Religious view of working life: Development of the Islamic climate scale in organizations

It is a common situation for employees to reflect their religious belief systems into their working lives, It is highly likely that the aspects of the work environment that are compatible or contrary to the belief system of individuals will affect the spiritual world of employees. The existence of an organizational climate that is compatible with employees beliefs will create a more comfortable psychological working environment for employees. Therefore, it is important for employers to assess how well they can accommodate their employee's general belief systems to create a comfortable workplace. The Islamic Climate in organizations scale was created to assess the role of religion and spirituality in the workplace. This scale can measure the expectations of Islamic employees and provide useful insights info how management practices affect the corporate spiritual climate. The study was carried out on employees in the manufacturing sector operating in AydınSöke Organized Industrial Zone. In the research which easy sampling technique was used, a survey was conducted on over 390 employees. It is benefited from Churchill (1979) and DeVellis (2017) during the scale development process. To develop the Islamic Climate Scale in organizations, it is created an item pool of 81 statements. A 5-point Likert-type scale consisting of 27 items was developed by excluding 54 items that were found to not meet the necessary criteria. Through analysis, six theoretical dimensions of the Islamic Climate Scale in organizations are determined; freedom of belief interest-free earnings, business ethics, spiritual satisfaction, important days and nights and merit factor. Aligning the workplace environment and human resource management practices with the religious and spiritual values of employees can boost both individual and organizational performance. With the scale developed in the study, researchers, workplace owners and managers will be able to measure the sensitivity of employees on critical issues and the severity and degree of the connection between various organizational factors and the religious climate in the workplace. KEY WORDS: Islamic Climate in Organizations, Scale Development, Work Environment in Religions, Work in Islam, Workplace Spirituality.