Determinants of organisational commitment of islamic bank employees : Attitude towards Islamic banking as mediator and shariah training as moderator

Abstract

There is evidence to suggest that not all employees who work within the Islamic banking system are fully convinced of its objectives and underlying philosophy. A good number of them have conventional banking background with little operational knowledge of Islamic banking. At the same time, acute differences between employees? theoretical and practical understanding make them prone to have poor attitude towards Islamic banking. Such ambivalent attitude in employees may affect their work outcomes such as organisational commitment. In addition to this, a dearth of knowledge is found to probe this affair while taking remedial measures simultaneously to improve employees? attitude towards Islamic banking (EATIB). The study tries to understand the impact of EATIB on organisational commitment of Islamic banking employees. It is also among the early attempts to develop a scale for EATIB, especially in the Malaysian context. The overall model for this research employed the social cognitive theory (SCT) and social exchange theory (SET) to test the impact of organisational and personal factors on employees? attitude as well as their work commitment. Additionally, Shariah training was used as a moderator on the relationship between EATIB and organisational commitment. The study collected 450 usable responses from Islamic banking employees located in the Klang Valley. The underlying hypotheses were tested using the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) whereas two hypotheses were tested through the analysis of variance (ANOVA). Findings from the study revealed that EATIB has a positive impact on organisational commitment whereas EATIB mediates between perceived organisational support (POS) and organisational commitment. Similarly, POS and organisational justice (OJ) were found to be positively related with organisational commitment. Through the ANOVA testing, it was found that EATIB and organisational commitment are not significantly different across various age groups of employees. However, significant difference was found across various levels of job tenure and qualification. Similarly, it was revealed that Shariah training moderates on the relationship between EATIB and organisational commitment. Lastly, a scale developed to measure EATIB emerged with five dimensions: awareness, usefulness, Shariah compliance, patronage and attractiveness. This development will enable Islamic banks to better understand their EATIB and organisational commitment. Furthermore, the use of Shariah training will improve EATIB by bridging the gap between employees? theoretical and practical knowledge of Islamic banking.