Organizational justice, job satisfaction and the moderating role of Islamic spirituality : a study on small and medium enterprises' (SMEs) employees in Klang Valley, Malaysia

Abstract

Employee job satisfaction has been one of the main concerns in employee retention within organizations especially in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are chosen as the study population due to their important contributions to the country's economic development. Previous studies done on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) regarding job satisfaction and organizational justice have shown inconsistent results in the organizational justice dimension. There are two main purposes of this study. First, to examine the relationship between organizational justice and job satisfaction including Islamic spirituality and job satisfaction. Second, to determine the role of Islamic spirituality in moderating the relationship between organizational justice and job satisfaction. Organizational justice in this study encompasses three components: distributive justice, procedural justice and interactional justice. The Islamic spirituality values are based on Taqwa values (Islamic Piety) derived from the terminology of Islamic spirituality used by Mohsen (2007), Kamil (2012), Sulaiman et. al, (2013), and Bhatti (2015), which categorized spirituality as one of the components of taqwa, excluding the social responsibility aspect. Most local or international studies have not considered Islamic spirituality as a moderating factor to enhance job satisfaction through the organizational justice dimension. Hence, this study investigates Islamic spirituality as a moderating factor among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia. Two theories underpin this study, namely the Resource-Based Theory and Equity Theory. This study uses self-administered questionnaire and quantitative methodology to survey employees of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia by adapting measurement instruments from existing literature. A sample of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) from the Directory of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia focusing in Klang Valley was selected from which Muslim employees were approached as the unit of analysis. Four hundred ( 400) questionnaires were distributed, and 276 completed responses were received which resulted in 69% response rate. Six (6) hypotheses were formulated and three (3) were found to be statistically significant. All preliminary analyses were performed to ensure that the data were valid and reliable to proceed with the main analyses. Multiple Linear Regression Analysis (MLRA) was adopted to test their relationships. All these analytical procedures utilized the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 23, inclusive oftest of hypotheses. The results of the moderated multiple linear regression analysis show that the three organizational justice dimensions are significant in influencing employee job satisfaction. These indicate the importance of the factors in ascertaining that those employees are happy working with the organization. However, Islamic spirituality did not seem to moderate the relationship , between the organizational justice dimensions and job satisfaction. Among the three dimensions of organizational justice, the variance of job satisfaction is better explained by distributive justice followed by procedural justice and interactional justice. But the analysis of data showed that Islamic spirituality is directly and significantly related to job satisfaction. In other words, Islamic spirituality functions as an independent variable, not a moderator. Although half of the hypotheses were not supported, this study has contributed to enriching the existing body of knowledge by providing additional empirical evidence on the influence of organizational justice dimensions on employee job satisfaction in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) particularly in the Malaysian context. Practical suggestions to the organizations' top management, Human Resource (HR) professionals and policymakers were also proposed.