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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 10, No. 6
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
DOI:10.14738/assrj.106.14789.
Amrollahifar, J., Ali, M. H., Mansor, Z. D., Jaharuddin, N. S., & Yajie, G. (2023). Moderating Effect of Self-Efficacy on Cognitive,
Emotional and Social Intelligence Towards Job Performance in Banking Industry. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal,
10(6). 147-171.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Moderating Effect of Self-Efficacy on Cognitive, Emotional and
Social Intelligence Towards Job Performance in Banking Industry
Jamak Amrollahifar
School of Business and Economics, UPM, Malaysia
Mass Hareeza Ali
School of Business and Economics, UPM, Malaysia
Zuraina Dato Mansor
School of Business and Economics, UPM, Malaysia
Nor Siah Jaharuddin
School of Business and Economics, UPM, Malaysia
Guo Yajie
Guangzhou Collage of Technology and Business
ABSTRACT
Although the services sector is one of the sectors that anchored the country’s
economy growth in 2019 in Malaysia, this sector lacks in growth and need to be
pushed for greater productivity. Particularly, financial sector has the most
contribution to the service sector. Meanwhile, the banking sector of Malaysia has
gone through profound and rapid changes in the last few years. This study aims to
examine the moderating effect of self-efficacy on the relationship between
cognitive, emotional and social intelligence towards job performance in the
Malaysian local commercial banks using survey data obtained from 436 employees.
The Partial Least Square method is employed to study the link. The findings indicate
that self-efficacy moderates the relationship between cognitive and emotional
intelligence towards job performance. Nevertheless, contrary to the claims of
scholars, the study finds no evidence of any moderation effect of self-efficacy on the
relationship between social intelligence towards job performance. Limitation and
suggestion for the future research are also discussed.
Keywords: Job performance, Cognitive intelligence, Emotional intelligence, social
intelligence, Self-efficacy, Local commercial banks
INTRODUCTION
The world is witnessing a shift in industrialized nations' economies towards the service sector
[3]. The service industry in Malaysia is one of the industries that fueled the country's economic
development in 2019, according to the department of statistics (2019). In the initial quarter of
2019, revenue in the services sector rose 7.0% to RM431.2 billion. In 2015, Malaysia's services
industry experienced an an annual revenue rise by 8.3%. However, the rise of employee
productivity in the services sector declined to 4.9% from 6.5% in 2018. As stated in the
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Malaysian Reserve (2019), there has to be a greater strain imposed on Malaysia's services
sector to boost performance. According to the Malaysia Productivity Blueprint (2018), Malaysia
needs to improve performance, and one of the most significant ways to do this is by making the
optimal use of its individual assets, such as its workforce [35]. Furthermore, the service sector
provides 73 percent of the GDP of industrialized countries and 53 percent of the GDP of
developing nations, according to research conducted by Ahmed and Ahsan (2011). In
accordance with Bank Negara Malaysia (2017), Malaysia's contribution to GDP is 56.1%, of
which the banking sector makes up 20%. All governmental and private activities associated
with the banking sector are under supervision of Bank Negara Malaysia. In the preceding few
years, Malaysia's banking sector has seen substantial rapid changes.
Meanwhile, it is evident that the banking industry in Malaysia is a place for employment with
inflexible time constraints and intense workloads. According to some, such employees struggle
to manage and demonstrate both their own and other people's emotions, which adversely
affected the way they communicated with peers [50]. Since the service sector has grown to be
the main driver of the nation's economic growth, pressure is particularly strong on personnel
in this sector. The front-line service workers are suffering from sadness, stress, and burnout as
a result of this predicament. All of the strain is a result of the nature of their profession, which
includes low pay, long hours, and no opportunity for training. As a result, this disease has an
impact on the physical and mental emotions of service professionals, which manifests in the
way they deal with clients. As a result, all incorrect behaviour on the part of front-line service
staff will have an impact on how well they do their jobs [42]. In general, the banking industry is
known for its demanding and high-volume work environment. It has a hierarchical, regulated
structure. To perform their regular jobs, bank staff must put in longer hours. Despite the fact
that the bank has consistently improved the wage package and other incentives it offers to its
employees, it is a problem that affects all levels of staff, from entry-level clerks to top
management. The turnover rate continues to rise intermittently [3]. The failure of banks to
meet customer expectations is one of the top 4 issues affecting banks and financial institutions,
according to Digital Economy (2018). The client experience is everything these days, and many
banks are under pressure because they are not providing the level of service that customers are
expecting, particularly in terms of technology [3].
Employees at service counters in particular typically serve as a conduit between a business and
its clients. In other words, the service counter employee not only acts as a vital link between
the business and the consumer, but also serves as a representative of the business through the
level of service rendered. However, interactions between the employee and the customer have
an impact on the advantages for both parties when the frontline staff promotes and provides
the service. How to boost frontline employee productivity has been a key concern for
businesses and academic research because frontline personnel primarily generate revenues
and produce costs for the organisation [31]. As a result, clients frequently depend their
judgements of the firm's service quality on how effectively the service counter staff performs.
Similar to this, savvy and effective managers are well aware of the importance of keeping their
service counter staff motivated [1]. One of the main variables affecting business performance
(BP) in this area of the banking industry is the improvement of service counter workers'
engagement and their customer-focused behaviours [22]. In actuality, depending on the nature
of the sector, multiple skills may be needed for service counter staff. Other than that, cognitive,
emotional, and social intelligence were rarely evaluated separately using a single framework.
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Amrollahifar, J., Ali, M. H., Mansor, Z. D., Jaharuddin, N. S., & Yajie, G. (2023). Moderating Effect of Self-Efficacy on Cognitive, Emotional and Social
Intelligence Towards Job Performance in Banking Industry. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(6). 147-171.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.106.14789
Therefore, little is known about these relationships. Because of this, the goal of this study is to
comprehend how self-efficacy affects the relationships between service counter employees'
cognitive, emotional, and social intelligence and their ability to do their jobs in the banking
sector. Therefore, understanding the factors that can improve employees' job performance in
the Malaysian banking sector is made possible by this study.
In order to come to a conclusion, this study used a sample of workers from Malaysian local
commercial banks to examine job performance. As there is still a need to learn how to improve
employees' performance on the job [52], it is important to assess how emotional, social, and
cognitive intelligence interact to predict job success [40]. This position may offer many
viewpoints on viewing job performance, particularly in various cultural contexts like Asian
culture. As a result, this study adds to the expanding body of cross-cultural literature on the
subject of job performance in Asian cultures. In particular, the majority of research on self- efficacy has been conducted in the west, whereas there are few studies in the east [39]; this
research may not be applicable to nations in Asia or the Orient [50]. In order to better
understand how cognitive, emotional, and social intelligence relate to job performance in non- Western civilizations like Malaysia, it is crucial to look into the moderator role of self-efficacy.
The banking sector in Malaysia can be used as a benchmark for other Asian nations with
comparable cultures. In order to support the generalizability of theory and models developed
in previous research, the current study indirectly tests the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as
well as the Campbell et al. Model and the Compensatory Model of Emotional Intelligence,
Cognitive Intelligence, and Job Performance in a different cultural context. Therefore, by
presenting new and comprehensive constructs compared to earlier studies in the Malaysian
context, the study could bring fresh knowledge and insight to the literature on job performance
and help to improve job performance practises.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Self-efficacy is defined as the idea that an individual can mobilise the drive, the cognitive and
emotional resources, and all the activities required to meet the demands of a circumstance [5,
16, 27]. This definition is comparable to that of Vroom's (1964) effort performance expectancy,
which introduces the expectation that an individual's effort would lead to successful work
performance. Bandura (1977) discovered in his study of the literature that people who had
higher levels of self-efficacy were more tenacious in their learning. Being a context-specific
construct, self-efficacy may be skill-, task-, or domain-specific [53]. Meanwhile, self-efficacy is
the conviction and self-assurance that an employee can operate with a deliberate, clever, and
worthwhile motive. Employees constantly strive to retain their skills based on the values of
awareness in conducting work wisely and generating valuable work because of the
conservation of resources (COR) theory. Additionally, self-efficacy refers to assessments of an
individual's performance capacity, which in turn may influence the individual's decision- making, level of effort, and persistence under trying circumstances [17]. To be accurate, the
development of self-efficacy occurs before a person chooses an option and begins working.
According to Goleman and Luthans (2006), people first investigate, assess, and integrate
information about their perceived skills. According to Goleman (2006), self-efficacy can
influence motivation, choice of behaviour, endurance, stress resistance, and constructive
thought patterns. Bandura claims that social influence, psychological experience, personal
experience, and performance achievement or mastery experience are the sources of self- efficacy in Luthans (2006) [54]. Self-efficacy is essential for a person's daily life. In all areas of
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one's life, self-efficacy is essential for motivation, wellbeing, and personal accomplishments.
Self-efficacy is the conviction that one possesses the abilities to exhibit the behaviour required
for the accomplishment of a task [18], the capacity to act in a unique circumstance, and the self- assurance to carry out one's responsibilities in the face of uncertainty [2].
Furthermore, according to Carpini, Parker, and Gryphon (2017), job performance is perhaps
the most significant and researched variable in organisational behaviour and industrial
management. Although it would seem that the study of variable work performance has already
matured theoretically because it is one of the most examined [63], this is not the case. Few
studies have been able to pinpoint the mechanisms through which individual behaviour might
create organisational value, and there are very few systematic attempts to thoroughly
characterise the nature of job performance [36]. Employee work performance is very important
for both people and organisations, and it has a beneficial impact on a number of organisational
outcomes. Despite the importance of employees' job performance, there hasn't been much
focus on defining and defining job performance [46]. A key metric for measuring organisational
success is job performance. When the situation is conducive, a person may work at their best.
A person's main objective would be to reach a predetermined goal, and that person's main goal
would also be job happiness. Employees' contributions to the achievement of company goals
through their work performance can be used to define what the company has accomplished in
terms of procedure, relevance, and success. Long-lasting ties and connections with consumers
are crucial functions of front-line staff. In an effort to increase job performance and job
happiness, efforts are being made to demonstrate how the relative income of the businesses
included in the investment plan depends on successful services. Work potential will increase
and departmental capacity to lead the organisation through its people resources will be fulfilled
by job performance [32].
In this study, job performance was determined using the role-based performance measure, and
job performance served as a stand-in for the previously mentioned scale. The importance of
roles in understanding employee behaviour in organisations has been amply demonstrated.
Every organisation has distinct expectations for its employees, and each organisation places a
varied value on certain roles. Employees take on and play many different roles outside of their
work, and identity theory suggests that roles that are significant from the perspective of the
organisation should be taken into account when evaluating employee performance. Since these
are the positions deemed crucial to the performance of the company, it is possible to identify
the crucial responsibilities that need to be measured from the remuneration scheme. Role
theory predicts that both the individual and the organisation will have an impact on employee
performance. This theory combines sociological (organisational framework) and psychology
(individual contributions) points of view. Thoits contends that the roles that are most
important to us provide our lives the strongest meaning or purpose. The stronger the
behavioural direction that ultimately prompts us to show behaviour connected with that job,
the more meaning we acquire from that role [55].
Meanwhile, intelligence is known to be the best predictor of job performance (together with job
happiness and dedication), as many research, like Ree & A. Earles (2015), clearly demonstrated
and explored how companies can choose the best employees. More precisely, the psychological
elements that improve employee performance are currently the subject of intense research
among management experts and practitioners [39]. Due to the fact that employees are regarded