DETERMINANTS OF EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE IN EMERGING ECONOMY

The key thrust of this research is to identify the factors influencing employee performance in private commercial banks of Bangladesh, while previous studies investigated human resources management practices. A pretested close-ended questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. Judgmental sampling techniques were used to select ten banks and 250 respondents, and factor analysis methods were used to analyze the data. The reliability test of items was confirmed by Cronbach’s Alpha test (0.755). The key outcome of the study revealed that leadership style, performance appraisal system, training and development, job satisfaction, employee engagement, compensation, and rewards significantly impact employee performance. However, in this paper, employee engagement and leadership style are revealed as new factors in the banking industry. The study further recommended that private commercial banks should give more emphasis on these factors to leverage employee performance. Finally, a few suggestions were made by the authors to increase employee performance that may help professional practitioners and owners for relevant policy and guidance in future. In conclusion, some limitations and future directions are also articulated.


INTRODUCTION
Employees are the lifeblood of a business and the critical drivers of a firm's success. Of all the factors of production, employee makes other factors productive and smoothly operative. Employees make the difference between excellent and poor performance. Since business organizations operate in a highly dynamic and competitive environment, the key to their success is the superb performance of employees (Thapa et al., 2017). Therefore, business firms pay special attention to the factors accelerating employees' work attitudes and performance behaviors (Rubel & Kee, 2013). Employee performance (EP) denotes the extent of employee behavior at work and how significantly they accomplish tasks and responsibilities. The absence of employee performance severely affects the firm's retention and growth. Many researchers in human resources management (HRM) have advocated different factors, such as job satisfaction, engagement, leadership support, and organizational commitment, that directly and indirectly influence EP (Biswas & Bhatnagar, 2013;Taboli, 2013). In similar research, Biswas & Varma (2012) pretend that EP is the combined result of effort, ability, and perception of tasks despite its antecedent by motivation, knowledge, and opportunity to participate. So, EP shall be mounted high when it determines an emotional state of mind towards the job and physical attachment to accomplishment (Bowra et al., 2012). Empirical studies asserted that employees put total concentration and motivation to enhance their performance when they see firms recognize their contribution and cordiality to facilitate well-being (Guest, 2017). The absence of a performance culture creates turnover intention, deviant behavior, stress and negativity among employees. Firms face an agile environment in today's business because of frequent changes. The adaptive working environment positively impacts motivation and performance (Ahmad, 2011). But, Jilani (2015) says it is the ability, given and shown by the employees while performing the duties and responsibilities, that actually impacts motivation and performance.
Likewise, Francis & Santhosh (2016) argued that an employee's workplace environment is a crucial driver of performance quality and the extent of productivity. In similar research, Cherif (2020) stated that the prime goal of employee work is not always to get the salary but to ascertain a sense of satisfaction from the job that makes it more efficient. So, EP is a significantly vital criterion to shape a firm. And these factors are very crucial to managing organizational outcomes.
The emerging economy is the fastest expanding economy advancing with tremendous growth potential. The nations under the economy appear to possess some characteristics of developing countries but still must fully meet the standards. Private commercial banks (PCBs) are owned by private entity or individuals (Bangladesh Bank, 2021). PCB is the prime financial system that plays a dynamic role in the economic development of Bangladesh through the mobilization of savings, allocation of credit to productive sectors, sharing of export finance and managing foreign remittances. Recently, the GDP reported USD 302.4 billion, and per capita income reported USD 1,909 (Dhaka Tribune, 2019). In 2018, PCB shared 60 per cent of export finance which is considered ever highest (Khuda, 2019). In Bangladesh, there are 41 PCBs out of 59 scheduled banks (Bangladesh Bank, 2021). The number is lifting quickly. As a result, banks are under the challenge of productivity to achieve operational goals. Focusing on the service productivity and national contribution of the sector, the research on EP is a demand-driven area of concentration. Following this lead, the study's central problem is, if the employees are not performing well, the primary adverse effect is the decline of customer service quality which will influence mainstream customer loyalty and trust. As a result, organizational performance will be impacted. The other relevant research problems are that, EP has a chain effect on total productivity, system, and business process (Unyathanakorn & Rompho, 2014). Therefore, ensuring a healthy and professional customer service system is the heart of EP in banks (Sabir et al., 2014).
The present research has attempted to identify the factors of EP. In this regard, the unique input of this research, consisting of the extraction of two elements: employee engagement and leadership style, is the latest theoretical contribution in the field. Besides, the current study uses factor analysis instead of descriptive statistics and qualitative models. Moreover, there is a mix of ownership in commercial banks under public and private categories, and the present research carried out in the context of PCB will mitigate the contextual gap of the industry. To the best of the authors, there has been no similar study in this area until the current research progress. The paper's outcome shall draw the attention of concerned policymakers of banks in Bangladesh to address the issues in their organizations.
Moreover, the result of the research may help the industry to find out the problems related to human resources utilization and may initiate action to solve them. Therefore, this research has been organized as an introduction and objectives in sections one and two. Sections three and four contain a literature review, and underlying theories and conceptual framework; sections five and six comprise of methodology and data analysis; section seven: result of the study; section eight: discussion; and section nine: conclusion and future directions.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The broad objective of this study is to examine the factors of employee performance in private commercial Banks of Bangladesh. Following this lead, the core objectives are set forth: • To explore the relationship between these factors with employee performance, and • To measure the impacts of the elements on employee performance

Factors of Employee Performance
Employees are an integral part of the banking business. A good number of studies have been conducted on different dimensions and settings. Among those, the relationship with overall HRM practices was more evident than multi or unidimensional variables. For example, the performance appraisal system (PAS) is an essential driver of employee accomplishment. Employee performance is highly factored by performance appraisal systems such as quality and standard of performance progress. This progress leverages the extent of implementation that is measured in different methods like appraisal by top management, peers, subordinates, superiors, and customers (Curzi et al., 2020). In the banking industry, most banks follow the 360-degree method of appraisal system. The process allows the employee to be more efficient in doing their job. A similar line of research also claimed that banks might adopt the performance-based payment system (Migiro & Maureen, 2010;Rani et al., 2013). On the contrary, few studies claimed that employee work measurement only sometimes positively influences job outcomes (Otoo & Mishra, 2018).
Empirical research has discovered employee engagement (EE) as one of the modern workplace's strong motivators that leverage employee productivity. EE states employees' cognitive, behavioral, and emotional condition toward a firm enhances employee work satisfaction. As a result, employee involvement receives exceptional attention in public and private sector firms. Many researches revealed a strong association between EE and EP. They opined that the relationship strengthens the work spirit and engages better outcomes such as steering productivity, profitability, retention, safety, and customer loyalty (Kim et al., 2019).
Similarly, researches claimed that highly engaged employees love to produce high profits and experience increased customer satisfaction than those who are not (Sendawula et al., 2018). In the service industry, the EE is composed of leadership, physical and social setting, and HR practices that directly influence the person, process, and job context (Rees et al., 2013). Conversely, research in private-sector hotels concluded that employee-job engagement does not certainly influence performance. Instead, it focuses more on organizational performance (Kim et al., 2019).
Relevantly, employee skill and efficiency have become critical attention in PCBs. Employees should be allowed to increase efficiency, reduce the role of conflicts, and facility to excel complete learning process to expedite their performance (Halawi & Haydar, 2018;Masa'deh et al., 2016). Similar researches advocated that training and development (T&D) helps employees to enhance their current skills to advance their performance, build creativity and confidence, and help them to be highly effective in the job. Therefore, T&D not only prepares employees for the next ladder of career but also strengthens their spirit of owning the job, developing cognitive competencies, giving work freedom, and adopting new knowledge in the workplace (Jyoti & Bhau, 2015;Malik et al., 2020;Nauman et al., 2020;Qayyum et al., 2012). Conversely, Awang et al. (2010) contested that skill and knowledge may be enhanced by training. Still, the movement only significantly influences cognitive capabilities like workability by depending on others and adopting new or existing technology.
EP is affected by compensation and rewards (C&R), namely the direct, indirect, financial, and non-financial rewards provided by the firms. So, employees are to be given financial and non-financial rewards such as bonuses, leave allowances, pension retirement, housing allowances, base pay, commissions, profit incentive merit-based pay, and insurance. An employee is always put at the highest level of performance once he possesses a positive feeling about the rewards packages provided by the employer (Rumawas, 2015). Besides, it also makes them happy towards their performance (Zafar et al., 2021). Therefore, firms should underscore performancebased compensation to the employees in return for achieving the assigned goals (Hameed, 2014;Sudiardhita et al., 2018;Uzoamaka & Innocent, 2018;Zafar et al., 2021). A similar line of studies in Ready-made Garments (RMG) and the banking sectors of Bangladesh claimed that compensation has a strong correlation and positive impact on EP (Akter & Husain, 2016;Rubel & Kee, 2015;Thapa et al., 2017).
A happy employee is always a productive employee. The research claimed that job satisfaction (JS) elements like faster career growth, working conditions, employee benefits, and monetary and non-monetary rewards are the lifelines of employee productivity. And these components establish general attitude, emotional state, feelings of employees (either favorable or unfavorable) towards the job, engagement, organizational commitment, and intention to stay (Garg et al., 2017). The employee is satisfied, gets pleasure and excitement from the job, and is motivated once their need is fulfilled. Related empirical research has attested that providing rewards and opportunity for growth is an actor of emotional attachment that increase employee productivity (McGuigan et al., 2015;Ziegler et al., 2012;Cherif, 2020;McGuigan et al., 2015). For this reason, there is a modest positive correlation between job performance and feeling of pleasure (Marler & Fisher, 2013;Saner & Eyupoglu, 2015). On the contrary, Pawirosumarto et al. (2017) attested that JS only sometimes guarantee EP.
EP's antecedent includes leadership styles (LS), like the nature of supervision, ability to participate in opinion sharing, decision making, and encouragement. Therefore, there is a strong association of leadership styles with EP. So, an employee should be managed and guided by the supervisor, proving authority and allowing decisionmaking to carry out their functions smoothly (Baig et al., 2021;Islam et al., 2018;Northouse, 2015;Akor, 2014). Likewise, research on the banking industry in Europe and Asian countries, like Bangladesh, revealed that the style of supervision and leaders' attitude is a reliable tool to enhance commitment, creativity, participation in decision-making, and accept opinions that promote EP. For this reason, effective supervision is highly important for PCBs in Bangladesh (Asrar-ul-Haq & Kuchinke, 2016;Basit et al., 2015;Islam et al., 2019;Mohammad, 2017). However, only some types of leadership supervision positively influence EP (Sihombing et al., 2018).

Employee Performance
Job behavior excels cordial care through recognition. EP is the total value of a firm that is directly-indirectly generated from the aggregate job behavior of employees (Baig et al., 2021). It is formed by utilizing knowledge, skills, employee experiences, and abilities to perform the assigned mission required by managers (Bowra et al., 2012). The success of every organization relies on employee job behavior. Thus, one of the most important factors that affect firm performance is EP. Therefore, it is critical to think about the firm's success to ensure that EP is rightly measured and nurtured (Cherif, 2020). One of the prominent reflections of today's HRM functions is to focus on the employee job behavior and to make them holistically outcome-based resources. Following this, the HRM practices in organizations are tremendously explored in the spirit of the intended value proposition in a very effective and efficient way (Bowra et al., 2012). To attain this, organizations should identify the best way to utilize human effort and control the adverse factors of poor or non-performance. Related research has also revealed factors such as employee satisfaction, HRM practices, organizational commitment and support, leadership styles, and training and development related to EP (Islam et al., 2019;Khuwaja et al., 2020;Tremblay et al., 2010). In line with this, EP is a central part of organizational performance that cannot be compromised to leverage growth and survival in the market.

UNDERLYING THEORIES AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Scholars developed many motivational theories under the lens of individuals and firms. The expectancy theory has drawn significant attention to examining employee motivational issues at work (Baker et al., 1989;Brownell & McInnes, 1986;Harrell & Stahl, 1984;Nickerson & McClelland, 1989). The extent of employee effort towards the best or worst is the degree of motivation that stems from various factors of the firms. To this end, the expectancy theory is derived from the belief that higher effort and performance accomplishment results from high motivation. Homans (1961) first developed the social exchange theory (SET) based on people and job behavior. The necessary prescription of the theory is that every positive or negative activity resulting from the workplace stimulates employees' responses positively or negatively. The research claimed that employees love to feel more loyal and optimistic about their job in exchange for a supportive response from their firms (Seibert et al., 2011). Thus, social exchanges are a vital denominator to dictate employee work behavior. The researcher in this study argued the sources of satisfier and dissatisfier to determine EP, in light of SET. Besides, expectancy theory reveals the degree of motivation (satisfaction) at work derived from organizational forces. Thus, the research framework in Figure 1 initializes based on expectancy and exchange of employee jobs.

Research Design
The research is quantitative. The objectives are set to identify employee performance factors in private-sector banks. It shows the causal effect of different factors on employee performance.

Study Populations, Sampling and Sample Size
The sampling frame describes the list of all population units from which the sample was selected (Cooper & Schindler, 2011). Though all PCB employees are the population of the research, there is no definite factual or published data on the actual number of employees working in the sector. According to Sekaran and Bougie (2016), the non-probabilistic judgmental sampling technique is helpful if there is no population list. Judgment sampling is purposively used when the sample requires meeting some criteria set by the researcher, such as individuals or groups who are ideally in the position of the primary or critical person, capable of providing the most accurate and relevant information at a low cost (Cooper, & Schindler, 2011;Zikmund et al., 2012). Moreover, Asiamah et al. (2017) suggested that judgmental purposive sampling is adequate for Asian countries in the case of unlisted population. Hoe (2008) states the rule of thumb that any sample of more than 200 is sufficient for data analysis. According to Malhotra & Dash (2015)

Instrument and Data Collection
The questionnaire consisted of twenty-five items and five questions for demographic data such as gender, age, academics, position, and job experience. The questionnaire was developed based on existing literature and adapted to the content of the present research. Accordingly, four items of performance appraisal system (Awases et al., 2013;Ma Prieto & Pilar Pérez-Santana, 2014); three items of employee engagement (Awases et al., 2013); four items of training and development (Awases et al., 2013;Ma Prieto & Pilar Pérez-Santana, 2014); three items of compensation and rewards (Islam & Siengthai, 2009); three items of leadership style (Awases et al., 2013); three items of job satisfaction (Renee Baptiste, 2008), and five items of employee performance (Williams & Anderson, 1991) have been considered. Part A consists of demographic information, and Part B consists of selected variable items. The data collection process used the drop-off and pick-up (DOPU) method as prior research claimed that the DOPU method is helpful for the respondent to finish at a suitable time, with less bias (Maclennan et al., 2011;Qader & Zainuddin, 2011;. In this research, the unit of respondents is employees themselves. This study uses self-reported measurements of EP, as the previous research has found significant (Harris & Schaubroeck, 1988;Rubel & Kee, 2013). The researchers distributed 400 questionnaires but collected 210 responses (52.5%). The percentage of responses was accepted based on the endorsement of previous research in the same field (Rubel, Kee, et al., 2017). The duration was eight months, from July 2019 to February 2020. Before the final data, a pilot survey was conducted among 30 respondents. Likert five-point scaling, ranging from 1 (minimum) to 5 (maximum) and anchored as 1 = Strongly Disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Neutral, 4 = Agree and 5 = Strongly Agree, was used in the questionnaire.

DATA ANALYSIS TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES
Cronbach's Alpha is the most widely used method to measure the scale's reliability (Cooper, & Schindler, 2011;Khuwaja et al., 2020;Malhotra & Dash, 2015). Therefore, it was used to analyze the internal reliability of variables. The threshold value of Alpha (α) should be greater than 0.60 at the initial stage (Cronbach, 1951;George & Mallery, 2002), and a value more than 0.70 represent higher internal consistency of the variables (Guilford, 1950;Nunnally, 1978). Accordingly, we computed the range from 0.73 to 0.96 and confirmed the consistency. Validity tests confirm whether a study's scales adequately represent the variable (Zikmund et al., 2012). The current study employed content and construct validity. The former was confirmed by requesting an opinion from one academic expert (professor with a PhD) in a similar field and one expert from HRM professionals of PCB. This study tested construct validity by statistical interpretation of factor analysis, correlation, and regression analysis. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 was used.

RESULTS OF THE STUDY
The demographic analysis in Table 1 revealed that 59% (n = 118) of the respondents are male, and 41% (n = 82) are female. In the category of academics, 35% (n = 70) of participants have bachelor's degrees, 57% (n = 114) have master's degrees, and 8% (n = 16) have PhD degrees. In terms of experiences, less than five years is 29% (n=58), 5-10 years is 41% (n=82), 10-15 years is 17.5% (n=35), 15-20 years is 8.5% (n=17) and more than 20 years 4% (n=8). In terms of position, all are officer-level. The number of the respondent in terms of age showed 43.5% (n=87) is in the range of 25-35 years, 31% (n=62) are in the class interval of 35-45 years, 16.5% (n=33) are in the range of 45-55 years, and 9% (n=18) are more than 55 years. Cronbach's coefficient (α) for each dimension in Table 2 has revealed a value from 0.73 to 0.96, which indicates the internal consistency of each dimension (Cronbach, 1951;Malhotra & Dash, 2015). Moreover, the 'α' value for all items is .755. According to MacCallum et al. (1999), the sample data is normally distributed if the value of commonalities is above 0.5. The extracted communalities (h2) of the variables resulted between 0.62 and 0.97. Thus, the sample size was found suitable for factor analysis. The generated value for KMO in the overall matrix was 0.704, indicating the sample size's statistical fit to conduct factor analysis. Based on the result of Bartlett's test of sphericity (threshold value<0.5), the appropriateness of the data for factor analysis was verified (Bartlett, 1950).  The second extracted factor is the performance appraisal system. It states the periodic assessment and monitoring of performance progress along with providing feedback. Four variables (PAS1…PAS4) expressed the factor, accounting for 16.80% of the variance. The factor loadings of the variables ranged from 0.871 to 0.923. The four items are: The bank has a performance appraisal system; The appraisal is conducted periodically on time; The appraisal opens communication between supervisor and subordinates; The result of the appraisal is shared timely, which encourages the employee to be motivated towards work.
The third extracted factor is employee engagement. It means the cognitive, emotional and behavioral attachment of employees to the goals of the firm. This factor is represented by three variables (ENGM1..ENGM3) to explain EP, which accounted for 14.30% of the variance. The factor loadings of the variables range from 0.930 to 0.965. The three items are: Organization shares all related information; Organization influences effective trust and communication; and The employee feels the work is meaningful and makes a difference.
The fourth extracted factor is job satisfaction, which states a feeling of pleasure with a job. This factor is represented by three variables (JS1..JS3), which accounted for 12.62% of the variance. The factor loadings of the variables range from 0.822 to 0.953. The three items are: Prompt salary motivates employees to satisfy in the job; Faster career growth supports to meet performance targets; and better working conditions create a low-stress level.
The fifth extracted factor is leadership style, influencing an employee to attain work outcomes. This factor is represented by three variables (LS1..LS3) and accounted for 11.46% of the variance. The factor loadings of the variables range from 0.751 to 0.822. The three items are: Leadership encourages innovation, teamwork, and creativity; Leadership styles direct the organization by ensuring long-term objectives and strategies; Leadership encourages all team members to participate in decision-making.
The sixth factor is compensation and rewards to employees in exchange for their performance. Three variables (CAR1.. CAR3) have denoted the factor, which accounted for 10.31% of the variance. The factor loadings of the variables ranged from 0.777 to 0.834. The items are: I am happy with the compensation system; Salaries are paid on time; and Rewards and incentives are given for exceptional performance in addition to salary. The mean, standard deviation and Pearson correlation of six factors are shown in Table 4. The result of mean values for six factors was revealed between 4.2-4.50. Among the factors, the highest value (4.50) was found for EE, and the lowest was scored for compensation and rewards (4.20). Besides, the dependent variable scored a mean value of 4.57. In the case of standard deviation, the highest degree of deviation scored for EE, and the lowest score was accounted for leadership style despite the dependent variable scoring 0.36. Table 4 also revealed a positive correlation between EP and EE (r = .187, p<.01), followed by training and development (r = .151, p<.05), compensation and rewards (r = .229, p<.01), leadership styles (r = .069, p<.05). On the other hand, the performance appraisal system (r = -.103, p<.05<.01) and JS (r = -.032, p<.05<.01) are not positively correlated with EP.

DISCUSSION
Factor analysis was used to attain the goal of the study. Based on the analysis of the result, the study discovers that the most critical factor of EP is training and development in PCBs. The finding is also reasonably consistent with previous research (Mahmood & Nurul Absar, 2015;Rahim, 2017). The PAS shows the second important factor: giving the correct feedback, rewards, and performance progress plan (Azad et al., 2011;Mahmood & Nurul Absar, 2015;Sarker, 2017). Recently, EE received significant attention for motivating employees at work, reaffirming the study as a new factor.
Furthermore, the study confirms that job satisfaction, compensation, and rewards are influential factors found in similar research in the context of the banking sector (Akter & Husain, 2016;Azad et al., 2011;Hossain, 2000). Lastly, though leadership style is evident in the non-banking sector, the researchers found it to be important in the banking sector (Islam et al., 2018). Therefore, the study has argued that LS is a new factor in the banking industry of Bangladesh.
Pearson's product-moment correlation shows that EE, T&D, compensation and rewards positively correlate with EP, and LS has a poor correlation. Conversely, the PAS shows a negative correlation with EP. The result supports the previous findings (Otoo & Mishra, 2018). JS has a negative correlation with EP, which is also claimed in the findings of previous studies (Pawirosumarto et al., 2017). Moreover, McGuigan et al. (2015) claimed that JS has a weak relationship with EP in the Irish retail service industry. Besides, EE has a high mean value revealing that EP is highly impacted due to this factor. However, all mean value scored in an acceptable range and equally denoted their positive impacts on EP. Additionally, the standard deviation scored a reasonable range of each factor, with EP indicating the recognition of determinants of employee outcome. In regression analysis, T&D, LS, and JS revealed no significant impact on EP, and the remaining three factors, such as PAS, EE, and C&R, have significant impacts on EP. The differences in relation may be because of the level of interaction among the construct variables. However, previous research by Awases et al. (2013) on the impacts of T&D; impacts of LS (Odunlami & Awosusi, 2017;Sihombing et al., 2018); and impacts of job satisfaction (Pawirosumarto et al., 2017) revealed a non-significant association between those constructs and EP. One-way ANOVA analysis represented the mean variation of the factors with EP. It showed that PAS and LS do not influence EP (H0: mean are equal), whereas the remaining factors like EE, T&D, compensation, and JS have a significant favorable influence on EP (H1: mean are not equal). Thus, the multiple statistical analysis of the research concluded with mixed findings on the impacts of factors on EP. However, considering the output of factors analysis, the study argued that each factor affects EP.

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Current research tried to shed light on the factors of EP in PCBs of Bangladesh. The analysis revealed that the above six factors are essential to EP outcomes in PCBs. Besides, all the factors stimulate the work philosophy and individual work behavior, such as high performance, low performance, or maybe quitting the job. Based on the analysis, the research explored two new factors, EE and LS. Interestingly there is a mixed result from all other analyses except factor analysis. However, four dominant factors EE, T&D, JS, and C&R were found and rewarded that affect EP. PCBs are the leading wheel of the national economy of Bangladesh, where employees are the engine. There is intense competition and high employment mobility in this sector for many reasons. However, this research argued that optimizing the impacts of the extracted factors should be the prime focus to manage EP, reduce mobility and retain in the competitive banking industry. Following this lead, the researchers advocated that all PCBs should take not only immediate steps on the factors but also inculcate a performance-oriented culture. It is also worth noting the findings that employees in PCBs of Bangladesh work longer hours than in other industries without additional allowances, like overtime. Considering this, there is a need for employee motivation to keep the relentless effort in the future. Thus, to keep pace with a congenial employee-friendly culture, the PCBs may set necessary human resources strategies in light of the paper's findings. Notably, developing such essential directions with a similar research domain is easy. Some other factors like top management support, grievance management, and technology adoption can be studied in the future with large data sizes and more advanced statistical tools.