for inner beliefs or personal motives, whereas
extrinsic religiosity is used out of contributory and utilitarian reasons. These results are not
consistent with previous studies that demonstrated a strong impact exerted by religion on
work behaviors (Ntalianis and Darr, 2005). The findings are also not aligned with previous
research which suggested a positive association between intrinsic religiosity and work-
related behaviors (Chen and Tang, 2013; Liu, 2010; McCarty, 2007; Patwardhan et al., 2012;
Schneider et al., 2011).
Despite the fact that Morocco has a high religiosity score (Balambo, 2013) and an
important spiritual orientation (D’Iribarne and Henry, 2007), spirituality and intrinsic
religiosity do not seem to influence employee motivation or employee work performance.
This is arguably because of the fact that Moroccan society is segmentary in nature (Geertz,
1973) as it is segmented into several spheres where individuals have reference points
according to their level of segmentation or social sphere. These spheres are independent and
have particular rationales and stakes. As such, although individuals may have a strong
religious or spiritual sense, the latter remains restricted to the personal or private sphere
without spilling over the professional or organizational sphere where calculated and
transactional rationales prevail. Along the same lines, based on empirical insights gathered
in a factory located in Casablanca, Morocco, d’Iribarne and Henry (2007) conclude that
religion does not have magical effects on the operating of businesses; it nonetheless
contributes to shaping a mental environment where management makes sense.
The study also examined IWE impact on employees’ job performance. The results
demonstrate that IWE is a significant predictor of employees’ motivation and performance.
This implies that employees who display high IWE can be highly motivated at work and
JIABR reach high job performance. This finding supports previous investigations that found that
12,3 IWE encouraged productive work-related behaviors such as commitment, dedication,
creativity, productivity and cooperation (Khan et al., 2013), organizational commitment
(Rahman et al., 2006; Rokhman, 2010) and job engagement (Khan et al., 2013), which
ultimately lead to better work-related outcomes. The results also support previous studies
that found that IWE was positively related to individual performance (Abbasi et al., 2011;
448 Ali, 1996). Overall, IWE was found to boost employee job satisfaction and organizational
commitment (Hayati and Caniago, 2012) as well as intrinsic motivation and job performance
(Yousef, 2001).
Finally, the findings show that intrinsic motivation was only found to significantly
mediate the relationship of IWE and employee job performance, but not the effect of
spirituality and intrinsic religiosity on job performance. These results do not support the
view of Fry (2003) and Milliman et al. (2003) who found that spirituality and intrinsic
motivation were positively related. Moreover, these results do not support the previous
research of Ali et al. (1995) who demonstrated a positive association between religion and
employee motivation to reach specific outcomes. Finally, the results are consistent with
indications by Garg (2017) that intrinsic motivation partially mediated the relationship
between IWE and performance. In a broader context, the findings are aligned with Gheitani
et al. (2019) study that found that intrinsic motivation served as a mediator in the link
between IWE and job satisfaction as well as between IWE and organizational commitment.
In sum, these results may be because of the fact that Islamic principles and values are
implemented and more reinforced in the Moroccan workplace than new and modern
concepts such as spirituality and intrinsic religiosity. On another note, it could also be that
the concept of spirituality lacks validity among full-time employees as Fornaciari et al.
(2005) have found that 50% of the extant spirituality studies included MBA or university
students as convenience samples, which caused issues of construct validity and
generalizability of their findings to employees in the workplace.

Implications of the study

The current study demonstrated that the promotion of the IWE in the workplace can
markedly influence the intrinsic motivation of employees and their job performance in a
positive way. Concurrently, an increase in employee intrinsic motivation can lead to job
performance.
The present research contributes to the extant literature pertaining to religiosity,
spirituality and IWE in several ways. First, it responds to the religious (re)awakening that
has been recently observed in regard to links between religion and management (Mellahi
and Budhwar, 2006) by looking into the effects of religion-related factors on employee job
performance. Second, this study investigates the potential mediating role of the relation
between intrinsic religiosity, spirituality, IWE and employee job performance. The findings
reveal that IWE constitutes a determinant factor of employee job performance. Intrinsic
religiosity and spirituality do not exert a statistically significant effect on employee intrinsic
motivation or work performance, although the context of the study (Morocco) is marked by a
high religiosity score (Balambo, 2013) and an important spiritual orientation (d’Iribarne and
Henry, 2007). Third, the study contributed to the existing literature by assessing three
religion-related factors, namely, intrinsic religiosity, spirituality and IWE, in a non-Western
context. Generally, studies include one or two religion-related factors and are mostly
conducted in developed and Western countries. Finally, an important methodological
implication of the present study concerns the use of the bootstrapping approach along the
Bayesian estimation analysis to assess the mediation of employee intrinsic motivation
between, on the one hand, spirituality, intrinsic religiosity and IWE, and, on the other hand, Islamic work
employee job performance. Contrary to traditional techniques of mediation (Baron and ethics on
Kenny, 1986; Sobel, 1982), the Bayesian estimation approach is based on bias-corrected employee
bootstrap and estimates simultaneously the direct and indirect effects while yielding reliable
coefficients (MacKinnon et al., 2004).
performance
The findings of this study present a number of fundamental practical implications for
international organizations currently operating or considering doing business in Islamic 449
countries, especially that 80% of individuals worldwide recognize that religion is a crucial
element of their life (Sedikides and Gebauer, 2010). On the one hand, the findings highlight
the crucial role that IWE plays in employee job performance. Organizations and managers
alike can resort to IWE insights with the objective to increase employee performance. To do
so, senior managers should play a role model by displaying IWE-based business practices.
Also, organizations ought to provide their employees with IWE training activities and
various organizational processes such as recruitment, job interviews and an employee
orientation that incorporates IWE insights. Managers can also coach their subordinates on
ways to put into practice Islamic work values and principles by means of training and
lecturing activities to ultimately strengthen IWE among organizational members (Murtaza
et al., 2016). In so doing, organizations would have members who exhibit IWE at work,
which would be positively reflected in their work motivation and, in turn, in the
organizational overall performance. On the other hand, organizations operating in Islamic
countries, particularly international and multinational companies, should place the
emphasis on IWE as per their practices, procedures and processes where specific ethical
insights from the Islamic tradition are implemented and reinforced rather than focus on new
and modern concepts such as intrinsic religiosity and spirituality.

Limitations and suggestions for future research

The present research has limitations that ought to be taken into account in future research.
First, though the research model is relevant as it tested indirect effects, it nonetheless
encompassed only one mediating variable which is intrinsic motivation. Other intervening
variables that may influence job performance such as organizational citizenship behavior or
spiritual well-being should be explored. Second, because the focus of the current research is
situated at the individual level, variables at the organizational level have been bypassed.
Hence, new research ought to investigate organization-related factors such as corporate
culture or leadership style (e.g. spiritual leadership). Third, as the current study used a cross-
sectional methodology, the findings are merely correlations among variables. To probe into
the potential causation between the constructs under study, a longitudinal research design,
which can go beyond a snapshot at a given point in time, is required. Fourth, data were
collected from a sample of working individuals in Morocco, which is a majority Muslim
country that is marked by a dearth of research (Hassi, 2016). Along the same lines, it has
been argued that Islamic values and practices might vary across Muslim groups and entities
(Minhat and Dzolkarnaini, 2016). Therefore, the generalizability of the findings is restricted.
Future research and replications of the current research are much needed with the objective
of verifying whether the results of the present study would hold in different Islamic contexts
and countries. Finally, although data were gathered in two measurement waves separated
by a five-day lag with the intention to reduce the common method bias, it is highly
recommended that future studies collect data pertaining to the predictor and criterion
variables from different sources to avoid the common method bias.
JIABR Conclusion
12,3 The present paper explored the impact of spirituality, intrinsic religiosity and IWE on
employee job performance as well as the mediating role of employee intrinsic motivation in
these relationships. SEM analyses and the Bayesian approach were carried out on a sample
of 224 employees from organizations in Morocco. The results revealed that only IWE had a
positive and significant direct effect on job performance and that employee intrinsic
450 motivation does not mediate this relationship. These findings may be explained by the fact
that Islamic principles are more rooted within Moroccan organizations than modern and less
familiar concepts such as intrinsic religiosity and spirituality.

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Further reading
Rucker, D.D., Preacher, K.J., Tormala, Z.L. and Petty, R.E. (2011), “Mediation analysis in social
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Corresponding author
Abderrahman Hassi can be contacted at: a.hassi@aui.ma
Appendix. Questionnaire Islamic work
Please select a number that best describes your agreement or disagreement with each statement (1= ethics on
strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree).
employee
performance

455
JIABR
12,3

456

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