Islamic Work Ethics

Human resource management practices and project success, a moderating role of Islamic Work Ethics in Pakistani projectbased organizations By: Muhammad Mustafa (MPM171003)

Submitted To: Dr. Sajid Bashir

Introduction From a past decade Project Management and its efficacies gained more focus of the researchers. Researchers around the globe progress in elaborating the concerned phenomena of project management and its knowledge areas. These researchers are least rewarded just because in spite of a lot of research on project success the number of successful projects is alarmingly small. The main reason is that the basic or the fundamentals which is key for successful projects are not being followed or not standardize as a guideline. Those fundamentals of Project Success can depend upon an Internal or External environment of the organization. These two factors are categorized into further & there are two types of successes related to projects. 1) Project Success 2) Success of Project Management These two categorization have 1 thing in common that they both are heavily dependent on Human Resource HR.

In current situation of Pakistan the Importance of project based organization cannot be neglected. HRM role in emerging economy of Pakistan go back to sixties when only institutional development was focused by the govt. A lot of problems have been faced regarding the slow pace of improvement in the development of successful organization. There are several factors of that slow pace but the main reason was not to give importance to Islamic Work Ethics in a Muslim country like Pakistan.

Literature Review In the last half of century the HRM appeared as a methodical style of management. HRM have numbers of models and studies which shows the strong connection between effectiveness of HRM Practices on Performance of an organization. A studies shows that the success of the organization depends upon a commitment of its employee’s. So it is clear that HR Practices has also an impact on Project success in project based organization. Study Suggest that there is 2 essentials of the project success. 1) Satisfaction 2) Completion

Hence a Project is unique and have a time constraint so it requires more focus on HR practices. In spite of a complete chapter in PMBOK on the Importance of HR still the strategies in Project Based Organizations needs a lot of improvements. A set of HR Practices Including ERS (Employees Recruitment & Selection), ETD (Employees Training & Development), EPA (Employees Performance Appraisals) and ECS (Employee Compensation System) out of a “Harvard Model” Have been selected for this study in line with “Universalistic Perspective”. Having some discussion on above 4 chosen HR Practices following arguments have been built in Perspective of Pakistani Project Based Organization.    

“ERS (Employees Recruitment & Selection)” influences “Project Success”

in project-based organizations of Pakistan. “ETD (Employees Training & Development” doesn't influences “Project Success” in project-based organizations of Pakistan. “EPA (Employees Performance Appraisals)” influences “Project Success” in project-based organizations of Pakistan. “ECS (Employee Compensation System)” influences “Project Success” in project-based organizations of Pakistan.

Pakistan being a developing country can do a world of good to herself by adoption of best HR practices for ensuring optimal utilization of available human resource which is over 170 million including 49.19% of female population as reported by World bank It is important to evaluate the impacts of above short listed HR practices following “Universalistic Perspective” on project success in Pakistani projectbased organizations. Word Ethics generally drawn from the religion so the Islamic Work Ethics relates to Ethics drawn from Islam. In the framework of an organization the HR Practices is influential in terms of Organizational Commitments. The findings in the context of IWE effecting in an organizational setting, where they recommend that every individual employee distinguishes between success and failures in his/her own perspective as regards the prevailing working ethics in respective organization.

To find out whether the Islamic Work Ethics has influence on Project success or not in relation to the 4 Selected HR Practices following Hypothesis Has been developed.  

The relationship of “ERS (Employees Recruitment & Selection)” and “Project Success” is moderated by IWE in project-based organizations of Pakistan. The relationship of “ETD (Employees Training & Development)” and “Project Success” is moderated by IWE in project-based organizations of Pakistan.

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The relationship of “EPA (Employees Performance Appraisals)” and “Project Success” is moderated by IWE in project-based organizations of Pakistan. The relationship of “ECS (Employee Compensation System)” and “Project Success” is moderated by IWE in project-based organizations of Pakistan.

Conclusion This research focused on highlighting the importance of selected HR practices for project success in project-based organizations. It was also concluded that the role of Islamic Work Ethics is not very significant in the context of Pakistani project-based organizations, moreover; interestingly it was found that Islamic Work Ethics and Protestant work ethics have commonalities in their concepts inspite of apparently present huge differences. Lastly the research effectively communicates the fact that every employee has his/her own perception of PS which needs to be standardized with the development of uniform measures of units to be developed by experts