Abstract
Presently, there is increased in research on job strain and the effects of religiosity on employee well-being. Despite increased recognition of religiosity as a moderator of well-being, limited research has focused on Islamic perspective of moderating job strain. This study examines the moderating effects of Islamic personal religiosity on the relationship between job strain and employee well-being in Malaysian universities. One hundred and seventeen (117) Muslim academic and administrative staff from four public universities were sampled. Data were collected via questionnaires, and our findings show that the effect of job strain on well-being is significant for employees and that personal religiosity of employees contributed to alleviating job strain and enhancing well-being. Thus, the study concludes that Islamic personal religiosity moderates the relationship between job strain and employee well-being.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Limited religiosity refers to those who have less religiosity performing less prayers and religious worship including reading the Holy Qur'an, making dua, remembering God, forgiveness, trust in God.
References
Achour, M. (2013). Work-family conflict and women’s well-being: The role of religiosity. Singapore: Lambert.
Achour, M., Grine, F., Mohd Roslan, M. N., & Zulkifli, M. Y. M. Y. (2014). Measuring religiosity and its effects on personal well-being: A case study of Muslim female academicians in Malaysia. Journal of Religion and Health,. doi:10.1007/s10943-014-9852-0.
Al-Goaib, S. (2003). Religiosity and social conformity of university students: An analytical study applied at King Saoud University. Arts Journal of King Saoud University, 16(1), 51–99.
Al-Munajjid, M. S. (2006). Dealing with worries and stress. www.islam-qa.com/index.php?Pgarticle&lneng&article_id¼12
Beehr, T. A. (1995). Psychological stress in the workplace. London: Routledge.
Brigid, W. P. (2010). The influence of religion and spirituality on rehabilitation outcomes among traumatic brain injury survivors. Wayne State University Dissertations. Paper 64.
Caird, D. (1987). Religiosity and personality: Are mystic introverted, neurotic, or psychotic? British Journal of Social Psychology, 26, 345–360.
Cavanagh, G. (1999). Spirituality for managers: Context and critique. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 12(3), 186–199.
Chou, K. Y. (2004). The relationship between family-friendly programs and flight attendants’ well-being: The mediating effect of work-to-family conflict. Unpublished Master thesis, Taipei: Ming Chuan University.
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71–75.
Ellison, C. G., & Henderson, A. K. (2011). Religion and mental health: Through the lens of the stress process. In A. J. Blasi (Ed.), Toward a sociological theory of religion and health (pp. 11–44). Leiden: Brill.
Emerson, E. B. (1985). Evaluating the impact of deinstitutionalization on the lives of mentally retarded people. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 90(3), 277–288.
Fabrigar, L. R., Wegener, D. T., MacCallum, R. C., & Strahan, E. J. (1999). Evaluating the use of exploratory factor analysis in psychological research. Psychological Methods, 4, 272–299.
Francis, L. J., & Kaldor, P. (2002). The relationship between psychological well-being and Christian faith and practice in an Australian population sample. Journal of Scient Study Religion, 41(1), 179–184.
Ghazali, M. (2001). The socio-political thought of Shah Wali Allah. Islamabad: Islamic Research Institute.
Ghazali, M. (2004). Khuluk Almuslim (Muslim’s behavior). Damascus: Dar Alkalam.
Ghobary, B. B. (2004). Relationship between reliance on God and self-esteem. International Journal of Psychology, 39, 5–6.
Glock, C. (1962). On the study of religious commitment. Religious Education: Research Supplement, 42, 98–110.
Good, M., & Willoughby, T. (2006). The role of spirituality versus religiosity in adolescent psychosocial adjustment. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 35, 41–55.
Gorsuch, R. L. (1983). Factor analysis (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1975). Development of the job diagnostic survey. Journal of Applied Psychology, 60, 159–170.
Hair, J. J. F., Black, C. W., Babin, B. J., Anderson, R. E., & Tatham, R. L. (1998). Multivariate data analysis (5th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Haji Ishak, M. S. (2010). Cultural and religious festivals: The Malaysian experience. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 15(1), 97–111.
Harris, S. J. (2002). Religiosity and psychological well-being among older adults: A meta-analysis. PhD Dissertation. Albizu University Carlos.
Hawa, S. (2004). Tarbeitena alruhiya. Cairo: Dar-Alsalam.
Henson, R. K., & Roberts, J. K. (2006). Use of exploratory factor analysis in published research. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 66(3), 393–416.
Huang, M. F. (2005). A study of work-family conflict and its impact on family life satisfaction for university faculties in Taipei city. Unpublished Master thesis, Taipei: National Taiwan Normal University.
Hunt, S. D., & Vitell, S. (1986). A general theory of marketing ethics. Journal of Macro Marketing, 6, 5–16.
Hunt, S. D., & Vitetl, S. (1992). The general theory of marketing ethics: A retrospective and revision. In J. Quelch & C. Smith (Eds.), Ethics in marketing. Chicago: Richard D Irwin.
Ibrahim, M. (1997). Al-qa’idah Al-tarbawiyyah fil-Islam (The concept of education in Islam). Amman: Dar Magdlawi.
Kahle, P., & Robbins, J. (2004). The power of spirituality in therapy. Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Press.
Karasek, R. A. (1979). Job demands, job decision latitude and mental strain: Implications for job redesign. Administrative Science Quarterly, 24, 285–308.
Kasberger, E. R. (2002). A correlational study of post-divorce adjustment and religious coping strategies in young adults of divorced families. In Second annual undergraduate research symposium CHARIS Institute of Wisconsin Lutheran College. Milwaukee.
Kling, Z. (1997). Social structure: The practices of Malay religiosity. In M. T. Osman (Ed.), Islamic civilization in the Malay world (pp. 51–80). Kuala Lumpur and Istanbul: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka dan The Research Centre for Islamic History, Arts and Culture.
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal and coping. New York: Springer.
Lee, R. T., & Asforth, B. E. (1996). A meta-analytic examination of the correlates of the three dimension of job burnout. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81, 123–133.
Mariam, A. Y., Koram, W., Ehab, A. A., & Noha, E. B. (2011). Measuring Islamic-driven buyer behavioral implications: A proposed market-minded religiosity scale. Journal of American Science, 7(8), 788–801.
McDaniel, S. W., & Burnett, J. J. (1990). Consumer Religiosity and retail store evaluative criteria. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 18(2), 101–112.
McGillivray, Mark. (2007). Human well-being: Issues, concepts and measures. In Mark McGillivray (Ed.), Human well-being: Concept and measurement. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
Mela, M. A., Marcoux, E., & Deqiang, G. U. (2008). The effect of religiosity and spirituality on psychological well-being among forensic psychiatric patients in Canada. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 11(5), 517–532.
Momtaz, Y. A., Hamid, T. A., & Yahya, N. (2009). The role of religiosity on relationship between chronic health problems and psychological well-being among Malay Muslim older persons. Research Journal of Medical Sciences, 3(6), 188–193.
Noor, N. M. (2008). Work and women’s well-being: Religion and age as moderators. Journal of Religion and Health, 47, 476–490.
O’Brien, J., & Palmer, M. (1993). The state of religion atlas. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Rose, B. M., Holmbeck, G. N., Coakley, R. M., & Franks, E. A. (2004). Mediator and moderator effects in developmental and behavioral pediatric research. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 25, 58–67.
Safaria, T., Othman, A., & Abdul Wahab, M. N. (2010). Religious coping, job insecurity and job stress among Javanese academic staff: A moderated regression analysis. International Journal of Psychological Studies, 2(2), 159–169.
Scutte, J. W., & Hosch, H. M. (1996). Optimism, religiosity, and neuroticism: A cross-cultural study. Personality and Individual Differences, 20(2), 239–244.
Sein, M. M., & Howteerakul, N. (2010). Job strain among rubber-glove-factory workers in central Thailand. Industrial Health, 48, 503–510.
Singh, S. (1989). Organizational stress and executive behavior. Unpublished Research Monograph, Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Research, New Delhi.
Steptoe, A., & Kivimäki, M. (2012). Stress and cardiovascular disease. Nature Review Cardiology, 9, 360–370.
Taha, A. H., & Salama, A. H. (2006). Strategies of educational and psychological stress, first version. Jordan: Dar Al-Fikr.
Warr, P. (2002). Psychology at work (5th ed.). London: Penguin Books.
Weaver, G. R., & Agle, B. R. (2002). Religiosity and Ethical behavior in organizations: A symbolic interactionist perspective. Academy of Management Review, 27(1), 77–98.
Wood, J. M., Tataryn, D. J., & Gorsuch, R. L. (1996). Effects of under- and overextraction on principal axis factor analysis with varimax rotation. Psychological Methods, 7, 354–365.
Woolfolk, R. L., & Leaner, P. M. (1984). Clinical applications. In R. L. Woolfolk & P. M. Lehrer (Eds.), Principles and practice of stress management (pp. 334–367). New York: Guilford.
Zinnbauer, B. J., Pargament, K. I., Cole, B., Rye, M. S., Butter, E. M., Belavich T. G., et al. (1997). Religion and spirituality: Unfuzzying the fuzzy. Journal of Scientific Studies of Religion, 36(4), 549–564.
Zullig, K. J., Ward, R. M., & Horn, T. (2006). The association between perceived spirituality, religiosity and life satisfaction: The mediating role of self-rated health. Social Indicators Research, 79(2), 255–274.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Division of Research and Development at Academy of Islamic Studies for financial assistance to cover publication fees of this article. The Grant provided to the authors under research Project RP013A-13HNE is highly appreciated.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Achour, M., Mohd Nor, M.R. & MohdYusoff, M.Y.Z. Islamic Personal Religiosity as a Moderator of Job Strain and Employee’s Well-Being: The Case of Malaysian Academic and Administrative Staff. J Relig Health 55, 1300–1311 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-015-0050-5
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-015-0050-5