Purpose: The current study aims to examine the relationship between Islamic spirituality (IS), Islamic social responsibility (ISR) and workplace deviance (WD).Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 400 Muslim employees of 9 business groups in Pakistan from manufacturing and services industry. The structure equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses, and the proposed model was assessed through renowned model fit indices.Findings: The findings revealed that IS and ISR help curtail WD. The study also provides empirical support to the hypotheses that employees with high levels of IS and social responsibility will tend to avoid deviant behavior at workplace.Originality/value: This study proposed IS and ISR as two possible stimuli that can help reduce employee deviant behavior at workplace. The findings of the present study revealed that IS, as well as ISR, is inversely related to WD. The present results augmented the existing body of knowledge regarding workplace spirituality in the field of organization behavior and further enriched the WD theory by offering new empirical relationships from an Islamic perspective.

Workplace deviance among employees is one of the most prevalent issues faced by today’s organizations globally. Many scholars are keen in studying this phenomenon of workplace deviance because of its high rate of occurrence and severe negative impact on organizations. Research supports the belief that workplace spirituality programs may result in encouraging positive outcomes and can benefit organizations with employees who are more principled, committed, productive, adaptive and innovative. Although, past studies on workplace deviance are well documented, providing an understanding as how situational or individual antecedents may lead to workplace deviance, the problem of workplace deviance remains. Particularly has not been studied from an Islamic perspective. Islam being a comprehensive religion and a complete code of life can provide a suitable solution to manage such an issue. Islamic Piety ( Taqwa ) is one the most important characteristic of a Muslim. Significantly Islamic spiritual and social responsibility both fall under the purview of Taqwa . An individual holding on to Islamic Piety ( Taqwa ) can showcase the best of his/her behavior. Therefore the current conceptual study intends to investigate the direct relationships between Taqwa and workplace deviance. In addition this study also proposes to investigate the moderating role of perceived organizational justice (a situational antecedent) between Taqwa and workplace deviance.

Modern organizations desire to fully include every organizational member in relevant activities for optimizing performance and reducing conflicts. This inclusion has become a challenge for leaders due to increased diversity in inclusive organizations. On one hand, organizational inclusion requires positive perception of the work itself (meaningfulness) and, on the other hand, needs inspirational leaders who can incite full participation from organizational members. In the absence of these two elements, negative work behaviors are likely to result in emergence of excluded groups and individuals. Consequently, cynicism, discontentment, resentment and conflicts arise which adversely affect organizational inclusion. We infer that servant leadership, through its narrative of “serving others”, can play a vital role in creation of organizational inclusion through work meaningfulness. To investigate our inference about the impact of servant leadership directly, as well as through mediation/moderation of work meaningfulness, on organizational inclusion, this study has used structural equation modelling. In addition, artificial neural network (ANN) has also been applied to analyze the data collected from 400 employees working in the services and manufacturing sector of Turkey. An ANN model based on multilayer perceptron has been used to predict the impact of servant leadership and work meaningfulness on inclusion along with mediating roles of gender, age and work experience. The results adequately highlight strong influence of servant leadership and work meaningfulness on organizational inclusion.

Purpose: The study is aimed at examining the impact of ESG on the financial performance (FP) of firms and determining the difference between the impact of ESG on market-oriented financial performance measure (Tobin’s Q) and internal productivity-based financial measure (ROA). The study has also explored the influence of managerial ability and institutional quality as moderating variables on the relation between ESG and the financial performance of firms (both measures of FP: Tobin’s Q and ROA). Design/methodology/approach: The study is quantitative exploratory and uses panel data of 687 publicly listed companies from the year 2013–2023. Data has been acquired from the reputed data providers and OLS regression has been used for panel data analysis with fixed effects. Findings: The study reaffirms the positive impact of ESG on the financial performance of firms. Each pillar of ESG (environmental, social, and governance) has been found positively related to both measures of financial performance (Tobin’s Q and ROA). The study reveals that managerial ability and institutional quality, acting as supplementary variables, moderate the relationship between ESG and financial performance of firms. Research limitations/implications: A limited sample comprising data from only 687 firms was used for the analysis. The latest data was not available, therefore, data from 2013 to 2023 was used in the study. Practical implications: This study indicates that ESG practices, which are mostly discretionary in Emerging Economies, can be induced through institutional pressures and ensuring higher quality managers. Policymakers in government institutions have to determine the inefficiencies, corrupt practices, and inconsistencies in policies that lower the effectiveness of institutions making them business-unfriendly. At the organizational level, policymakers need to ensure that responsible positions in the organization are held by managers with higher managerial ability. It is also to be ensured by shareholders that managers do not over-invest in ESG-related projects, particularly in organizations with weaker financial status. For managers, it is important to understand the positive benefits associated with ESG, even though they are in the long term. Social implications: In Emerging Economies, the official monitoring and regulatory mechanisms are weak, and lack a supportive attitude toward ESG initiatives. Voluntary and proactive firm-level environmental and social initiatives need to be encouraged and rewarded by institutions with public acknowledgment. ESG should be given priority by organizations for improving the quality of services and better social impact of businesses on society. Originality/value: Most of the past research explored the impact of ESG on financial performance in advanced countries or in emerging markets in a single/limited number of countries or industries. Also, past studies investigated the impact of institutional quality and managerial ability on ESG/financial performance in separate models. Conversely, this study has used a multi-country and multi-industry sample for more generalizable findings. Against the backdrop of the institutional environment of Emerging Economies, the study extends Institutional Theory and Upper Echelon Theory to include the role of managerial ability and institutional quality in the relationship between ESG and firms’ financial performance.

The ever-increasing diversity in organizations demands deliberate efforts to include the members in organizational activities. Responsible leadership, a blend of corporate social responsibility, ethics, and leadership, can generate willing cooperation and an urge to fully participate, which is pivotal to the success of the inclusive organization. This study explores the influence of responsible leadership on inclusive organization and uncovers its domains and pathways. Sequential mixed methods design has been adopted using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Qualitative data comprise 25 semi-structured in-depth interviews, and quantitative data 800 responses on questionnaires, collected from eight organizations, four each from the manufacturing and services sectors. It has been found that responsible leadership significantly influences the inclusive organization. The influence is exerted in social and ethical domains and follows five different pathways within each domain. It is also concluded that a responsible leadership style is better suited for inclusive organizations.