Islam and Society: Role of the Departments of Islamic Studies, an Analytical Study

This study elaborates the connection between Islam and society and the role of Islam in the formulation and reformation of a society. This research highlights the need and the significance of the concept of developing a linkage between the religious and otherwise classes of society. The study primarily focuses on the role and the influence of the departments of Islamic studies in Pakistani universities in defusing tensions and promoting peace and hormony among various classes of society. The study includes an analysis of the visions, mission statements and the objectives of the various departments of Islamic studies in leading universities of the country. The article highlights the system of education in Islam and the problems in the system of education of Pakistan which play a part in the role of the departments of Islamic studies. The research also focuses on the role of the students and the teachers of the departments of Islamic studies in the light of Islamic teachings.

Impact of Ambivalent Supervision on Employee Outcomes: Introducing Employee State Paranoia As Underlying Mechanism

This empirical study investigates the influence of ambivalent supervision style on employee outcomes. Ambivalent supervision style is a new form of leadership, which is categorized as a form of destructive leadership; however, there is scant literature on ambivalent leadership in organizational studies. Numerous studies have pointed out that there is a need to study this form of leadership and its influence on employee outcomes. Thus, this research is an attempt to understand the phenomenon of influence of ambivalent supervision style on positive and negative employee outcomes. It has been hypothesized that ambivalent leadership has significant negative effect on employees’ outcomes of task performance, organizational citizenship behaviors directed towards individual and organization and positive influence on employees’ counterproductive work behaviors directed towards individual and organization. Additionally, employee state paranoia as underlying psychological process has been investigated as a mediating variable and co-worker support as a buffering mechanism. By doing so, the current research advances the role of employee state paranoia as a mediating mechanism. The framework of the study is guided by transactional theory of stress, which proposes that employees engage in coping mechanisms to offset the effects of stressors. Thus, co-worker support as a coping mechanism has shown positive trends. The study used quantitative research design and cross sectional data were collected through self-administered questionnaires distributed among the service sector organizations in Punjab, Pakistan. A total of 645 respondents corresponding to 129 dyads were found usable for data analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis and multi-level Hierarchical Linear Modeling was used to test the moderated mediation model. Results support the hypothesized relationships. The results indicate that ambivalent supervision style negatively effects positive employee outcomes and positively effects employee negative outcomes (counterproductive work behaviors). The results further highlight that employee state paranoia partially mediates the relationship between ambivalent supervision style and employee outcomes. The buffering mechanism using coworker support holds true for positive employee outcomes but is insignificant for negative employee outcomes.