Antecedents of job satisfaction among Muslim public health employees in Pattani province, Thailand

Employees’ job satisfaction is very important for any organization since it is one of the primary sources of productivity gains. Organizations develop the atmosphere of cooperation for their employees through human resource management policies in order to enhance employees’ satisfaction. While many studies have already been made with regard to job satisfaction in general, the theoretical understanding of job satisfaction within the Islamic context is still limited. Job satisfaction within the Islamic context is currently an important human resource management issue, especially for the Muslim community who forms the majority in Thailand’s southernmost provinces. Hence, this study attempts to investigate the relationship of Islamic Workplace Accommodation towards Job Satisfaction among Muslim Public Health Employees in Pattani Province, Thailand. This study specifically examines the relationship of the important factors of Thailand Southernmost Conflict Security Policies, Nature of Work, Rewards and Compensation, and Staff Relations to Job Satisfaction. The study also investigates the role of Work Motivation as a mediator between the relationship of Islamic Workplace Accommodation and Job Satisfaction. A total of 242 respondents who were randomly selected from Public Health Centre in Pattani province, participated in this study. The data was analysed using SmartPLS software whereby the variance based structural equations (SEM) modelling tool was used to analyse the data gathered through survey based questionnaires. The findings indicated that all the factors were found to be significantly related toward Job Satisfaction, except for Islamic Workplace Accommodation. And by using the bootstrapping technique, it showed that Work Motivation fully mediated the relationship between Islamic Workplace Accommodation and Job Satisfaction. From these findings, this study recommends that in order to increase employee job satisfaction through Islamic Workplace Accommodation, Work Motivation should be further encouraged.