Islamic Leadership as a Catalyst for Employee Performance: The Parallel Mediating Effects of Organizational Justice and Knowledge Sharing

Abstract

Islamic leadership, characterized by the values of truthfulness (Sidq), trustworthiness (Amanah), consultation (Shura), wisdom (Fatanah), and moral accountability, is gaining academic focus and is considered a values-based approach to leadership in organizations in Muslim-majority societies. This study examines the influence of Islamic leadership on job performance through the parallel mediation of perceived organizational justice and knowledge sharing in the higher education sector of Pakistan. The survey instruments used were validated instruments namely Islamic Leadership Scale (adapted from Yusof, 2016), Organizational Justice Scale (adapted from Colquitt, 2001), Knowledge Sharing Scale (adapted from Van den Hooff & De Ridder, 2004), and Individual Work Performance Questionnaire (Koopmans, 2015) for collecting data from 200 faculty and administrative members working in the public and private sector universities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The research design used was quantitative, cross sectional and regression based parallel mediation analysis was used to test the hypothesized relationships among the study variables. Results show that the relationship between Islamic leadership and employee performance is significant and positive, and the relationship between Islamic leadership and employee performance is partially mediated by perceived organizational justice and knowledge sharing respectively. They support the practical, ethically based, justice-oriented and knowledge sharing supportive leadership practices to improve performance outcomes in academic institutions. Discussions of implications for university administrators, policymakers, and human resource practitioners are provided, as well as limitations of the study and directions for future research.

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