Introduction:

The Holy Qur’an and Hadith describe the idea of quality in the perspective of management sciences. Ihsan is a word used in Qur’an and Hadith in terms of quality. It implies that quality in process, planning and control leads to make quality framework for further development of any business organization. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said, “Verily, Allah loves if any of you does a job with perfection”. Prophet (PBUH) addressed to all mankind which includes male, female, old, young, administrator, a common man, particularly those who are directly working in the public sphere. All professionals are advised to make efforts for the achievement of excellence and perfection in their work. Efforts to probe strategies for improving the quality of work have crucially been made to recognize in today’s business management. Employees and employers’ education is one of the mechanisms of human resource management (HRM) pertaining to enhancement in employees’ performance that eventually influence work outcome in terms of quality of work. Researchers [1, 2] found that, this policy of HRM system describes to develop and manage employees’ performance through positive attitude. This situation among employees could be recognized by making them satisfied with the dimensions of business policy observance, relationship with others, rewards & work environment and training them to be emotional intelligent with the dimensions of self-emotion appraisal, others’ emotion appraisal, regulation of emotions and usage of emotion to facilitate performance at workplace. Some Researchers [3,4] have also stated that satisfaction on fulfillment of needs is a definite source of encouraging attitudes of personnel which therefore increases their performance outcomes. A social exchange theory (SET) is argued [1] that employees at their work place are more receptive and reactive with inspiring attitudes and conduct of employer. In addition, if employees are engaged in production of goods and in rendering of services, their higher percentage of perfect goods & services out of total output will indicate the quality of work in respect of employees and this is conceptualized in this study.

Enhancement of employees’ competences to improve their efficiency is one of the critical concerns being tackled by business organizations. This segment of human resource management system could be improved for getting organizational success through employees’ supremacy. Employees’ quality of work in service organizations is recognized in this study via proposed predictors of performance (i.e. job satisfaction and emotional intelligence) with the mediating effect of perceived job performance which is also a gap in the present literature. There are two objectives of this study. Firstly, there is need to launch a model with the performance predictors having a raise in employees’ quality of work with the intervening impact of perceived job performance for further expansion of work outcome in one of the financial sectors i.e. Banking sector of Pakistan. The second objective of this study is to probe the influence of job satisfaction and emotional intelligence on perceived job performance. This study focusses to assess the new path regarding job satisfaction and emotional intelligence for getting competitive advantage in terms of quality of work in consequent to great performance of employees. In addition, it will be a guide for achieving set goals of the organization and contribute to the literature of business management.

Literature Review:

This segment of the study is accounted for the review of relevant literature related to our topic.

Quality of work:

Proficient working at workplace is not new for Muslims. Islam tells about mastery in work for the ultimate development of the Islamic economy. In this connection, it is reiterated that “Allah blesses a person who works with his hands (complete his job correctly and truly). The concept of “quality of work” is very common among social scientists as it is playing a vital role in determining the employees’ work outcomes. Theoretically, service quality is defined [5] that employee’s attitude towards job performance is in line with the customer’s expectations in accordance to his perceptions; additionally, quality of work is used to measure the expectations and perceptions of the customers. However, the model of service performance presented [6] that the perception of service delivery is a measure of service quality.

Perceived Job Performance:

An immense importance on completion of work is given by Islam. Allah says many times in Qur’an that time should efficiently be utilized rather than wasted. Proper planning on any project or job produces brilliant results. There is nothing created randomly across the universe. Humanity is addressed by the Qur’an that they should play integral role to make use of what is made for their assistance [58]. An-Najm (39) وَأَن لَّيْسَ لِلْإِنسَانِ إِلَّا مَا سَعَى (“And that is not for man except that [good] for which he strives And that indeed there is no (reward) for a person but (reply) what he endeavored”). This verse describes that man can do nothing but strives for; that the fruit of his striving will soon come in sight. Then he will be awarded with complete reward. Job performance is a behavioral outcome of individual efforts. It is being made for pursuance of appropriate goals of organization. The employees’ job performance is a vital tool to make the organization efficient. The Employee’s performance was mediated between Employee Training and organizational performance in a recent study [7] where organizational performance has seven dimensions i.e. quality of services, development of new services, trustful relationship, increased market share, employee attraction ability, better standing and goal setting. They have derived positive and significant results of training effect on employee’s performance and on organizational performance. Furthermore, the role of job performance as mediator was found rigorous and fit among employee training and organizational performance. The main purpose of the management is to increase the efforts of employees about maximizing their performance in terms of productivity in the service organizations. The meaning of productivity is different from business to business, however, the standard scale to measure the productivity of an employee is the ratio of per worker output to the number of hours. However, present study is made to measure employee’s performance in terms of productivity of banking sector in Pakistan, where nature of the product is intangible. In service industries, productivity is measured by considering the total number of tasks completed or the total number of clients attended in a specified or given time by using the best capabilities of employees, by deploying the right people on right jobs through efficient utilization of resources.

An increase in performance and efficiency gains are considered as the outcomes of innovation. It implies that anticipated outcomes of performance are supposed positive where employees have confidence in getting performance improvement due to their innovative behavior towards their work role at workplace. As far as the concept of positive performance is concerned, it comprises improved productivity and quality of work, reduced rate of error, better rate of ability to attain organizational goals and objectives, and an increased rate of general performance [8]. Many researchers [5, 9, 10, 11] supported the concept that service performance (SERVPERF) could be a better predictor for assessing the service quality. It infers that improvement in employee’s performance that leads to enhance in service quality. Keeping in view the arguments of previous research, in this study employee’s job performance was used to measure “quality of work” as a mediator. Previously the service quality (SERVQUAL) and the service performance (SERVPERF) have been used as instruments in banking sector [6]. Of course, there were many studies made wherein quality of work was measured through employees’ performance but quality of work through mediating effect of job performance was not earlier investigated with the selected performance predictors in present research.

Job Satisfaction:

As Islam is a natural religion so there is no difference between conventional job satisfaction and Islamic job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is an emotional state of individuals feeling through their experiences on the job or after the job [12]. Whereas Islamic job satisfaction is a state of pleasure of an employee at workplace, during the work and after completion of work with the belief that honesty in doing the job is a way to please Allah Almighty [60]. Happiness is uppermost level of job satisfaction and it is not only achieved on the accomplishment of material needs. Moral and spiritual needs would be the factors of job satisfaction. Moral needs i.e. business policy observance, relationship with others, reward system and conducive work environment are the dimensions of job satisfaction being considered in this study for getting the level of Islamic job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is a positive attitude of individuals in the direction of their job [13]. It has been confirmed [14] that employee’s job satisfaction influences their job performance. Subsequently, [15] declared that enhancement in employee’s job satisfaction leads to enhanced employee’s productivity. After examining the relation between employee’s job satisfaction and their job performance also concluded [16] that a positive and significant relationship exists between job satisfaction and job performance.

The recent study has found [17] the importance of employee job satisfaction in favor of employees’ outcomes and organizational outcomes and has confirmed that a positive and significant relationship exists amongst the organizational commitment, productivity and work quality. A close relationship been established [18] between job satisfaction, with the service quality and customer satisfaction, which finally leads to enhance organizational profitability. The work quality or the service quality positively influences the customer satisfaction. Moreover, when the organizations are earning attractive profits in their businesses then they also positively affect their employee’s job satisfaction. In service sector, the employee’s job is considered an important tool for achieving quality of work; and in the absence of job satisfaction the organizational success suffers from decline.

Emotional Intelligence :

Islam addresses the code of well-adjusted and stable life from all respect in every situation. Emotional intelligence depicts that how are intelligent decisions taken in the emotional state. Allah SWT says, “And be not like those who forgot Allah , so He made them forget themselves. Those are the defiantly disobedient” (Surah-Al-Hashr, ayah 19). Its mean that knowing ourselves is very important as it has direct relationship to know the Creator. When we are aware about ourselves, we are more observant to our emotions and actions. Thus it would be easier to regulate our emotions and not be let them heavy on us. The prophet Muhammad ﷺ said about recognizing the emotions of others that “ None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself”(Sahîh Al-Bukhârî and Sahîh Muslim). At one more place the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever wishes to be kept away from the fire and admitted to paradise should have death overtake to him while he believes in Allah and the last day and should treat people the way he wants them to treat him” (Sahîh Muslim). It means we must know that how can we observe and learn to identify others’ emotions and act accordingly. Intelligence cannot be rightly explained without determining the other facets [19]. Some researchers [20] were the leading psychologists who defined the term “emotional intelligence”; they declared that emotional intelligence is sub-category of social intelligence which encompasses one’s capability to observe personal as well as other people’s emotions and feelings with the aim to identify differences and use it to guide personal thinking and doings. It was explored [21] during a research in South Western Nigeria, the linking of emotional intelligence and self-efficacy with the work attitudes of high school teachers and he claimed a positive and significant relation between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy with work attitudes.

The emotional intelligence can contribute as a dynamic tool in the working environment of any organization [22, 23, 24, 25, 26]. The contemporary scholars envision that the emotional intelligence of managers has enormous effect on employee’s job performance [22,23]. Very recent findings [27] have supported the evidence where Emotional Intelligence (EI) is positively related with some important work manners in the field of business in western countries. The results of their study are delineated that Emotional Intelligence is positively correlated with job performance and job satisfaction. They have suggested that emotional intelligence would be a predictor job performance and the applications of EI can be endorsed for managerial and human resource practices across the organizations in public sectors.

The quality of work is a continuous process and therefore it is paramount to learn and teach it across the life cycle [28]. In the environment of information based economy a model was offered [29], wherein decision involving a worker’s knowledge is always graded well. The ability of organization to anticipate, assess and implement the quality related decisions mostly rely on accumulated factors of extrinsic and intrinsic aspects.

A claim [30] that the organization and their employees can benefit from the attributes of emotional intelligence to improve and develop their behavior. The attributes of emotional intelligence have the potential to enhance the quality of individual as well as group level decisions which contributes towards improved quality of work. The application of emotional intelligence skills has become a strategic policy to measure the effect and significance of decisions in developing the organizational and individual’s capability for improving the efficiency of processes and quality of work simultaneously. Finally, it was confirmed that the application of emotional intelligence can enhance the outcomes of quality decision-making and work processes. Additionally, the behaviors with emotional intelligence could be used to recover the general quality of decisions and work processes. Job performance is a behavior of employee, where the work effectiveness of an individual is evaluated. In viewing of the stated concepts, it is known that success and failure of the organization depends on employees’ job performance. An expected job Performance of each employee pertaining to quantity and quality of his work is known as perceived job performance and these criteria is considered the basic pillar of performance evaluation. In the present study, staff conduct was also examined through Emotional Intelligence and Employee’s Satisfaction to measure the quality of work in Pakistan banking sector in support of the findings was made [15] on public and private organizations throughout the country. It was found that the Quality of work is more allied to personal satisfaction and conscientiousness than work load. The individuals who are energetic and active have a positive impact towards employees’ performance in terms of productivity.

Conceptual model:

The model of the study is based on extracted research gap by having the extensive and critical review of literature, where one of the facets i.e. business policy observance of job satisfaction has been introduced the very first time. Quality of work in banking industry of Pakistan is measured through Job satisfaction and emotional intelligence where perceived job performance is first time engaged as mediator between quality of work and its indicators in this study. Many researches [5, 9, 10, 11] are backing the concept of this model that service performance would be a better predictor for measuring the service quality. It deduces that improvement in employee performance is leading to an increase in service quality. Moreover, a model of the study accentuates the significance of business policy observance for job satisfaction along with emotional intelligence as a measurer of quality of work with the intervention of job performance for the top and supervisory class of management in one of the financial sectors of Pakistan.

Theoretical Framework:

To examine the above stated facts in support of primary data, the following hypothesis are devised:

Hypothesis 1:Job Satisfaction is positively related to Quality of Work.

Hypothesis 2:Emotional Intelligence is positively related to Quality of Work.

Hypothesis 3:Job Satisfaction is positively related to Perceived Job Performance.

Hypothesis 4:Emotional Intelligence is positively related to Perceived Job Performance.

Hypothesis 5:Perceived Job Performance is positively related to Quality of Work.

Hypothesis 6:Job Satisfaction is positively related to Quality of Work by intervention of Perceived Job Performance.

Hypothesis 7:Emotional Intelligence is positively related to Quality of Work by intervention of Perceived Job Performance.

Material and Methods:

Data in support of this cross-sectional study was collected from banking sector of Pakistan. Public and private banks of provincial capital cities (Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar & Quetta) of the country along with one of big cities i.e. Faisalabad were the target population. There were a total of five (05) Banks in public sector were taken as whole in the survey of study i.e. National Bank of Pakistan, Bank of Khyber, Bank of Punjab, First Women Bank, Sindh Bank; and twenty five (25) banks in private sector in which fourteen banks (14) i.e. Allied Bank Limited, Askari Bank, Bank AL Habib, Bank Alfalah Limited, Citibank Pakistan, MCB Bank Limited, Faysal Bank , Habib Bank Limited, Habib Metropolitan Bank, Khushhali Bank of Pakistan, Standard Chartered Pakistan, United Bank Limited, Meezan Bank Limited, Dubai Islamic Bank were taken which is 56% of total private banks (just to maximize the rate of generalizability of results of the study).

Bank employees working on managerial and non-managerial positions were the unit of sample. The sample frame of the study consisted of nineteen (19) banks under both categories of public and private. There were 3,419 branches operational in the targeted cities as are per data given by the officials of State Bank of Pakistan. It was further reported through survey forms that there were an average five to seven officials in each branch as most of branches were doing online banking. Therefore, the population was derived 20,514 in terms of employees wherein 3,774 were from public banks and 16,740 from private banks. The sample size was derived 392 by using the Yamane formula i.e. 𝑛=𝑁+𝑁 e^2. 780 survey forms 780 were distributed and received 380 responses. The proportionate stratified random sampling technique under probability sampling was used because it reduces the amount of errors in random sampling.

Measurement:

The data were gathered through questionnaire and the questionnaire contained demographic information of employees i.e. gender, age, education, experience, designation, department; bank information i.e. bank type Public or Private, Branch name framed with nominal and ordinal scaling. The second part of the survey form comprises of the items of dependent variable i.e. quality of work, mediator i.e. perceived job performance and the items of its predictors i.e. job satisfaction and emotional intelligence established at Five-Point Likert’s Scale (1=strongly disagree, 5 strongly agree). The measurement items related to all variables were operationalized as ahead. There were four dimensions i.e. Business Policy Observance, Relationship with Others, Rewards and Work Environment of job satisfaction in this study where in business policy observance is very first time taken as a dimension of job satisfaction. Scale to measure the job satisfaction was designed with by the researcher with 12-items for this study wherein 3-items pertained to business policy observance (first time developed for this study); 3-items for relationship with others; 3-items for rewards; 3-items for work environment. The reliability of “Job Satisfaction” was reported as 0.914. The Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) having four dimensions [24] including SEA, OEA, UoE and RoE with 16 items was adopted for the measurement of employees’ emotional intelligence at 5-point Likert scale for this study. Alpha coefficient of “Emotional Intelligence” was recorded as 0.925. The measurement scale for perceived job performance of three items were drawn from the study [31] adapted by some researchers [32]. The Cronbach alpha of “Perceived Job Performance” was reported as 0.831. Three items of “Quality of Work” have been revised for this study. The scale was taken from a study [32] and conceived from a study [31]. The Cronbach alpha of “quality of work” was reported as 0.829.

Confirmatory factor analysis:

For the purpose to test the instrument, 120 survey forms were distributed among employees of selected banks located in twin cities out of that 70 questionnaires were duly filled and returned to the researcher. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is a systematic way to evaluate the validity of the instrument about hypotheses and the fitness of model that used to measure “the degree to which a test measures what it claims, or purports, to be measuring”. It was confirmed [33] that CFA is one of methods used to identify the interest level of the indicators.

Figure 1: Factor Loading of JSatFigure 2: Factor Loading of EI

Figure 3: Factor Loading of PJPFigure 4: Factor Loading of QoW

The Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4 are showing the factor loadings with regard to “Job Satisfaction” with twelve items, “Emotional Intelligence” with sixteen items, “Perceived Job Performance” with three items and “Quality of Work” with three items and indicate the validity of the survey instrument used in this study.

Table 1:Confirmatory factor analysis of Model Variables

The Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4 are showing the factor loadings for “Quality of Work” with three items, “Perceived Job Performance” with three items, “Job Satisfaction” with twelve items and “Emotional Intelligence” with sixteen items and specified the validity of the instrument used in this study. It was confirmed [34] that significance for the item of respective variable would be acceptable if the value of factor loading is 0.4 and above.

Table-1 is showing the item wise standardized estimates of the model variables, all items of the survey instrument were included for final survey except the one item of business policy observance under job satisfaction. Since its load i.e. 0.292 is less than the threshold value. However, reliability among items of each variable has come 0.80 and above which is rated as good, more than acceptable range [35].

CFA: Model Fitness: Statistical tests such as the chi-square goodness-of-fit (CMIN/DF), p-value, goodness-of-fit index (GFI), the adjusted goodness-of-fit index (AGFI), the comparative fit index (CFI), Tucker-Lewis coefficient (TLI) and the root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA) are used to evaluate the model fitness of independent variables (JSat & EI) only, not of mediator (PJP) and dependent variable (QoW). Since, PJP and QoW were having three items which are insufficient to calculate the model fitness of any variable. Comparison of specified indices was made with the proven threshold values as previously established by the literature relating to structural equation modeling [36, 37]. During model fitness testing, the Chi-square & GFI are documented as fit measures and complete in all respect; CFI is identified as incremental fit measure; and AGFI and Normed Chi-square are termed as parsimonious [38].

Table 2: Model fitness index of Independent Variables

Table 2 is indicating selected dimensions with regard to model fitness along with values taken out through CFA of independent variables i.e. job satisfaction with its four dimensions and emotional intelligence with its four dimensions of this study. The values of Chi-square/df in respect of job satisfaction and emotional intelligence are 1.14 and 1.63 respectively; the chi-square/df value of job satisfaction is in between 1 to 3 which is a range of excellent fit that shows the goodness of fit of stated variables. Other model fitness criterion values of the job satisfaction and emotional intelligence such as GFI are .887, .790; AGFI are .817, .708; CFI are.983, .922; TLI are .977, .904 and RMSEA are .04, .09 respectively. P-values in favor of job satisfaction and emotional intelligence are .236, .000 which shows that model fitness is insignificant for job satisfaction but indicates the model fitness criteria is significant in respect of emotional intelligence. However, it is important to mention here that due to three items of “perceived job performance” and “quality of work”, AMOS is delicate to yield values for model fitness index for these variables.

Results:

Frequency distribution and Descriptive Statistics of Model Variables:

Table-3 contains the descriptive statistics about quality of work, perceived job performance, job satisfaction and emotional intelligence. The detailed analysis of observations presents verdict of respondents relating to strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree or strongly agree with the statements of quality of work, perceived job performance, job satisfaction and emotional intelligence. The mean values in accordance with the three items of QoW are 3.20, 3.30, 3.22 and SD from the corresponding means are 1.055, 1.068, 1.122 which approves the highest response of participants on agreed side at the 4th rank of Likert scale. The mean values against three items of perceived job performance are 3.30, 3.21, 3.28. The standard deviation from the respective means are 1.109, 1.112, 1.054 which approves the highest response of participants relating to perceived job performance as is recognized towards “agree”. The mean values against eleven items of job satisfaction are 3.16, 2.96, 3.24, 3.12, 3.02, 2.74, 3.00, 2.77, 3.11, 3.17, 3.13 and standard deviation of observations from respective means are 1.00, 1.13, 1.03, 1.06, 1.24, 1.15, 1.13, 1.19, 1.11, 1.05, 1.04 which verifies the highest response of respondents pertaining to selected dimensions of job satisfaction is going towards “agree” at 4th rank of Likert scale. The mean values against sixteen items of emotional intelligence are 3.10, 3.33, 2.91, 3.07, 3.25, 2.88, 3.38, 2.70, 3.21, 3.05, 3.28, 3.22, 3.12, 3.20, 2.96, 3.21 and standard deviation of observations from respective means are 1.17, 1.18, 1.16, 1.14, 1.08, 1.01, 0.99, 0.93, 1.26, 1.20, 1.19, 1.42, 1.22, 1.93, 1.17, 1.09 which verifies the most of answers of respondents pertaining to constructs of emotional intelligence is going towards “agree” at 4th rank of Likert scale.

Table 3: Frequency Distribution and Descriptive Statistics with respect to Quality of work, Perceived job performance, Job satisfaction and Emotional Intelligence:

MEDIATION ANALYSIS:

Testing of Hypotheses:

Mediation effect of perceived job performance is examined in this study between two predictors of “quality of work” i.e. job satisfaction and emotional intelligence and analyzed whether perceived job performance is effective mediator between suggested variables. Projected hypotheses in this study have been tested using regression weights via examining the direct effect of IV to DV (without mediator), indirect effect of IV to DV (with mediator) which is criteria to measure the mediation as recommended by researchers [39].

Direct Effects without Mediation:

Figure 5:Figure 6:Figure 7:

Direct Effects: IV →DV; IV→MV; MV→D

The figures 5, 6 and 7 are consequents to run the proposed model without intervening the perceived job performance by using the AMOS and which are showing the standardized regression weights of direct effects of job satisfaction (JSat) & emotional intelligence (EI) on quality of work (QoW), job satisfaction (JSat) & emotional intelligence (EI) on perceived job performance (PJP), and PJP on QoW. In this connection, the results of devised hypotheses are being represented in the table 4.

Table 4: Direct Effects in the absence of Mediator (IV →DV; IV→MV; MV→DV) .

Table 4 contains the results of direct effects in standardized regression weights of the stated relationships among model variables, a positive relationship between JSat and QoW is as confirmed fact with .508 regression weight at p<0.05; which implies that if the level of job satisfaction increases one unit among employees of banking sector, employees’ quality of work will increase by 0.51. It is proved by this research study that employees’ quality of work may increase by improving the satisfaction level among employees through observance of business policy in making decisions, improving relationship among employees, competitive reward system, and by providing conducive environment. Therefore, the first hypothesis (H1) is accepted. The relationship between EI and QoW is confirmed significant with 0.380 regression weight at p<0.05; which infers that if the level of bank employees regarding their emotional intelligence increases one unit, quality in their work will increase by 0.38. It is verified by this study that employees’ quality of work could be increased by improving the level of emotional intelligence among employees by using the self-emotion appraisal, others’ emotion appraisal, use of emotions in facilitation to improving quality in their work and regulation of emotions at their workplace. Therefore, the second hypothesis (H2) is accepted. The relationship between JSat and PJP is confirmed significant with .402 regression weight at p<0.05; which infers that if the level of job satisfaction increases one unit among employees of banking sector, employees’ performance will increase by 0.40. It is proved by this research study that employees’ performance may increase by improving the satisfaction level among employees through observance of business policy in making decisions, improving relationship among employees, competitive reward system, and by providing conducive environment. Therefore, the third hypothesis (H3) is accepted. The relationship between EI and PJP is confirmed significant with 0.467 regression weight at p<0.05; It infers that if the level of bank employees about their emotional intelligence increases by one unit, employees’ performance at their workplace will increase by 0.47. It is verified that employees’ performance may be increased by improving the level of emotional intelligence among employees with the proposed constructs of emotional intelligence. Therefore, the fourth hypothesis (H4) is accepted. The relationship between PJP and QoW is a confirmed significant with .807 regression weight at p<0.05. It concludes that if employees’ performance increases by one unit, quality in their work will ultimately be increased by 0.81. It is clear by this study that employees’ quality of work would be increased by improving the performance level amongst employees by observing the productivity at their workplace. Therefore, the fifth hypothesis (H5) is accepted.

SEM: Direct and Indirect Effects in the presence of Mediator

The figure 8 demonstrates the theoretical framework of the study and determines the relationship job satisfaction, emotional intelligence and quality of work in presence of perceived job performance as mediator. The structural equation modelling examines the impact of proposed predictor of quality of work with the mediating effect of perceived job performance.

Figure 8: Direct and Indirect Effects with Mediation

The figure 8 displays the direct effects of job satisfaction and emotional intelligence on quality of work and the direct effect of predictors with the mediator i.e. perceived job performance and shows standardized regression estimates between JSat and PJP, EI and PJP plus PJP and QoW which are being summarized in the table 5.

Table 5: Direct Effects in the presence of Mediator (IVwith MV and MV with DV) .

Associations among model variables showing in table 5 are explored; it shows that the regression weights or betas of JSat for PJP, EI for PJP and PJP for QoW are 0.402, 0.467 and 0.308 where p-value is less than 0.05 in all cases which shows significant relationship among variables. Regression weights depict about change which comes by one unit in JSat & EI then the change would be seen in PJP by 40.2% & 46.7% respectively and if one-unit change comes in PJP then the change would be seen in QoW by 30.8%.

Table 6: Indirect Effects (IV and DV in the presence of Mediator)

The table 6 is showing the regression weights at p-value (p<0.05) and showing indirect effect of JSat and EI on QoW in the presence of mediator “perceived job performance” (PJP); while, the direct effects of JSat and EI on QoW have already been examined without mediator and testing of hypotheses from H1 to H5 was duly made in table 4. Hypotheses (H6 & H7) of mediation are being shown in the comparison of direct and indirect effect of JSat & EI on QoW in table 7.

Table 7: Comparison of Direct and Indirect Effects

Table 7 in corresponding to figures 8 is depicting that JSat and EI positively related to QoW when perceived job performance is playing a role of mediator. It is found that job satisfaction and emotional intelligence has a positive and significant (p<0.05) relationship at the regression weights of 0.385 and 0.237 respectively with quality of work in the mediating role of perceived job performance. As the regression weights have noticeably been reduced for job satisfaction (0.508 to 0.380) and for emotional intelligence (0.385 to 0.237) which proves the partial mediation of PJP between JSat and EI with QoW as regression weights have reduced but at significant level as suggested [57]; therefore, partial mediation between JSat & EI and QoW have been found. So H6 and H7 are accepted.

Discussion:

In order to educate employees and employers of one of the financial sectors i.e. banking sector of Pakistan, this study is made to identify the provisions for improvement in quality of employees’ work. Antecedents to boost up employee’s performance and quality of work with the mediating role of perceived job performance is discussed very first time in this study which has not been investigated earlier particularly in Pakistan. The function of job performance in between predictors (job satisfaction and emotional intelligence) and quality of work is a prerequisite to contribute into the scarce research of HR as there is no research work on with the proposed bunch of variables.

By taking facts into consideration from the literature, job satisfaction of bank employee would be a reason to increase quality of work. However, the positive and significant result of hypothesis H1 (JSat-QoW) of this study is not found consistent with findings [40] as they studied that job satisfaction could not be the measure of quality of job. Likewise, the relationship between emotional intelligence and quality of work H2 (EI-QoW) hypothesized is found positive and significant through regression analysis which is supported by the p-value (P<0.05) at the regression weight 0.380. It is validated that if emotional intelligence of employee in Pakistan banking sector develops by 1 unit, the quality of service at workplace will improve by 38%. These results are found in line with the findings of previous research regarding positive impact of emotional intelligence on quality of work [30, 41, 42]. The results of H3 demonstrates the positive and significant association of job satisfaction with employees’ performance as P<0.05 at the weight of standardized regression 0.402 that substantiate the positive movement of job performance in view of change in job satisfaction. The quantification of H3 explains the rising level in job satisfaction by 1 unit, employee’s performance changes also positively by 0.402. So the results of H3 are found consistent and verified with the results of earlier research pertaining to positive relationship of job satisfaction with job performance [15,16,17,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50]. Furthermore, results of H3 are found in line [12] which was explored the give-and-take connection between job satisfaction and productivity. It implies that job satisfaction is having a positive impact on productivity. This study examined the positive impact of job satisfaction with its constructs i.e. business policy observance by the management at both of top and middle level, relationship with others, reward system and the conducive environment at workplace on employee’s performance in Pakistan banking sector.

Nevertheless, the relationship between emotional intelligence and perceived job performance was hypothesized by H4 found positive and significant with regression weight of 0.467 at P<0.05 which infers that the upward change by 1 unit in emotional intelligence of bank employees leads to increase employees’ performance by 47%. These results validate the findings of previous research regarding positive connection of emotional intelligence with employee’s performance [23,24,52,53,54,55]. Employees who are having high emotional intelligence, are considered valuable assets of the organizations [56].

The relationship between perceived job performance and quality of work was hypothesized (H5), the results H5 are showing the significant and positive association between PJP and QoW which is supported by the regression weight 0.807 at p-values (P<0.05). The results of regression analysis of H5 are significant at p-value (P<0.05). It means that due to upward change in perceived job performance by 1 unit, employee’s quality of work goes up by 0.807 as there is found to be a positive association between variables of this hypothesis. The results of H5 validates the outcomes of previous research about positive impact of perceived job performance on quality of work [5,9,10,11]. The results of these hypotheses advise to the bank’s professionals and practitioners that employee’s level of “quality of work” can be increased by improving the job performance of employees.

Two hypotheses i.e. H6 and H7 pertaining to identification of mediating effect of perceived job performance between proposed predictors and quality of work are devised the very first time in this study. Firstly, the result of H6 narrated in comparison of the table of direct and indirect effect specifies that the partial mediation effect of job performance between job satisfaction and quality of work has been initiated on satisfying all conditions of mediation analysis [57] at P<0.05. In the meantime, job satisfaction is having a positive and significant effect with quality of work as H1 has duly accepted. Over and above, job satisfaction is also having the positive and significant effect with perceived job performance as H3 has been accepted. It is realized that employee’s performance has partially been mediated between job satisfaction and quality of work.

The result of H7 narrated in comparison table of direct and indirect effect specifies that the partial mediation of job performance between emotional intelligence and quality of work has been found as all the conditions of mediation analysis are satisfying [57] at P<0.05. Since a positive and significant effect of emotional intelligence on quality of work has also been found as H2. furthermore emotional intelligence is having positive and significant effect with perceived job performance as H4 has been accepted. It is declared that employee’s performance has partially been mediated between emotional intelligence and quality of work.

Conclusion:

In this study, employees’ performance, job satisfaction, emotional intelligence and quality of work have been discussed in the light of Qur’an and the teaching of prophet Muhammad ﷺ before testing the mediation of perceived job performance between proposed antecedents and quality of work. It has come to notice that job satisfaction and emotional intelligence are the valuable antecedents of perceived job performance and quality of work where employee’s job performance has been proved as a partial mediator. Of course, the present study reveals quality of service is enhanced by performance indicators that have been considered in this research. Nevertheless, employees’ performance which eventually may attract and satisfy the clients of service organizations which is suggested for one of further references. Exclusive results of present study demonstrated that job satisfaction is predictor of job performance and quality of work wherein job performance is partially mediated which was not earlier determined by any research.

Even with the valuable results and findings in support of literature and practitioners, limitations of this study are suggested to embrace in future research. At first, data collection was made from public and private banks but from only one industry. The data were collected from seven big cities of Pakistan. Despite that, present study has a limitation of generalizability. In future, some more financial sectors e.g. Development Finance Institution (DFIs), Insurance Companies, Directorate of National savings etc. and more big cities of Pakistan are proposed to take to authenticate its results and to escalate the generalizability. Furthermore, the present study explored two antecedent job satisfaction and emotional intelligence where job performance is mediating between these antecedents and quality of work but in future research, more antecedents of job performance and quality of work are anticipated to explore within the model of this study. Business Policy Observance as a dimension of Islamic job satisfaction with three items scale is first time introduced. In future the number of items of this construct would be increased for improving the accuracy of research results. An establishment of new theory where job performance is mediating between two antecedents job satisfaction & emotional intelligence and Quality of Work is one of the contributions of this study. It is contributing not only to the theoretical portion but also to the practical front for professionals.

References

[1].Gould-Williams, J. & Davies, F. (2005). Using social exchange theory to predict the effects of HRM practice on employee outcomes. Public Management Review, 7(1), 1-24.

[2].Carson, C. M. (2005). A historical view of Douglas McGregor’s theory Y. Management Decision 43(3), 450-460.

[3].Edgar, F. & Geare, A. (2005). HRM practice and employee attitudes, Different measures–different results. Personnel Review, 34(5), 534-549.

[4].Kuvaas, B. (2008). An exploration of how the employee-organization relationship affects the linkage between perception of developmental human resource practices and employee outcomes. Journal of Management Studies, 45(1), 1-25.

[5].Carrillat, F.A., Jaramillo, F. and Mulki J.P., (2007), "The validity of the SERVQUAL and SERVPERF scales: A meta-analytic view of 17 years of research across five continents", International Journal of Service Industry Management, 18(5), 472-490

[6].Cronin, J. J. Jr. & Taylor, S. A. (1992). Measuring service quality, a reexamination and extension. Journal of Marketing, 56 (3), 55-68.

[7].Azara Shaheen, Syed Mubasher Hussain Naqvi, Muhammad Atif Khan (2013). Employees Training and Organizational Performance, Mediation by Employees Performance. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, 5(4), 490-503.

[8].Yuan, F. and Woodman, R. W. (2010). Innovative behavior in the workplace: the role of performance and image outcomes expectations. Academy of Management Journal, 53(2), 323-342.

[9].Babakus, E. & Boller, G. W. (1992). An empirical assessment of the SERVQUAL scale. Journal of Business Research, 24 (3), 254-268.

[10].Brady, M. K. & Cronin, J. J. Jr. (2001). Some new thoughts on conceptualizing perceived service quality, a hierarchical approach. Journal of Marketing, 65 (3), 34-49.

[11].Zhou, L. (2004). A dimension-specific analysis of performance-only measurement of service quality and satisfaction in China‘s retail banking. Journal of Services Marketing, 18 (7), 534-546.

[12].Locke, E.A. (1976). The Nature and Causes of Job Satisfaction, Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology, Chicago: Rand McNally, 1297-1349.

[13].Daft, Richard L. and Marcic, Dorothy, (2013). Understanding Management, 8th Edition. South-Western Cengage Learning.

[14].Shokrkon, H. & Naami, A. (2009). The Relationship of Job Satisfaction with Organizational Citizenship Behavior and Job Performance in Ahvaz Factory Workers. Journal of Education & Psychology, 3(2), 39-52.

[15].George Halkos, Dimitrios Bousinakis, (2010). The effect of stress and satisfaction on productivity. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 59(5), 415 – 431.

[16].Keumala Hayati and Indra Caniago, (2012). Islamic Work Ethic, the Role of Intrinsic Motivation, Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment and Job Performance. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 65, 272 – 277.

[17].Lilian M. de Menezes, (2012). Job satisfaction and quality management: an empirical analysis. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 32(3), 308 - 328

[18].Rachel W.Y. Yee, Andy C.L. Yeung, T.C. Edwin Cheng. (2008). The impact of employee satisfaction on quality and profitability in high-contact service industries. Journal of Operations Management, 26, 651–668.

[19].Reuven Bar-On. J.G.Maree. Maurice. & Jesse Elias. (2007). Educating People to Be Emotionally Intelligent, (1st Ed.), United Kingdom: Greenwood Publishing Group. (Chapter 3).

[20].Salovey, P. & Mayer, J. D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 9, 185-211.

[21].Salami, S.O. (2007). Relationships of emotional intelligence and self-efficacy to work attitudes among secondary school teachers in southwestern Nigeria. Essays in Education, 20, 43-56.

[22].George, J. M. (2000). Emotions and leadership, the role of emotional intelligence. Human Relations, 53, 1027–1055.

[23].Goleman, D. Boyatzis, R. & McKee, A. (2002). Primal leadership, realizing the power of emotional intelligence.

[24].Wong, C., & Law, K. S. (2002). The effects of leader and follower emotional intelligence on performance and attitude: An exploratory study. Leadership Quarterly, 23, 243–274.

[25].Law, K. S. Wong, C. & Song, L. J. (2004). The construct and criterion validity of emotional intelligence and its potential utility for management studies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 483–496.

[26].Lopes, P.N. Salovey, P.S. Cote, S., Beers, M., (2005). Emotion regulation abilities and the quality of social interaction. Emotion, 5, 113–118.

[27].Vratskikh, Masa’deh, Al-Lozi , Maqableh, (2016). The Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Job Performance via the Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction, International Journal of Business and Management, 11(2), 69-91.

[28].Segal J. (2002). Good leaders use emotional intelligence. Emotionally intelligent leadership is a skill that can be learned and taught throughout life. Health Progress, 83(3), 44–46.

[29].Milkman, K.L. Chugh, D. and Bazerman, M. (2008). How can decision making be improved? Working paper, Harvard Business School. www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/08-102.pdf.

[30].James D. Hess Arnold C. Bacigalupo, (2011). Enhancing decisions and decision making processes through the application of emotional intelligence skills. Management Decision, 49(5), 710 – 721.

[31].Fey, C. F. & Denison, D. R. (2003). Organizational culture and effectiveness, Can American theory be applied in Russia? Organization Science, 14(6), 686–706.

[32].J. Mathew, E. Ogbonna and L. C. Harris (2012). Culture, employee work outcomes and performance, an empirical analysis of Indian software firms. Journal of World Business, 47, 194–203.

[33]. Steenkamp, Jan-Benedict and Hans Baumgartner (2000). On the use of structural equation models for marketing modeling. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 17, 195-202.

[34].Cua, K.; McKone, K.; Schroeder, R. G. (2001). Relationships between implementation of TQM, JIT, and TPM and manufacturing performance. Journal of Operations Management, 19(6), 675-694

[35].DeVellis, R.F. (2012). Scale development: Theory and applications. Los Angeles: Sage. pp. 109–110.

[36].Hu & Bentler (1990). “Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis”, Conventional criteri;a versus new alternatives, Structural Equation Modeling, 6(1), 1-55.

[37].Carmines, E.G., & McIver, J.P. (1981). “Analyzing Models with Unobserved Variables”. In G.W. Bohrnstedt & E.F. Borgatta (Eds.), Social Measurement: Current Issues, Beverly Hills, CA, Sage.

[38].Keramati, A, Mehrabi, H &Mojir, N (2010). “A process-oriented perspective on customer relationship management and organizational performance”, an empirical investigation, Industrial Marketing Management, 39(7), 1170–1185.

[39].Hoyle, R. H., & Smith, G. T. (1994). Formulating clinical research hypotheses as structural equation models: A conceptual overview. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 62, 429-440.

[40].R. Mu˜noz de Bustillo Llorente et al. (2005). Job satisfaction as an indicator of the quality of work. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 34, 656–673.

[41].Henderson A. (2001). Emotional labor and nursing, an underappreciated aspect of caring work. Nursing Inquiry, 8(2), 130–138.

[42].Rahim, A. and Minors, P. (2003). Effects of emotional intelligence on concern for quality and problem solving. Managerial Auditing Journal, 18(2), 150-155.

[43].Porter, L.W. Steers, R.M. Mowday, R.T. & Boulian, P.V. (1974). Organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and turnover, among psychiatric technicians. Journal of applied psychology, 59, 603-609.

[44].Wiener, Y., &Vardi, Y. (1980). Relationship between job, organization, and career commitment and work outcomes – and integrative approach. Organizational behavior and human performance, 26, 81-96.

[45].Petty, M.M. McGEE, G.W. & Cavander, J.W. (1984). A meta-analysis of the relationships between individual job satisfaction and individual performance. Academy of management review, 9, 712-721.

[46].Becker, B.E. and Huselid, M.A. (1998). High performance work systems and firm performance: a synthesis of research and managerial implications”, in Ferris, G.R. (Ed.). Research in Personnel and Human Resources, Vol. 16, JAI Press, Stamford, CT, 53-101.

[47].Judge, T. A. Thoresen, C. J. Bono, J. E. & Patton, G. K. (2001). The Job Satisfaction-Job Performance Relationship, a Qualitative and Quantitative Review, Psychological Bulletin, 127, 376-407.

[48].Boxall, P. and Purcell, J. (2003). Strategy and Human Resource Management, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke.

[49].Wright, P.M., Gardner, T.M. and Moynihan, L.M. (2003). The impact of HR practices on the performance of business units. Human Resource Management Journal, 13, 21-36.

[50].Michie, S. and West, M. (2004). Managing people and performance: an evidence based frame work applied to health service organizations. International Journal of Management Reviews, 5, 91-111.

[51].Bowling, N.A. (2007). Is the job satisfaction–job performance relationship spurious? A meta-analytic examination. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 71, 167–185

[52].Bachman, J., Stein, S., Campbell, K., & Sitarenios, G. (2000). Emotional intelligence in the collection of debt. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 8, 176–182.

[53].Prati, L. M. Douglas, C., Ferris, G. R., Ammeter, A. P. & Buckley, M. R. (2003). Emotional intelligence, leadership effectiveness, and team outcomes. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 11, 21–41.

[54].Thomas Sy, Susanna Tram & Linda A. O’Hara (2006). Relation of employee and manager emotional intelligence to job satisfaction and performance. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 68, 461–473.

[55].Bob. Wall. (2008). Working Relationships Using Emotional Intelligence to Enhance your Effectiveness with Other (1sted.). USA: Davies Black Publishing. (Chapter2).

[56].Carmeli, A. (2003). The relationship between emotional intelligence and work attitudes, behaviour and outcomes, an examination among senior managers. Journal of Managerial psychology, 18(8), 788- 813.

[57].Baron, M., & Kenny, A. (1986). The Moderator-Mediator variable distinction in social Psychological research: Conceptual, Strategic and statistical consideration. Journal of Personality and social Psychology, 51 (6) 1173-1182.

[58]Ahmad Sh. & Owoyemi M. 2012. “The Concept of Islamic Work Ethic: An Analysis of Some Salient Points in the Prophetic Tradition”. International Journal of Business and Social Science Vol. 3 No. 20.

[59]Abdi O. Shuriye, A.O. and Adam, I.A.H., (2009). “The concept of Itqan and its role in Muslim professional life”, International Islamic university of Malaysia, First Edition, ISBN: 978-983-3855-67-4.

[60]Baharom, M., Saad, H.M., and Ismail S.H., (2014). "The Role of Integrity as a Mediator satisfaction à Work and Work Performance in the Perspective of Islam: An Empirical Approach Using SEM / Amos Model”, International Journal of Research in Applied, Natural and Social Sciences, 2 (1), 72-84