EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT FRAMEWORK: EMPERICAL EVIDANCE FROM BANKING SECTOR SRI LANKA

. Employee engagement develops positive attitudes towards the organization among employees. According to the researchers' knowledge, no investigation focused on investigating the mediating relationship of employee engagement between high-performance work practices, religiosity, personal character, leadership and work-family life balance, and job performance in the banking sector. Two hundred managers were randomly selected from banks in Sri Lanka and collected data using an online structured questionnaire. The results showed a mediating relationship of employee engagement between high-performance work practices, religiosity, and Job performance. The findings of this study add new knowledge to system theory and are essential for the policymakers and practionnaires to improve job performance in the banking sector. This study explores the relationship between high-performance work practices, religiosity, personal character, leadership and work-family life balance, and job performance and the mediating impact of employee engagement on the relationship between the variables in the banking sector. This study confirms the questionnaire's reliability and validity and adopts a partial least squares modeling method to examine the relationship. Our findings provided empirical evidence for the hypothesized relationships between employee engagement as a mediator between high-performance work practices, religiosity, and job performance. Our research findings have implications for policymakers and banking sector companies. Initially, it is essential to consider by policymakers such as the central bank Security Exchange Commission to introduce policies to improve high-performance work practices to improve job performance through employee engagement. In addition, Bank authorities should consider adopting religiosity and high-performance practices to improve job performance, which is essential to achieving higher organizational performance. The study's findings should be viewed in light of the study's limitations, which could open up a new research direction. Despite its usefulness in establishing the directional relationships among variables, cross-sectional surveying has limitations in drawing causal judgments. Future research can track the mediating relationship of employee engagement between religiousity and high-performance work practices over time using a longitudinal methodology. In addition, future researchers can establish a relationship with other sectors such as manufacturing, hospitality, plantations, etc, to generalize the results.


Introduction
Organizations have realized that in today's constantly changing business scenario, the foremost valuable resource that requires to be leveraged is human resources. Employee engagement is a concept of human resources (HR), which describes it as the level of enthusiasm and dedication an employee feels toward their job. Engaged employees produce better business results, do not hop jobs, care about their work and company performance, and feel that their efforts make a difference. This engagement is achieved when people consider that their organization respects their work, contributes to its goals, and, more importantly, their personal aspirations of growth, rewards, and Vol. 3 No. 2, 2022 pay are met. Saad et al. (2021) state that employee engagement has attracted the attention of both academics and practitioners due to its importance in enhancing the profitability and performance of organizations. Iddagoda and Opatha (2020) identified a research gap, i.e., there is no empirical evidence concerning the mediating effect of employee engagement on the relationships between religiosity, HPWPs, personal character, leadership, work-life balance, and employee job performance in the Sri Lankan context as well as in the international context. They bridge this research gap in the Public Listed Companies (PLCs) context in Sri Lanka. In this study, the researchers will bridge this research gap as a population gap in the Public Listed Banks in Sri Lanka. The reason is that Iddagoda and Opatha's (2020) study did not specifically address the banking sector or any other sector. They took public listed companies as a whole. The research gaps of this study are to identify that there is a mediating effect of employee engagement on the relationship between High-Performance Work Practices (HPWPs) and employee job performance; to identify that there is a mediating effect of employee engagement on the relationship between religiosity and employee job performance; to identify that there is a mediating effect of employee engagement on the relationship between personal character and employee job performance; to identify that there is a mediating effect of employee engagement on the relationship between leadership and employee job performance; to identify that there is a mediating effect of employee engagement on the relationship between work-life balance and employee job performance. Tennakoon and Lasanthika (2018) conducted a study to test the association between religiosity and employee engagement. Their study was a quantitative study performed with the participation of a general sample extracted from the Sri Lankan institutions (state or private: not including self-employment).
This study aims to bridge the research gap identified in the Sri Lanka Banking sector by Iddagoda and Opatha (2020). This gap is a population gap. The research objective is to identify the mediating effect of employee engagement on the relationship between dynamics of employee engagement i.e. High Performance Work Practices (HPWPs), religiosity, personal character, leadership and work life balance and employee job performance. In addition, Iddagoda and Opatha (2020) have conducted the questionnaire's reliability and construct validity and analysis of the relationship using SPSS software. This study conducted complete reliability and validity analysis using discriminant validity and mediation using the Partial least squares modeling method, contributing to bridging the methodological gap.

Literature review 2.1 Employee engagement
Employee engagement is a dominant source of competitive advantage. In every changing environment, employee engagement is essential. Engaged employees have unity with the organization and its goals; they feel responsible and valued for the organization is the view of Harshitha in 2015. According to Kaur and Randhawa (2020), engaged employees express themselves emotionally, physically, and intellectually while performing their roles. Engaged employees are aware of business context and work with colleagues to improve performance level within the job for the organization's benefit, said by Sundaray in 2011. Meanwhile, Anitha in 2014 found that employee engagement leads to a high level of employee job performance, and researchers such as Harter et al. (2002); Iddagoda and Gunawardana (2017) found that employee engagement leads to a high level of organizational financial performance.
Engaged employees who work and are committed to their organizations give companies crucial competitive advantages, including lower employee turnover and higher productivity. According to Iddagoda et al. (2016) and Iddagoda and Gunawardana (2017), engaged employees to work with their body and mind and with 'hearts' . Organizations and engaged employees will go the extra mile, and they see mutual benefits of investing in their relationships for each other. A highly engaged employee will deliver beyond expectation consistently. Iddagoda et al. (2016) defined employee engagement as the extent to which an employee gets involved in the job and the organization cognitively, emotionally and behaviorally. This is the working definition of this study.

High Performance Work Practices (HPWPs)
High performance work practices helps to achieve organization's goals and objectives efficiently and effectively by effectively attract, hire, select, develop and retain high-performing of individuals (Perdomo-Ortiz et al. 2021;Iddagoda and Opatha, 2018;Arachchige and Robertson, 2015). And these are some management techniques such as team working, empowerment, functional flexibility, appraisal, employee development, counselling and performance that supposedly increase the overall performance and effectiveness of the organization by making better use of employee skills and improving their commitment to the organization (Iyanda Ismail et al. 2021;Kotzé and Mostert, 2021;Kaur and Kaur, 2021). According to Iddagoda and Opatha (2018) HPWPs can be defined as a bundle of certain human resources practices which make a relatively higher impact on organizational effectiveness. This serves as the working Vol. 3 No. 2, 2022 definition of this study. Tang, Yu et al. (2017) said that the high-performance of work practices is a set of human resources practices (HRM) practices which creates to promote employees skills, motivation and to gain suitable competitive advantage to firms. Human resource practices, increase employee's knowledge and skills. Support organizational process, systems and strengthen their internal and external relationships and also firm's resources are created to gain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Religiosity
From the ancient times, religion has played an important role in the life of human beings. Term religiosity contain many definitions, but they do not represent the whole idea of religiosity, they need to be refine it. Many different religions have emerged with the core beliefs, values, rituals and practices of human beings. In Sri Lanka, practices a variety of religions as Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Christians. The major religion followed in Sri Lanka is Buddhism. However, under the Sri Lankan constitution there is a freedom to choose and express religious affiliation. Meanwhile Iddagoda and Opatha (2017) define religiosity as the extent to which a particular employee believes in and venerates the founder, gods or goddesses of the relevant religion, practices the relevant teaching and participates in the relevant activities. This is the working definition of this study. Religiosity involves one's being religious earnestly and really rather than one's being religious frivolously and nominally. Religiosity is needed not only in the form of beliefs and practices but also includes a dimension of spirituality in Islamic religious said by Robbie and Novianti in 2020. Koenig (2012) mentions that practices, beliefs and rituals related to the transcendent involves religion. Religion pervades all aspects in life of human. Awuni and Tanko (2019) pointout that religion has been a great force shaping human history since prehistoric items by (Awuni and Tanko, 2019). Duties and responsibilities of workers and employers while necessitating a good relationship between two are explained in 'Sigalowada Sutra' . This highlight the fact that the religiosity paves the way the ideology that the religiosity has an influence on better employee job performance. This is further confirmed by the findings by Grim and Finke in 2014. Accoding to them religiosity is one of the most important things that can increase the performance and commitment in the organization.

Personal character
Character", as defined in the Pocket Oxford English Dictionary (1997) is "the qualities that make a person different from other people". Personal character is an attitude that can have towards to an activities and challenges. Depending on the situation it can be positive or negative. But positive personal character will lead for a better achievements. The character of a person represent the quality they have and that make them personality and that can be different from person to person. Good characters are reliable and honest while bad characters unreliable and dishonest. Opatha (2010) defines personal character as person's moral attributes. Moral qualities or characteristics is the nature of them. It is a degree of their morality and immorality. The moral and civil is in good character when bad character is immoral or uncivil. In an organization, the human resource development is make through character building. The aggregate of all the relatively persistent moral qualities a person has that combines to form his/her real nature by (Opatha, 2014). For an organizational research, individual character study is an essential area and it instrumental in ensuring ethical behavior at individual and organizational level by (Weragoda and Opatha, 2016). Personal character distinguish from one person to another person, behavior over a range of situations, it does not alter dramatically over time by (Opatha, 2014). The personal character is the person's strength or skill to contemplate the importance of having a high level of virtues in their life while eradicating the vices or badness is the definition given by Iddagoda in 2020. This serves as the working definition of this study.

Leadership
Leadership is that the art of motivating a group of people to act toward achieving a standard goal. "Leadership is the ability to evaluate and or forecast a long term plan or policy and influence the followers towards the achievements" by Mayowa in 2009. According to Hao and Yazdanifard, 2015 good leaders are ready to set optimistic goals and objectives while steering the operation of the corporate towards those goals through effective strategies. Leadership is not an attribute of the business context alone. Within the government, in universities, in army, in hospitals and anywhere, where there are people in groups, the leadership function emerges. There must be somebody to instruct, inspire and influence that group. Leaders are the people that are willingly guide their subordinates and support their subordinates so as to achieve their personal vision and organizational vision. Juneja (2019) states that leadership is a process by which an executive can direct, guide and influence the behavior and work of others towards accomplishment of specific goals during a given situation. Mohammed et al. (2018) state that leadership is a must during this global competitive work. Henceforth, the organization needs a leader who can understand and handle the complexity of the world. Therefore, as a leader Vol. 3 No. 2, 2022 should improve the standard of data associated with leadership and implement it within the field where they contribute. Meanwhile Iddagoda (2021) define leadership as inspiring, guiding and influencing people when it is necessary. This is the working definition of this study.

Work life balance
Work-life balance is a method which helps employees of an organization to balance their professional and personal lives. This is the amount of time spend doing the work compared with the amount of time spend with family and doing things enjoy. Mendis and Weerakkody (2017), point out that in today's many employees all over the world faced work-life balance has become one among the key issue in dynamic business environment. Opatha (2010) define work life balance as your ability to meet your employer's expectations and your family member's expectations to the extent that makes them happy. According to Lockwood, (2003) in organizations and on the house front, the challenge of work-life balance is rising to the highest of many employers and employees consciousness. According to Lewis et al (2002), "work-life balance is made basing on the career and private life, which should be led equally. The view of Dhas in 2015 is that, in organizations and on the house front, the challenge of work-life balance is rising to the highest of many employers and employees consciousness. Human resource professionals seek options to positively impact the bottom line of their organizations, retain employees with valuable knowledge about the organization, employee morale improvement is a trend nowadays can be observed. According to Ramawichrama et al. (2018), quality of work-life in a corporation may be a difficult factor for deciding employee related outcomes in modern organizations. Obiageli et al. (2015) mentions that work-life balance is extremely important phenomenon that's of great concern to varied employees in both public and personal sectors. Obiageli et al. (2015) further mentions that work life balance goes beyond prioritizing one's personal life and the role of work, this also affects the psychological, social, economic and mental well-being of the individual. The definition provided by Iddagoda et al. (2021) is the working definition of this study. Iddagoda et al. (2021) define work life balance as ensuring the balance between fulfilling the duties for the family members, either in a nuclear family or extended family, and fulfilling duties for the employer. Iddagoda et al. (2021) define employees' contribution to fulfill the tasks and jobs to make a positive work environment while eliminating negative or harmful acts; this serves as the working definition of this study.

Methodology
Deductive reasoning and quantitative techniques are used to examine the mediating effect of employee engagement on the relationships between religiosity, HPWPs, personal character, leadership, work-life balance, and employee job performance in this study, which is founded on a positivist paradigm.
The banking sector in Sri Lanka comprised 30 banks, including 24 Licensed Commercial Bankss including 11 branches of foreign banks, and 6 Licensed Specialised Banks by the end of 2020 (CBSL, 2020). The banking sector is essential in Sri Lanka because being a significant domestic credit provider for around 50% of the credit to the private sector (Worldbank, 2020). COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the performance of the banking sector in Sri Lanka. However, the Banking sector uses digital platforms to survive in this situation. Therefore, the Banking sector is an important role player in the Sri Lankan economy. It is essential to improve job performance in the banking sector to improve their performance. This study will help to see whether employee engagement mediates the relationship between HPWP, REL, PC, LED, WLB, and job performance. Therefore, the study population consisted of managers in banking companies listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange. The sample for this study was initially derived from randomly selected 250 managers employed in the banking sector in Sri Lanka. We received a completed 200 questionnaire, and the response rate was 80%.

Vol. 3 No. 2, 2022
All of the variables in this investigation were derived from previously validated scales. All items were rated on a five-point Likert scale, with 1 indicating strong disagreement and 5 indicating strong agreement. The operationalization of variables is illustrated in Table 1. Iddagoda and Opatha (2020) derived five hypotheses based on the general systems theory. This study used the same hypotheses to test the population gap and methodological gap for the selected research gap. Rana (2014) identified that there is a linkage between HPWPs and employee engagement, There is a link between religiosity and employee engagement (Tennakoon and Lasanthika, 2018); personal character and employee engagement (Iddagoda and Opatha, 2020). Employee job performance is a consequence of employee engagement is a finding of Anitha in 2014. Hypotheses are: H1: There is a mediating effect of employee engagement on the relationship between HPWPs and employee job performance; H2: There is a mediating effect of employee engagement on the relationship between religiosity and employee job performance; H3: There is a mediating effect of employee engagement on the relationship between personal character and employee job performance; H4: There is a mediating effect of employee engagement on the relationship between leadership and employee job performance; H5: There is a mediating effect of employee engagement on the relationship between Work-life balance and employee job performance.
We used Harman's single-factor test (1976) to examine common method bias. The first factor was extracted without rotation using the principal axis factoring approach, and it only accounts for 40.5% of the overall variance, indicating that common method bias is not present in our data and will not affect the following data analysis.

Data analysis
Using Smart PLS software, the Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach evaluated the proposed model and tested the proposed hypotheses (v.3.2.8). We chose PLS because (1) the research model is complex in terms of the types of relationships (direct, indirect, and mediation) (2) in contrast to Covariance Based Structural Equation Modelling (CB-SEM), PLS-SEM is a soft modeling technique that does not require a large sample size and is not based on the assumption that Source: Iddagoda and Opatha (2020)

Reliability analysis
Cronbach's α, composite reliability, and Average Variance Extracted(AVE) were used to assess data reliability. Cronbach's α ≥ 0.70, composite reliability ≥ 0.70, and AVE ≥ 0.50 are considered as the criteria for the construct reliability (Hair et al., 2019). Cronbach alpha value of this study ranges from 0.845(EJP) to 0.948(PC), which ensures strong reliability. In addition, composite reliability ranges from 0886(EJP) to 0.953(PC), which further confirms reliability. Convergent validity is assured because AVE values range from 0.503(WLB) to 0.654(REL). Accordingly, we can conclude that all constructs have met the threshold criterion and are therefore regarded as reliable and may be used for further research analysis.

Factor loadings
The validity of the data at the indicator level is assessed using Factor loadings (Henseler et al., 2015). When the indicators had a factor loading greater than 0.60, they were determined to meet the validity criterion (Hair et al., 2019). This study excludes three indicators, including those not meeting the recommended criteria. Table 3 presents the statistical results for all valid items.

Fornell-Larcker criterion
Along with the validity of the indicators, the Fornell-Larcker criterion was used to determine the construct level validity (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). Each construct should have a greater diagonal value than its adjacent constructs (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). These diagonal values represent the square root of AVE. Additionally, these numbers show the correlation between the research variables, and the accompanying signs (positive and negative) indicate the direction of the association. The analysis determined that all constructs met the Fornell-Larcker criterion (see Table 4).

R Squared
R2 was used to determine the overall model's predictive capability. According to Hair et al.'s (2019) criteria, R2 is 0.19, judged to be weak, R2 is 0.33 thought to be moderate, and R2 is 0.69 assessed to be strong. The findings indicated that the study model has a robust predictive capacity for EE (R2 = 62.7%) and EJP (R2 = 71.7%), which are greater than 0.69 (see Table 6).

Direct effects
The path coefficients, t values, and p values test the proposed hypothesis. The strength and direction of the association are illustrated by the magnitude and sign of path coefficients. t values and p values were interpreted as t = 1.96, p < 0.05; t = 2.403, p < 0.05; and t = 2.534, p < 0.1. Table 6 illustrates that all the relationships are significantly associated.  Williams and MacKinnon's (2008) approach was used to conduct mediation analysis. VAF score was examined to analyze the mediation (Iacobucci, Saldanha, & Deng, 2007). The VAF scores are calculated by dividing indirect effect by total effect. When the VAF score is>20% confirms as significant mediation (Iacobucci et al., 2007). This study revealed that EE powerfully mediates the associations between HPWP and EJP (71.7%) and REL and EJP(43.1%) (see Table 7).

Discussion
P-value is greater than 0.005 in the relationships between leadership and employee engagement which is 0.856; personal character and employee engagement which is 0.621; work life balance and employee engagement which is 0.811. There is a relationship between religiosity and employee engagement i.e. p value is 0.003. And also there is a relationship between High Performance Work Practices i.e. p value is 0.000. When it comes to the mediating effect there is a mediating effect of employee engagement on the relationship between HPWPs and employee job performance. There the p value is 0.000. And also there is a mediating effect of employee engagement on the relationship between religiosity and employee job performance.
Here the researchers used a questionnaire which measure the High-Performance Work Practices such as realistic job preview, pay for performance, staff attitude surveys, self-directed teams, extensive training, regular appraisals and symbolic egalitarianism. Realistic job preview is a technique that presents job applicants with a "realistic" view of what they should expect from the organization and realistic job preview could potentially bring the expectations of prospective employees "down to earth" (Iddagoda and Opatha, 2018). Pay for performance need to be link with the organizaton's pay system. Cost-conscious companies believe that through pay for performance, employees will get motivated, and also the organization can control the payroll expenses is the view of Appelbaum and Mackenzie in 1996. Staff attitude surveys are conducted not only to assess job satisfaction, employee morale and attitudes toward the company but also to focus on strategic imperatives of the organization (Iddagoda and Opatha, 2018). Rowley (1997) states that self-directed teams (SDT) refer to a small group of employees who have a day to day responsibility for managing themselves and their work. Spinks (1999) states that conducting performance appraisal interviews at frequent intervals is essential, because this makes the employees aware of where they stand. According to Pfeffer (1999) extensive training is training the employee with broad perspective, with the intention of enhancing a wide range of skills, rather than training them simply to complete a restricted job. Symbolic egalitarianism can be implemented in an organization through consistent dress codes, common cafeteria, common parking area and constant In the study of Iddagoda and Opatha (2020) they identified that there is a partial correlation between religiosity and employee engagement. They explained that outcome with the theory of Locus of control. Employees who are more towards internal Locus of Control practicing the religious scrips in-order to achieve KPIs. Employees who are more towards external Locus of Control take leave and participating in the religious activities. Absenteeism is a characteristics of dis-engaged employees. Their study about the managerial employees in the pubic listed companies. They did not specifically highlighted the result sector wise. In our study, we found a higher significance between these two constructs. This highlighted the fact that these managerial employees are practicing the teaching of religious scrips in-order to be an active, energetic and productive employee.

Conclusion
This study explores the relationship between highperformance work practices, religiosity, personal character, leadership and work-family life balance, and job performance and the mediating impact of employee engagement on the relationship between the variables in the banking sector. This study confirms the questionnaire's reliability and validity and adopts a partial least squares modeling method to examine the relationship. Our findings provided empirical evidence for the hypothesized relationships between employee engagement as a mediator between high-performance work practices, religiosity, and job performance.
Our research findings have implications for policymakers and banking sector companies. Initially, it is essential to consider by policymakers such as the central bank Security Exchange Commission to introduce policies to improve high-performance work practices to improve job performance through employee engagement. In addition, Bank authorities should consider adopting religiosity and highperformance practices to improve job performance, which is essential to achieving higher organizational performance.
The study's findings should be viewed in light of the study's limitations, which could open up a new research direction. Despite its usefulness in establishing the directional relationships among variables, cross-sectional surveying has limitations in drawing causal judgments. Future research can track the mediating relationship of employee engagement between religiousity and high-performance work practices over time using a longitudinal methodology. In addition, future researchers can establish a relationship with other sectors such as manufacturing, hospitality, plantations, etc, to generalize the results.