Investigation of the effects of managers' religious beliefs and superstitions at work on the decision-making styles under the moderating role of organizational justice perceptions in local governments

There are many internal and external factors that have shaped the life of humans by affecting their attitudes and behaviors in every era and aspect of human life since the beginning of existence. The most important of these factors is the belief systems that involve various dictates and forbiddances. Today, it is seen that religious beliefs and superstitions within these belief systems are quite influential in human life. Accordingly, much research have been conducted in national and international literatures of religious psychology, behavioral sciences and organizational management branches. However, it can be also noted that there are not many studies concerning the place of religious beliefs in workplaces, where people try to produce goods or services using scarce resources, contributing to maintaining both their own lives and the society. With regard to the national literature, no study related to religious beliefs and superstitions could be found. Religious beliefs and superstitions of executives in particular who determine the future of organizations and employees with their chain of decisions are thought to have an effect on their styles of decision-making. The purpose of this study is to research the regulatory role of organizational justice perception over the effect of executives' religious beliefs and superstitions on their decision-making styles in workplaces. The sample of this research consists of lowmiddle- and high-level executives working in the district municipalities within provincial borders of İstanbul. Total population method is used to reach the executives. This research is cross-sectional. A pilot study was carried out before the research by conducting a configured survey on 313 people working in 4 district municipalities in the European side of İstanbul province. For the main study, 450 executives working in 39 district municipalities have been reached within a configured survey. Analyses have been carried out with Smart-PLS and SPSS statistical package programs. Research findings show that religious beliefs and superstitions have a positive and meaningful effect on the decision-making styles of executives in workplaces. In addition, religious beliefs and superstitions of executives have been found to have a positive and meaningful effect on their intuitive decision-making, dependent decisionmaking, automatic/instantaneous decision-making, and evasive decision making which are the subtypes decision-making styles in workplace. Religious beliefs and superstitions of the executives in workplace have been shown to have a negative and meaningful effect on rational decision-making which is another sub-type of decisionmaking. The effect of executives' religious beliefs and organizational justice perception interaction term on their decision-making styles has been found to be positive and meaningful. The effect of executives' superstitions and organizational justice perception interaction term on their decision-making styles has been found to be positive and meaningful. As per the theoretical contributions of the study; David Miller's The Integration Profile (TIP) Belief and Work Integration Scale has been translated to Turkish contributing to the national literature and a scale of superstitions in workplace has been developed contributing both to the national and international literature. In addition, a study of religious beliefs and superstitions has been conducted in a society consists mostly of Muslim as a first in the literature. The results of the survey also contribute to literatures of organizational management, behavioral sciences and religious psychology branches. Another contribution of the study is that it puts forth a model of belief in workplace that covers all beliefs whether institutional or not. As per the organizational practices, the study is thought to have many contributions such as increasing the sensitivity and awareness towards religious beliefs and superstitions in organizations; respecting and celebrating special days based on religious beliefs; creating and making permanent an organizational culture where love, respect, empathy and tolerance are spread within the organization and differences are accepted as added values; creating an organizational belongingness and commitment, effectively managing the differences in the organization to ensure that members of the organization can demonstrate their knowledge and skills; helping the organization reach its goals and increase its competitiveness thanks to the created motivation.