“Islamic work ethics and lecturer performance: Mediating roles of person- organization fit and innovation in learning activities”

ARTICLE INFO Fitri Wulandari and Syaugi Mubarak (2021). Islamic work ethics and lecturer performance: Mediating roles of person-organization fit and innovation in learning activities. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 19(3), 22-32. doi:10.21511/ppm.19(3).2021.03 DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.19(3).2021.03 RELEASED ON Friday, 16 July 2021 RECEIVED ON Friday, 26 March 2021 ACCEPTED ON Thursday, 17 June 2021


INTRODUCTION
This study establishes that work ethics can increase employee trust in the organization. Hough et al. (2020) encouraged an optimistic attitude and aligned employee values with the organization, and increased creativity and innovation for boosting performance. Lecturer ethics, such as optimism, hard work, positive outlook, and high altruism are very beneficial for the organization. Ethics is the lecturer's best provision, whose studies are universal (Aldulaimi, 2016). IWE is a norm that does not contradict the Qur'an and Hadith with intentions and blessings as the two essential components. In the Prophet Hadith, the Prophet stated that every action depends upon and is rewarded according to the intention. In this case, a Muslim applies IWE to be rewarded for good intentions for a blessed life. In line with Mohammad et al. (2018), IWE is relevant to study since the Muslim communities are almost 23% of the world population. However, low ethics is a crucial problem for the Muslim community in general. Therefore, ethical issues are relevant for attention in all life aspects, including the ethical role in higher education and their impact on lecturer performance.

LITERATURE REVIEW
The study of work ethics has received attention from many researchers over the past few decades. The concept was adopted from Weber's (1958) view, which opened a new view of Protestant ethics. Furthermore, McClelland (1961) expanded Weber's theory of social psychology studies through Protestantism and Capitalism. McClelland (1961) deeply related Protestant work ethics to the concept of work performance needs. Work ethic is the cultural area incorporating elements of beliefs and work values in line with rules applicable in society (Chanzanagh & Nejat, 2010). Moreover, as an interdisciplinary field, work ethics is described in literary works from philosophical and sociological perspectives. It is also studied by theoretical and empirical management sciences, contributing to the existing literature. Some researchers use different views such as Protestant, Islamic, Confucius, and Australian Work Ethics. However, all of them adopt the work ethics view from a religious or Weber's Protestant perspective (1958).
The study of work ethics should not disregard the cultural understanding of this concept. Intercognitive concepts should be learned from cultural settings based on the IWE or other non-Protestant ethic criteria (Chanzanagh & Akbarnejad, 2011 Yousef (2001) showed that IWE and PWE have similarities as they both emphasize hard work, commitment, dedication, and creativity. Moreover, these concepts stress avoiding accumulating wealth, enhancing cooperation, competitiveness, and being ethical in the workplace. Düşmezkalender et al. (2021) and Yousef (2001) described the concept of IWE that concerns hard work and refuses laziness, encourages positive behavior at work, promotes responsibility and helpfulness, holds honesty, and uses energy and thoughts for the betterment of the organization. Empirical studies explain that the role of IWE in suppressing deviant behavior in the workplace is more effective if employee conformity to the organization is high (Düşmezkalender et al., 2021).
Hence, employee conformity to the organization is important to reduce behaviors that are contrary to organizational goals. Nasution and Rafiki (2020) explained that IWE, which is manifested in honesty, trust, and being helpful, creates more satisfaction in the workplace and encourages commitment to the organization. However, it becomes a challenge for organizations to understand and instill IWE in all employees. Kumar and Rose (2010) reinforced the view that hard work and strong trust increase innovation capabilities in public organizations. This strengthens the understanding that commitment to IWE and its impact on innovation capabilities facilitate the role of human resource professionals in designing and implementing all changes in the workplace.
Ali and Al-Owaihan (2008) stated that IWE emphasizes hard work, persistence, responsibility, change and increases employee commitment to the organization. According to Kumar and Rose (2010), IWE provides the power of life balance between work and personal life, a positive attitude towards work. This includes creativity, hard work, responsibility, cooperation, and dedication, which benefit individuals and the organization. Superior work ethics is indicated by values and personal attributes (Abodher et al., 2020); it improves performance in public sector services. IWE is associated with positive individual attitudes towards the organization (Javed et al., 2020). Furthermore, this positive attitude is associated with increased commitment, responsibility, and employee satisfaction with the organization. According to Mohammad et al. (2018), IWE predicts employee support for the organization while increasing their performance. This is because individuals with high IWE work hard and are highly committed to the organization. In addition, Hayati and Caniago (2012) stated that IWE predicts organizational commitment, employee satisfaction, intrinsic motivation, and improved performance.
The multidimensional approach concerning person-organization fit is the suitability of person-to-person, person-to-job, person-to-group, and person-to-organization (Düşmezkalender et al., 2021;Pudjiarti & Hutomo, 2020). Personorganization fit has been discussed to explore the causes of the compatibility relationship between a person and an organization (Farooqui & Nagendra, 2014;Goetz et al., 2021). It is conformity between individuals and organizations due to the trust between the two parties (Goetz et al., 2021). The compatibility is influenced by how the organization supports the humanist relationship. This study focuses on the appropriateness approach between individuals and organizations. Kristof (1996)  The suitability between employees and organizations is the desire to produce something positive. Value of conformity is indicated by increased job satisfaction, performance, organizational citizenship, and commitment, as well as declining employee turnover. The organization seeks to hire and retain employees with the best competencies. Similarly, employees strive to adjust to the workplace organization environment through contributions (Astakhova, 2016). IWE promotes work motivation and improves employees' ability to solve complex problems at work. Hence, a high IWE is an opportunity for employees to show their talents in the organization (Düşmezkalender et al., 2021). Compliance and high responsibility show that a person has value of conformity with the organization.
Hough et al. (2020) stated that an ethical environment increases employee trust in the organization as an optimistic attitude, enhancing creativity and innovation. Various multidisciplinary approaches discuss innovation (Kumar & Rose, 2010), which highlighted its importance in organizations. Both innovation and its capability are crucial in promoting superior organizations (Yesil & Dogan, 2012). It is difficult to define the innovation concept because organizational change involves all aspects, including systems, products, services, meth-ods, and processes (Riana et al., 2020). Helmy et al. (2020) and Yesil and Dogan (2012) stated that innovation focuses on new ideas and their implementation. This study focuses on innovation in the education sector and public organizational characteristics supporting change and lecturers' creativity in learning new methods. Yesil and Dogan (2012) aligned with the view that public organization services are slow, not rigid closely related to high bureaucracy. The new knowledge and ideas should enable organizations to process improvements and service innovations adaptive to change.
There is an influence on IWE importance and its role in increasing innovation capabilities. IWE is obedience to Allah, responsible behavior, loyalty, helping others, and working based on the worship intention. These qualities affect positive behavior in the workplace, such as mobilizing all potential for organizational progress, being optimistic, and increasing satisfaction (Kumar & Rose, 2012; Mohammad et al., 2018). According to Rose (2010, 2012), high IWE influences innovation capabilities of the public sector, such as increased service quality. Supermane (2019) confirmed that leadership and organizational knowledge management promote and support innovation in teaching and learning. Therefore, organizations should create a conducive environment for optimum IWE. This study strengthens the opinion that IWE values increase innovation in learning activities.
The person-organization fit results from the relationship between employee's abilities, skills, and knowl-

AIMS AND HYPOTHESES
The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of antecedent factors such as IWE, person-organization fit, and innovation in learning activities to improve the performance of lecturers in religious universities.
Based on the literature review, the following hypotheses are proposed:

Validity and reliability test
The validity test results are shown in Table 2. By comparing r count > r

Hierarchical regression analysis
Step 1 in Table 4 explains that only position significantly influences IWE, while work experience and income have a negative and insignificant impact. In step 2, IWE positively influences lecturer performance with a significant level of 1%, (t = 6.433 > 1.96). Therefore, the H1 coefficient is positive with a value of β = 0.511, p < 0.01.
Step 3 shows that IWE positively influences person-organization fit with a significant level of 1%, (t = 5,643 > 1.96). Therefore, the H2 coefficient is positive with a value of β = 0.517, p < 0.01. In step 4, IWE positively influences innovation in learning activities with a significant level of 1%, (t = 3.921 > 1.96). Therefore, the H3 coefficient is positive with a value of β = 0.364, p < 0.01.
Step 4 in Table 5 shows that person-organization fit positively influences innovation in learning activities with a significant level of 1%, (t = 6.510 > 1.96). Therefore, the H4 coefficient is positive with a value of β = 0.537, p < 0.01. In step 5, person-or-  Table 5. Hierarchical regression analysis of person-organization fit (POF) on innovation in learning activities (ILA), person-organization fit (POF), and innovation in learning activities (ILA) on lecturer performance

Independent variables
Step 4 (ILA) Step 5 (LP) β t β t    Table 6 shows that the mediation role of person-organization fit on the influence of IWE on lecturer performance is significant. Furthermore, the Sobel test results show a value of 4.20848561, with oneway and two-way probability values less than 0.01. Therefore, person-organization fit partially mediates the influence of IWE and lecturer performance.

Sobel test
From Table 6, the mediation role of innovation in learning activities on the influence of IWE on lecturer performance is significant. The Sobel test results show a value of 3.67186631, with one-way and two-way probability values less than 0.01. Therefore, innovation in learning activities partially mediates the influence of IWE and lecturer performance

DISCUSSION
The results showed that IWE had a significant positive influence on lecturer performance, while work ethics improve customer service performance (Lau et al., 2017 There is an influence of person-organization fit on innovation in learning activities. All changes with new ideas and their implementation are the answers awaited by students and stakeholders. Therefore, the demands related to speed, service improvement, as well as an efficient and effective method, are the leading organization tasks in all aspects. According to Lee and Choi (2003), and Kumar

CONCLUSION
The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of IWE on lecturer performance with person-organization fit and innovation in learning activities as mediating variables. The findings of this study indicate that there is a positive and significant influence of IWE on lecturer performance, person-organization fit, and innovation in learning activities. The results of this study also show that there is a positive and significant effect of person-organization fit and innovation in learning activities on lecturer performance. Based on the fourth hypothesis (H4), the influence of person-organization fit on innovation in learning activities has the greatest value. The second greatest value is the influence of IWE on person-organization fit (H2), followed by the direct influence of IWE on lecturer performance (H1), and the fourth is the influence of IWE on innovation in learning activities (H3). If it is compared to the effect of person-organization fit on lecturer performance (H5), innovation in learning activities has a greater direct effect on improving lecturer performance (H6). The strategy used in improving lecturer performance is by looking at the role of IWE, which has a strategic contribution in improving lecturer performance. The first strategy is increasing the role of IWE in improving lecturer performance was conducted by increasing innovation as a meditating variable that has the highest contribution (0.1638). The second strategy is to encourage the role of IWE to drive person-organization fit and innovation that leads to the improvement of lecturer performance (0.1272). The third is to increase the role of IWE in driving person-organization fit, which leads to improved performance (0.1245). The results confirm that IWE influences lecturer performance mediated by innovative learning and person-organization fit. They showed partial mediation since they have a significant influence both directly and indirectly.