Employees’ attitude towards Islamic banking: An exploratory study in Malaysia

There are evidence to suggest that not all who work within Islamic banking system are fully convinced of its objectives and underlying philosophy. Good numbers of them have conventional banking background with little operational knowledge etc. Their ambivalent attitude may affect their work commitment. This study tries to understand the seriousness of this issue and explores the reasons behind this. Additionally, the research probed any possible association of employees’ attitude towards Islamic banking with their organizational commitment. Design/Methodology/Approach – The study used qualitative approach solely, eyeing to understand employees’ attitude towards Islamic banking and the factors influencing it. For this, semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from Islamic banking employees. Originality/Value – The research appeared to be among the earlier works to examine the perception of Islamic banking employees in Malaysia and the factors associated to it. The study envisaged these factors to improve employees’ attitude towards Islamic banking including Shariah training and background in particular. Findings – The findings revealed that employees working in Malaysian Islamic banks have a number of wrongful pre-conceived ideas about Islamic banking. The wronged perception is mainly based on operations of Islamic banking (the gap between theory and practice), lack of Shariah training and Shariah background. Similarly, factors influencing employees’ attitude towards Islamic banking include employees’ awareness of Islamic banking, its usefulness and Shariah compliance besides other contributing factors. Further, employees’ attitude is found to impact positively on their work outcomes such as organizational commitment