This paper aims to investigate the issues and challenges faced by Islamic banks in implementing Microfinance (MF) in selected Islamic banks in Malaysia. An empirical study is endeavoured consisting of semi structured interviews with senior managers and officers from four Islamic banks in order to address the main research questions. Out of the four selected Islamic Banks, only two are currently providing MF. The MF programs in these two banks are mostly restricted to pensioners, army wives, registered companies and companies operating for a minimum of two to three years. The main challenges facing Islamic Banks when dealing with MF can be highlighted in the following points: the default risk, the lack of funds and the unwillingness of shareholders to take MF risk, the high operating cost, the complexity of MF processing, and regulatory restrictions. Other hindrances include the lack of well trained staff capable of efficiently managing MF. This research concludes with a call for Islamic Banks to seriously participate in economic and social development through greater involvement in MF.

Despite extensive studies on predictors and antecedents of organizational commitment, empirical research studies on the impact of workplace spirituality on organizational commitment remain scarce. This study aims to examine the impact of the dimensions of workplace spirituality on agents' organizational commitment in Islamic insurance (takaful) industry in Malaysia. This study used a positivist research approach, comprising a quantitative basis of enquiry, and gathered data via survey questionnaires. In total, 600 questionnaires were distributed and finally 395 usable cases were selected for analysis. Pearson's correlation and stepwise multiple regressions analyses were used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that spirituality in the workplace has a positive and significant effect on organizational commitment. The relationship between each and every component of workplace spirituality and organizational commitment was found to be substantial, positive and significant. The study findings will enable Islamic insurance companies to understand the importance of spirituality in the workplace and will further improve their function and performance by way of enhancing employees' spirituality in the workplace. This study suggests developing more spiritual training, workshops, lectures and seminars on spirituality at the workplace which will help employees of takaful operators and agencies cope effectively with life problems, reduce stress, boost loyalty and enhance organizational commitment.

Despite the number of studies conducted on the concept of spirituality in the workplace, the benefits of work-place spirituality within organizations and the associated effects to outcome and performance level, there have been very few research attempts focusing on the religious aspects of spirituality. As such, the present study aims to improve employees' performance by introducing the construct of Islamic spirituality in the workplace and explore its contribution to the overall development of modern organizations. This study proposes a theoretical framework of Islamic spirituality within the workplace and looks at the effect of Islamic spirituality to predictive employee behavior, with particular emphasis on organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). This research concludes with a call for researchers to empirically examine the link between Islamic spirituality, organizational commitment, OCB, and job performance. This contribution to the body of existing literature aims to strengthen empirical research on the relationship between these constructs.

The study aims to investigate the measurement model of four constructs, namely, spirituality at the workplace (SP), Islamic spirituality (ISP), organizational commitment (OC) and organizational citizenship behaviours (OCB). The study aims to contribute new knowledge to the existing literature whereby performance determinants comprising these constructs, serve to improve employee well-being which ultimately improves organizational performance. Using disproportionate stratified random sampling, the survey data used for this empirical research were drawn from 482 employees working in takaful agencies in Malaysia. After yielding an instrument to measure SP, ISP, OCB and OC, principal component analysis (PCA) using SPSS and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using AMOS were carried out.