Work Motivation among Muslim Public Health Employees in Pattani Province, Thailand

Abstract

This paper is based on research conducted on Public Health sector in Pattani Province, Thailand. Public Health is a basic principle of the health care system to reduce the causes of disease and injury. Public Health Center in Pattani is governed under the Thai Public Health Ministry to promote a healthier lifestyle among the population in Pattani province. The study examines the factors influencing work motivation among Muslim Public Health Employees. Specifically, it will examine the importance of the factor of Islamic Workplace Accommodation and Nature of Work toward Work Motivation. Based on a questionnaire survey of 242 employees, this study applies the correlation approach to investigate the research model. The results showed that that the relationship between the Islamic Workplace Accommodation and Nature of Work are positive toward Work Motivation.

Keywords: Work Motivation;Islamic workplace accommodationNature of workPublic health employeeMuslim

Introduction

Nowadays human resources management plays an important role in managing an efficient workforce by getting the right employees to work for the organization. Several strategies focus on keeping the right workforces while the plan serving this strategy is to have a loyal and motivated workforce in order to meet the organization’s successfulness.

The perception of work motivation has been defined as the force that drives employee to perform a particular action to achieve personal and his organization goals (Vroom, 1964). While recent scholars defined work motivation as the concept of employee enhancing and maintaining effort toward some expected goal (Humphreys and Einstein, 2004). Similar to Berman, Bowman, West and Wart (2010) defined work motivation as the power that drives employees to deal with some actions to accomplish some goals.

The lack of motivated employee tends to reduce their job satisfaction which allows the number of employee turnover increasing. In this relation, the study found that the job turnover among Healthcare in Thailand southernmost provinces (Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat) is increasing in current years (“พยาบาล3จว,” 2013).

In particular, the study also found that the number of Muslim Public Health employees’ turnover in Pattani Province is increasing since 2010 (Source: Pattani Public Health Center Database, received June, 2015).

Theoretical background and hypothesis

Religion faith is one of the most important social foundations that are significantly related with human’s mind-set and behaviours. Religion determines respectively the impacts to the organization matters including the management and employees’ decisions (Rafiki and Wahab, 2014).

The study of Sulaiman, Ahmad, Sbaih and Kamil (2014) revealed that it is necessary to follow the Islamic perspective toward Muslim employees’ career achievement because religion is one of factors which impact on Muslim employees’ motivation and expectations.

The study of Ahmad (2009) found that one of the most important factors that impact on Muslim employee motivation is work itself which is typically gather with an act of the worship of God.

With regards to Muslim employees, Kelly (2008) described that to involve Islamic practices in the workplace deals with a challenge in the recent workplace environment along with the spiritual needs, food needs and specifically the dress code of women workforces. The study of Ball and Haque (2003) found that the most religious need of Muslims is the obligatory prayer five times a day which the prayer is not an informal thing but it has to be performed at particular times of the day.

Existing researchers have found a relationship between other various factors toward work motivation. However, nature of work was cited as one of the most factors impact work motivation among healthcare employees in Thailand. Therefore, this study also has been focused on the impact of nature of work toward work motivation.

On the basis of above study reviews, the conceptual framework in this study is drawn as following figure 1 :

See Full Size >

The framework expressly tests the following two hypotheses,

H1:There is a positive relationship between Islamic Workplace Accommodation and Work Motivation.

H2:There is a positive relationship between Nature of Work and Work Motivation.

Methodology

Result and discussion

The majority of the respondents were female (78.9%) from the age ranged between 18 to 50 and above, most of the respondents were married (68.6%), and holding a bachelor degree (78.9%). There were 39.3% of the respondents who work at professional level, and 35.5% were experienced level, however, only 13.2% were operational level.

Based on Table 1 , Hypothesis 1 is accepted after the study found that there is a relationship between Islamic Workplace Accommodation and Work Motivation (P < 0.001). However, the positive value of Pearson correlation shows the weak strength of relationship between Islamic Workplace Accommodation and Work Motivation (r = 0.228).

This is similar to Hypothesis 2; it is accepted after the result shows that there is a relationship between Nature of Work and Work Motivation (P < 0.001). However, the positive value of Pearson correlation shows the weak strength of relationship between Nature of Work and Work Motivation (r = 0.281).

Numerous studies shown the similar findings as Bergen and Mawer (2008) attending worship, wearing religious attire or symbols, displaying religious objects or other forms of religious expression are impact toward employees’ motivation. Whereas Borstorff and Cunningham (2013) also found that one of the sources of work motivation among employees is the facility of religious practices in workplace.

Meanwhile the study of Ahmad (2009) found that one of the most important factors that affect Muslim employee motivation is work itself which is tied together with an act of the worship of God.

The study of Sav, Harris and Sebar (2013) also believed that when employer gives a freedom for Muslim workforces to perform their own religious duties at workplace, it naturally produces a higher positive motivator which finally improves a quality of their own work.

Implications of the study

The importance of the study findings strengthens the previously found theoretical support (Zaman, Nas, Ahmed, Raja and Marri, 2013). Previous studies had examined religious practices in Islamic context. However, this study implication does not only support the past findings between Islamic context and work motivation. It also focuses attention on the other factor including nature of work toward work motivation among Muslim employees.

The findings of this study also present practical implications for employees, especially Muslim employees who work in the southernmost of Thailand provinces in regard to the importance of offering Islamic religious accommodation in workplaces to enhance work motivation.

An introduction to the Islamic practices in Human Resources management might create a challenge for organizations as Muslim employees generally requires several religious accommodations compared to other religious believes. However, this knowledge would be advantageous to organizations when applying the Islamic approach in managing Muslim employees, while non-Muslim management team will have a better understanding of the expected practices of their Muslim colleagues.

Conclusion

Work Motivation is a fundamental concern to any organizations. This study focuses an understanding of the determinants of work motivation among Muslim employees. The study showed that healthcare staff plays important role in determining the efficiency of healthcare systems. Specifically, the study showed that Islamic practices accommodated in workplace were positively impact work motivation among Muslim employees. The study believes that work motivation ensures the quality of healthcare, as dissatisfied and less motivated healthcare workforces are more likely to give low quality and less proficient care. Hence, it is important to identify what encourage the healthcare workforces and to what extent they are motivated with their job.

References

1. Ahmad, K. (2009). Leadership and work motivation from the cross cultural perspective. International Journal of Commerce and Management, 19(1), 72-84.
2. Ball, C., & Haque, A. (2003). Diversity in religious practice: Implications of Islamic values in the public workplace. Public Personnel Management, 32(3), 315-315.
3. Bergen, C.W.V., & Mawer, W.T. (2008). Faith at Work. Southern Law Journal, 18.
4. Berman, E. M., Bowman, J. S., West, J. P., & Wart, M. R. V. (2010). Human Resource Management in Public Service: Paradoxes, Processes and Problems (4th ed.). California: SAGE Publications, Inc.
5. Borstorff, P.C. & Cunningham, B.J. (2013). An Investigation of the Religious Accommodation Education Gap: Corporate and Workforce Misconceptions and Ignorance Abound. American Journal of Business and Management, 2(4), 266-274.
6. Campbell, C. (2013). Savage Escalation Threatened in Thailand’s Southern Insurgency. Retrieved July 23, 2014, from http://http://world.time.com/2013/05/22/savage-escalation-threatened-in-thailands-southern-insurgency.
7. Humphreys, J.H., & Einstein, W.O. (2004). Leadership and Temperament Congruence: Extending the Expectancy Model of Work Motivation. Journal of leadership and Organizational Studies, 10(4), 58-79. doi:
8. Kelly, E. P. (2008). Accommodating religious expression in the workplace. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 20(1), 45-56. doi:DOI:
9. Krejcie, R.V., & Morgan, D.W. (1970). Determining Sample Size For Research Activities. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 30, 607-610. Retrieved July 23, 2014, from https://opa.uprrp.edu/InvInsDocs/KrejcieandMorgan.pdf
10. Pattani Public Health Center Database. (2015). Number of Pattani public health resources. Retrieved from CD-ROM.
11. Rafiki, A., & Wahab, K.A. (2014). Islamic Values and Principles in the Organization: A Review of Literature. Asian Social Science, 10(9). doi: DOI:
12. Sav, A., Harris, N., & Sebar, B. (2013). Work-life conflict and facilitation among Australian Muslim men: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. An International Journal, 32 (7), 671 – 687. doi:
13. Sulaiman, M., Ahmad, K., Sbaih, B., & Kamil, N.M. (2014). The Perspective of Muslim Employees Towards Motivation and Career Success. Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 9(1), 45-62.
14. Vroom, V. (1964). Work and Motivation. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.,
15. Zaman, H.M.F., Nas, Z., Ahmed, M., Raja, Y.M., & Marri, M.Y.K. (2013). The mediating role of Intrinsic Motivation between Islamic Work Ethics and Employee Job Satisfaction. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(1), 93-102.
16. พยาบาล3จว.ใต้ขาดแคลนหนักแนะรัฐเพิ่มรายได้กันสมองไหล (2013, September 2). Prachachat Newspaper. Retrieved May 20, 2014, from http://www.hfocus.org/content/2013/09/4580