2 nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC RESEARCH (2 nd ICBER 2011) PROCEEDING 225 WORK ETHIC OF MALAYSIAN CIVIL SERVANTS Othman Mohd. Yunus Universiti Teknologi MARA Perak Othma123@perak.uitm.perak Abdul Rahman Abdul Rahim Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia aman@salam.uitm.edu.my Alwi Bin Shabuddin Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia Alwish11@salam.uitm.edu.my Munira Mazlan munira_mulan@yahoo.com Abstract This paper seeks to explore work ethic of Malaysian civil servants. Positive work ethic among others emphasize on hard work, commitment and dedication, and avoidance of wealth accumulation through unethical methods. This ethic is indeed valued by organizations. Employees holding strongly to positive work ethic ensure organization of its goal. The questionnaire used to gauge the level of work ethic among Malaysian civil servants is the Islamic work ethic developed by Ali (1988). A total of 90 civil servants of the Islamic faith responded to the questionnaire. The result shows respondents hold strongly to Islamic work ethic. Field of Research: Human Resource Management, Organizational Behavior, Ethic Introduction Positive attitudes towards work are an important aspect of workplace dynamics. Noe, Hollenbech, Gerhart, and Wright (1999), believe that a strong positive attitude towards work can lead to higher productivity on both individual and organizational levels. Therefore, having positive work ethic that is a commitment to the value and the importance of hard work is the essence to employees and organizational success. Ali and Azim (1995), Eisenberger (1989), and Sacks (1998) however, believe that work ethic among workers is declining may it be in America as well as in other industrialized countries. Many researchers have associated the decline in work ethic to an increase in workplace deviant behaviors. Yandle (1992) argues that a decline in work ethic can leads to a lower levels of job performance. Klebnikov (1993) and Shimko (1992) on the other hand, suggest that a decline in work ethic leads to higher levels of absenteeism and