The role of religion and social capital on employees’ performance: An empirical study post Indonesia’s Islamic bank merger

Abstract

The rapid development technology and information competition resulted companies to switch their strategies and operations including merger to obtain competitive advantage. Despite, the most population is Muslim, compared to conventional bank, Islamic bank market share in Indonesia is still stagnant in 5%. This research investigates how employees’ religiosity influences the mediator variables, such as structural, cognitive, and relational social capital, which subsequently influences Indonesian Islamic banking performance post-merger. The sample consists of 675 Islamic bank employees. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the research hypotheses through three studies. The empirical results indicate that religiosity positively affects employees’ social capital, precisely when employees have frequent communication and interaction, which also has a strong correlation to employees’ share language, value, trust, and reciprocity. Furthermore, mediator variables, such as structural, cognitive, and relational social capital, have a partial role in religiosity and employees’ performance. This study was limited to Indonesian Islamic bank employees. Therefore, future studies are needed to analyze cross-regional, culture, organization, and religion. Bank managers and regulators need to enhance employees’ religiosity and social capital toward valuable communication and interaction. They also need to enlighten employees from the perspective of business and organization. This study contributes to human resource management and organization literature and the decision-making process associated with developing and testing a model of religious determinants of employees’ performance towards social capital.

Keywords:

• Religiosity
• social capital
• employees’ performance
• post-merger
• Indonesia’s Islamic bank

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

This research investigates how employees’ religiosity level influences the mediator variables, such as structural, cognitive, and relational social capital, in the Indonesian Islamic banking sector post-merger. It also examines how mediators influence employees’ performance. The results of this study confirm that religiosity is significantly and positively social influences capital (e.g., structural, cognitive, and relational), which has a significant and positive effect on employees’ performance. The employees’ belief process through frequent attendance at religious activities revealed that religious belief plays an important role in all aspects of their daily activities. Social communication and interaction among employees with each other during religious activities influence employees’ social capital, including respect for their colleagues within and outside of their workplace post-merger as a team work.

1. Introduction

Merger activities in banking industry are often seen as a strategy to enhance bank performance greater of market share, income stability, economies scales and competitive advantage (Du & Sim, 2016; Tayal et al., 2022). Organization mergers cannot realize their full potential without positive feedback and attitude from employees. Taking into account the high complexity of the banking industry, intense competition with a volatile environment, the existence of organizational mergers, employee turnover, and high volatility in the banking industry, improving individual job performance becomes one of the most important issues (Hassi et al., 2021; Sholikhah et al., 2019). This policy also together with other sharia institutions, including corporations, banking, retail, small medium enterprises (SMEs), cooperatives and even other social organizations (Gui et al., 2022; Razak et al., 2023). Initially, employee resistance was the main factor in implementing change, and it was clear that this resistance would have an impact on employee performance. The most common problems in mergers show the importance of human resource factors including social interaction, network, human resource management, trust that exists between employees, loss of key employees, difficulty integrating culture and systems, decreased service quality, and loss of focus on long-term goals (Nakash & Bouhnik, 2022; Shetty et al., 2022).

As Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, its market share of Islamic banks has remained constant at 5% (Junaidi, 2021). In order to increase the market share of Islamic banks and create three renowned Islamic institutions-Bank Syariah Mandiri (BSM), BRI Syariah, and BNI Syariah—which has since grown to be the largest Islamic institution in the region—the Indonesian government has put in place specific laws. But Indonesia’s Islamic bank must contend with fierce domestic and global rivalry. In 2021, Indonesia’s three largest Islamic banks merged. It aimed to become a driving force for the growth of sharia banking at the national level and a new source of energy for the Indonesian economy by developing and expanding the sharia economic environment and the national halal sector. The reality that employees must choose between the benefits of a company’s sustainability and competitive advantage (Ben-Hador, 2019; Gheitani et al., 2019). Employees do consider the short-term rewards of their actions when making decisions, but they are more likely to become concerned about sustainability issues when considering the long-term effects on the company’s existence. Communication, interaction, and trust are three long-term effects that are always present during communication and interaction among employees, which explained by social capital theory (SCT) (Junaidi et al., 2020; Lefebvre et al., 2016). Social capital takes into account the value that arises from close friends and neighbors exchanging knowledge and experience during firms’ merger (Botha & Steyn, 2023; Khan & Tariq, 2023). Hence, social capital value may improve the attitudes and camaraderie of the workforce. However, religion has a beneficial and considerable impact on people’s social capital in several countries (Shapiro, 2022).

The literature that is now available only provides a partial picture of SCT’s use in sustainability research, despite the fact that it has been applied in a business environment (Nawaz et al., 2021). This is because sustainability is made up of pro-business activities and beliefs that go beyond just religion (Shah et al., 2020). Spirituality is more focused on the attributes of the human value, such as positive psychology, than religion is. Religion is concerned with a theological system of beliefs, ritual prayers, rites and ceremonies, and related organized activities and ideas (Fry et al., 2011). Hence, there is a lack of clarity in the function of SCT in elucidating the whole spectrum of employee sustainability attitudes and behaviors. There is little quantitative research done in the available literature, which is mostly qualitative in nature (Shapiro, 2022). (Sorenson & Milbrandt, 2022). However, there are few quantitative empirical research examining the influences of religion and social capital on workers’ performance. By examining how religion influences social capital in terms of relational, structural, and cognitive factors among employees of Indonesian Islamic banks, this study fills this gap in the literature. It can help us confirm a clear relationship between the observed variables and give stakeholders information based on the social capital theory (SCT). So, a detailed examination into the benefits and drawbacks of organizational environment is necessary.

This study offers some contributions. First, it addresses religiosity and social capital in the Islamic bank context, particularly in business and organization. Second, the exception of literature and studies concerning the effect of religion on employees’ performance is limited. The result from this analysis uncovers the relationship between religiosity and social capital and offers a detailed view of the impact on predictor variables on employees’ performance (Du & Sim, 2016; Gheitani et al., 2019; Haniffa et al., 2022). It can better understand the aspects that affect religion on human resources management. Third, the result of a recent study has significant practical implications for boosting the organization which has religion base.

2. Literature review

2.1. Religion

The term “religion” refers to a person’s beliefs in both professional and social contexts. It is believed that a person’s commitment to a specific religion affects all facets of life (Sandikci, 2018). In order to influence their conduct, social standing, and performance at work in a way that is consistent with their faith, it has therefore become crucial. As stated by Allport and Ross (1967), regardless of the actual spirit of their religious beliefs in their actions, people have used religiosity as a means to some type of utility, whether it be personal or social (e.g., joining a mosque to build commercial or social contacts). These ideas are essential to understanding how religion affects social capital and productivity at work.

Some scholars suggest religious influences influence individual attitudes and behaviors, which in turn affect social consequences (Razak et al., 2023; Shah et al., 2020). In this way, an employee’s religious heritage influences their choices and actions at work (Hassi et al., 2021). Moreover, employees’ ethical conduct and values are influenced by religious as a religious self-identity (Junaidi, 2022; Shah et al., 2020). More specifically, according to Shapiro (2022), prayer sessions improved workers’ social capital and raised productivity among employee and reduce employee turnover. A person’s religious beliefs and switching possibly influencing their social network location, which can have a substantial impact on their network due to the strained social ties. It demonstrates how religious groups have turned into sources of social capital and social ties, especially in areas like Indonesia where people’s daily lives cannot be separated from their faith (Hassi et al., 2021; Junaidi, 2022).

2.2. Social capital

The fundamental tenet of social capital theory revealed individuals, groups, and organizations obtain benefit from acquiring both real and intangible resources through their relationships and social interactions (Coleman, 1988; Hanifan, 1916; Putnam, 2000). Strong networks, intimate connections, teamwork, and trust play crucial roles in helping communities endure. In the context of management and organizations, According to Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998), the total of the actual and potential benefits that can be derived from the network of connections individuals or social groups as part of the structural, relational, and cognitive social capital. It utilizes by religion to enhance interpersonal relationships, shared values, goals, friendship, and trust among employees (Ganguly et al., 2019; van Dijk et al., 2016). Moreover, religion as a social foundation fosters group intelligence and cohesion, both of which enhance the performance of employees (Allameh, 2018; Clausen et al., 2019; Dhar & Bose, 2022; van den Heuvel et al., 2020). Structural capital refers to the level of empowerment provided to employees by the organizational structure, which, in turn, symbolizes the organization’s objective and allows employees to interact with one another (Shin et al., 2020; Tayal et al., 2022). In contrast, relational capital includes both resources that are firmly rooted in external relations and those that are connected directly to organizations, society, and the state. In other words, human connections represent important capital for both individuals and businesses (Shin et al., 2020; van Dijk et al., 2016). Cognitive capital is one type of resource that enables shared comprehension and meaning among network participants (Junaidi et al., 2020).

2.3. Employees’ performance

Utilizing both real and intangible social capital resources may improve employee and organizational performance in the business and organizational context (Nawaz et al., 2021). Performance of employees is the outcome of their quantity and quality of work, which influences the success of the firm as a whole (Afzali et al., 2022; Sorenson & Milbrandt, 2022). Performance-driven objectives are anticipated to coincide with organizational policies, transforming the process from an event-driven one to one that is more deliberate and focused on the needs of the individuals involved. Furthermore, individual performance denotes completing one’s own work after making the appropriate effort for a task (Huang et al., 2021; Yen et al., 2020). Task performance, which can be described as the individual’s capacity to carry out important or technical activities that are essential to his work (Ben-Hador, 2019; Clausen et al., 2019).

3. Research framework and hypotheses

3.1. The relationship between religion and structural social capital

This study conceptualizes social capital among employees of an Indonesian Islamic bank. Structural social capital refers to the characteristics of social systems and the overall structure of social networks that provide opportunities for people to interact (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998). It embodies the strength of social relationships, the frequency and intensity of communication with other individuals and employees (Deller et al., 2018). This structural social capital dimension is built on intimacy among employees within and across organization (Berraies et al., 2020). Employees need develop network ties are conduits for information and resource flows, which affect the access of parties to exchange knowledge and the anticipated value through culture and religion (Ben-Hador, 2019; Gheitani et al., 2019; Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998). In addition, network ties facilitate social interaction between employees and reduce the amount of time and effort required to access resources, thus leading to greater intensity, frequency, and breadth of information and knowledge exchange (Larson 1992). Reciprocal interaction among employees occurred through social expectations. For instance, individuals who have built strong network ties will be actively involved in information and knowledge contribution through religion (Haniffa et al., 2022; van den Heuvel et al., 2020). Thereby, buffering the heightened emotions of religion and people could also stimulate people’s trust (Junaidi et al., 2020; Nawaz et al., 2021). Given that intimate personal relationships will result in beneficial actions and ensure reliability and wealth of knowledge, people are more likely to exchange ideas and resources with those with whom they are closely related. All of the those dimensions are related to religion. Thus, this study proposes the following hypothesis.

H1.

Religion has positive and significant effect on structural social capital

3.2. The relationship between religion and relational social capital

The guiding normative norms of expectation, identity, and obligation of interpersonal interactions, as well as the sources that direct the network of advantageous ties among employees, are referred to as relational social capital (Tsai & Ghoshal, 1998). It also represents the type of relationship that parties develop with each other over time, based on governance mechanisms such as respect, friendship, trust, and norms of reciprocity. This relationship forms the social context in which all economic actions of the firm take place (Allameh, 2018; Coleman, 1988). For example, different cultures and identities can create tension in structurally overlapping relationships and networks. In some regions, culture has close relationship to people religion (Sandikci, 2018). In the company and interorganizational context, repeated interactions in religion activities among employees and firms over time are seen as an integral part of developing relational social capital (Dhar & Bose, 2022; Ganguly et al., 2019; Haniffa et al., 2022). These bonds are important for establishing shared values and norms, which also lead trust among employees. For example, it can result in cultural conformity and compliance among groups creating a homogeneous network, thereby preventing network members from embracing innovation when faced with significant changes from established norms through personal and member of community respects, friendship and trust (Chetioui et al., 2023; Hassi et al., 2021; Junaidi, 2022; Putnam, 2000). Thus, this study proposes the following hypothesis.

H2.

Religion has positive and significant effect on relational social capital

3.3. The relationship between religion and cognitive social capital

Cognitive social capital refers to shared goals, vision and culture, common knowledge and codes that can help develop and strengthen mutual understanding and exchange of ideas among organization members including employees (Huang et al., 2021; Junaidi et al., 2020; Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998). This allows employees to build a common perspective, understanding, and interpretation in the workplace (Yen et al., 2020). Companies that have the same means of communication are generally better positioned to be strategic partners and have a broader and deeper exchange of information (Tsai & Ghoshal, 1998). Furthermore, Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998) explained that when employees interact with each other as part of a group, they are able to develop a common set of goals and vision for the organization through religion. In addition, Berraies et al. (2020) and Coleman (1988) has asserted that culture and religion influencing employees shared goals, and collectively values to promote integration vision and mission. Tsai and Ghoshal (1998) note that a shared vision embodies collective goals, Furthermore, Deller et al. (2018) and Huang et al. (2021) revealed that aspirations of organizational members in appropriate ways to act within the social system. It means that in community and organization, religion play important role to influence personal and member of community to shared goals, vision and culture, common knowledge and codes toward religion activity (Haniffa et al., 2022; Hassi et al., 2021; Nawaz et al., 2021; Putnam, 2000). Thus, this study proposes the following hypothesis.

H3.

Religion has positive and significant effect on cognitive social capital

3.4. The relationship between structural social capital and cognitive social capital

The primary determinant of social interaction is social structure. Network connections make the interaction among organization members and employees easier and faster, which encourages the growth of cognitive social capital (Junaidi et al., 2020). It promotes and develops a shared language and vision, and it becomes the precursor of cognitive social capital dimensions (Claridge, 2018; Lefebvre et al., 2016). This is an example of cognitive social capital and is based on the idea that social connection is crucial for organization existence to have a common set of objectives and values. Furthermore, social connection also improving employees’ social connectivity (a sense of belonging and relatedness) and their community’s beliefs, codes, languages, and visions (Lefebvre et al., 2016). This is one of the most crucial aspects of identifying a shared objective and value among users and enables them to exchange experience (Tsai & Ghoshal, 1998). It has strong correlation to structural social capital dimension to develop work environment and organization. Therefore, this study suggests the following:

H4.

Structural social capital has a significant and positive effect on cognitive social capital.

3.5. The relationship between structural social capital and relational social capital

The most crucial factor influencing the type and caliber of social connections and interaction are structural social capital dimension (Allameh, 2018; Ganguly et al., 2019; Junaidi et al., 2020). Positive impact from interaction is followed by interpersonal affection, reciprocity norms that are widely held, and finally the emergence of interpersonal partnerships among employees (Huang et al., 2021). As an alternative, it has been asserted that regular social engagement makes users feel more connected and therefore fosters the development of relationships. Additionally, it encourages resource exchange within the group so that employees are more inclined to return favors or other forms of social support during interactions (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998). Employees after an organization merger can more readily acquire more information and assess their skills and behavior thanks to frequent communication and interaction. Structured social capital affects employees’ relational social capital (e.g., trust) through encourages information sharing activity. Hence, it fosters more reciprocal connections. Cognitive social capital dimensions share vision, language and value may promote harmony of interests and discourage opportunistic behavior among employees. It benefits society to create intellectual capital through rules, obligations, and trust (Muliadi et al., 2022; Mäkikangas et al., 2016). Therefore, this study suggests the following:

H5.

Structural social capital has a significant and positive effect on relational social capital.

H6.

Cognitive social capital has a significant and positive effect on relational social capital.

3.6. The relationship between structural social capital and employees’ performance

Employees look for and gather information from their interaction to obtain knowledge and enhance skills, which facilitates by social capital (van Dijk et al., 2016; Yen et al., 2020). This is closely related to the organizational goal of encouraging teamwork among employees in workplace (van den Heuvel et al., 2020). The social interaction pertaining to the configuration and pattern of connections between employees as well as the process of creating and forming social ties, which is the favorable propensity of connections through structural social capital (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998; Tsai & Ghoshal, 1998). Structural social capital has a significant impact on how willing employee are to participate in developing their skills and knowledge during an interaction process.

Employee performance frequently takes place in collaborative settings, which are supported by frequent of communication and interaction. Employees connect frequently, which helps them set mutually beneficial goals and facilitates the reciprocal sharing of information and knowledge (Junaidi et al., 2020; Tayal et al., 2022). Collaboration, which enables employees to improve their performance, take part in community activities, and build relationships, is greatly facilitated by structural social capital (Sorenson & Milbrandt, 2022; Tsai & Ghoshal, 1998). Social communication and interaction improve the connections between social capital and employee performance is the sharing of information and expertise (Haniffa et al., 2022; Huang et al., 2021). Therefore, this study suggests the following:

H7:

Structural social capital has significant and positive effects on employees’ performance.

3.7. The relationship between cognitive social capital and employees’ performance

An explanation of job mechanisms using the dimensions of structures, contents, and relations is provided by social capital (Coleman, 1988; Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998). Employee engagement in the workplace is influenced to some extent by the members’ shared language and vision (Junaidi et al., 2020). Furthermore, it fosters employees’ collaboration and performance for interpersonal connections idea and vision (Berraies et al., 2020. Therefore, the use of a shared language motivates participants to become more proactive in information and knowledge sharing, which subsequently enhances employees’ performance. It also encourages employees’ performance and eventually benefit organization (Gui et al., 2022; Islam et al., 2020) through social capital (Gheitani et al., 2019; Haniffa et al., 2022). It facilitates the establishment of common goals and appropriate ways of communicating within a social system in community and organization (Deng et al., 2022; Dhar & Bose, 2022). Hence, cognitive social capital emphasizes the employees’ knowledge and skill. Thus, this study proposes the following hypothesis:

H8.

Cognitive social capital has significant and positive effects on employees’ performance.

3.8. The relationship between relational social capital and employees’ performance

Employees exchange information and knowledge for a variety of reasons, including the normative conditions of anticipation, identity, obligation, and trust. Its relational social capital dimensions, which also influence employees’ propensity to share information (Afzali et al., 2022; Junaidi et al., 2020). It serves as a crucial trade mechanism (Putnam, 2000). As a result, relational social capital influences how employees share information and knowledge, which also improves their performance (Allameh, 2018; Ben-Hador, 2019). To stay up to date on the newest concepts and technologies, they take part in employee communities. The level of trustworthy, beneficial, and relevant knowledge is essential for an employee’s community and performance (Deller et al., 2018; Ganguly et al., 2019). Relational social capital pushes employees to seek out information to gain understanding of the organization and workplace in the context of the workplace (Huang et al., 2021; Nawaz et al., 2021). When they interact with others for information exchange, employees gather information, the trustworthiness among employees is increased. Hence, sense of duty to the community, as well as out of self-interest among employees emerged (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998; Shah et al., 2020; Tayal et al., 2022; Tsai & Ghoshal, 1998). As a result, the study suggests the following theory.

H9.

Relational social capital has significant and positive effects on employees’ performance.

3.9. The relationship between religiosity and employees’ performance

This study also considers the mediating role of cognitive, structural and relational social capital when examining the relationship between religiosity and employees’ performance (See Figure 1). Understanding the effect of this mediating role improves the quality of inferences, facilitates knowledge acquisition, and offers a substantial contribution to this study (Gheitani et al., 2019). Preliminary studies discovered the role of religiosity on influencing employees’ attitude and behavior in some regions (Haniffa et al., 2022). It expands the worth of studies on the Islamic banking organization and enhances an extensive contribution (Hassi et al., 2021). Accordingly, the following hypotheses were proposed.

Figure 1. Proposed research model.

H10

Religiosity has a positive effect on employees’ performance, which is mediated by structural social capital.

H11

Religiosity has a positive effect on employees’ performance, which is mediated by cognitive social capital.

H12

Religiosity has a positive effect on employees’ performance, which is mediated by relational social capital.

4. Methodology

4.1. Sample and data collection

The participants in this study are Indonesia’s Islamic bank employees as a result of three Islamic bank mergers, namely Bank Syariah Mandiri (BSM), BNI Syariah, and BRI Syariah because of the companies is just merger hence need to evaluate economic and social impact among employees and company. This process of collecting data was carried out using Google Forms which lasted from September 1 to 30 November 2021. The samples were gathered through purposeful sampling. 675 records were collected. However, 610 samples were valid. This indicates a completion rate of 90.37 %. The demographic characteristics of the respondent are shown in Table 1. This study also applied common method variance (CMV) to reduce potential bias issues toward providing the questionnaire anonymously, and measurement items were randomly arranged (Podsakoff et al., 2003). The structural equation model (SEM) was additionally used to evaluate the assumptions. The main benefit of employing SEM is that factor and regression analysis may be used to analyze the model individually. Additionally, it is used concurrently to compute all of the path coefficients (Hair et al., 2021). Using the Hayes (2018) bootstrapping method, the direct and indirect effects of the mediators’ variables were looked at in this study.

Table 1. Respondent demographics

Demographic Items	Frequency	Percentage (%)
Gender
Male	337	55.2
Female	273	44.8
Age
Under 30 years old	129	21.1
31 ~ 45 years old	223	36.6
Over 45 years old	258	42.3
Education
Bachelor and below	369	60.5
Master and PhD	241	39.5
Time period as employee
Below 10 years	179	29.3
11 ~ 25 years	233	38.2
Over 25 years	198	32.5

4.2. Measures

The items used to measure each of the constructs are presented in the Table 2. A seven-point Likert scale was used for all scale items. A measurement tool for employees’ religiosity, comprising of seven instruments, including the employees’ statement regarding their activities in Mosque, has the opportunity to make friends, gain knowledge and relationships, follow Islamic law as their main guideline for life and the aims of prayer were adapted from Junaidi (2022). Structural social capital refers to communication, social interaction, and relationships among employees. The extent to which resources provide a common understanding among users is referred to as cognitive social capital. Property embedded in interpersonal relationships, such as reciprocity, respect, and trust, is referred to as relational social capital. This construct was adapted from Junaidi et al. (2020) and van Dijk et al. (2016). Employees’ statements that trust plays an important role in their performance and learning something new in the workplace, sharing information and knowledge with colleagues, and being informed of what they know. It refers to employees’ achievement and work targets, integrity, and group collaboration refers to Hendri (2019).

Table 2. Measurement results

Variables Item Scales	Factor Loadings	α	CR	AVE
Religiosity (Junaidi, 2022)		0.876	0.925	0.636
RL1: My religious beliefs are what really lie behind my whole approach to life	0.762
RL2: My religious beliefs influence many aspects of my life	0.804
RL3: I try hard to carry my religion over into all other dealings in life	0.812
RL4: It is important for me to spend periods of time in private religious thoughts, reading, or meditation	0.801
RL5: My religious beliefs are very important to me	0.795
RL6: My religious faith sometimes restricts my actions	0.806
Structural Social Capital (van Dijk et al., 2016)		0.901	0.908	0.665
SS1: I often interact with employees from the other office	0.741
SS2: I know some colleagues from the other office on a personal level	0.788
SS3: I spend a lot of time interacting with some colleagues from the other office.	0.825
SS4: I maintain close working relationships with some colleagues from the other office	0.878
SS5: When working on a project, I often work together with the same colleagues from the other office during that project	0.839
Cognitive Social Capital (van Dijk et al., 2016)		0.915	0.912	0.598
CS1: If I got something new, I tell my colleagues about it.	0.730
CS2: I share information I have with my colleagues.	0.769
CS3: I think it is important that my colleagues know what I am doing.	0.818
CS4: I regularly tell my colleagues what I am doing.	0.783
CS5: When I need certain knowledge, I ask my colleagues about it.	0.778
CS6: I like to be informed of what my colleagues know.	0.753
CS7: I ask my colleagues about their abilities when I need to learn something.	0.779
Relational Social Capital (van Dijk et al., 2016)		0.898	0.921	0.565
RC1: I can trust my colleagues from the other office completely.	0.736
RC2: My colleagues will always keep the promises they make to their colleagues.	0.747
RC3: I wish I could oversee the work of my colleagues.	0.763
RC4: My colleagues behave in a consistent manner. RC5: I know that my colleagues will help me, so it’s only fair to help them. RC6: I believe that my colleagues would help me if I needed it. RC7: I believe that my colleagues and I share an open perspective towards new knowledge or information	0.727 0.739 0.778 0.785 0.734
Employees’ Performance (Hendri, 2019)		0.918	0.925	0.639
EP1: I obtain achievement of work targets.	0.746
EP2: I do with integrity and honesty in work place.	0.808
EP3: I got spirit of achievement in work place.	0.780
EP4: I am satisfied with my office system.	0.825
EP5: I am satisfied with the promotional opportunities.	0.817
EP6:	0.815
EP7: I am satisfied with the promotional opportunities.	0.800

Note: Fit statistics (N = 610)

χ²/df = 3.745, Goodness-of-Fit Index (GFI) = 0.918, Nonnormed fit index (NFI) = 0.915, Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.955, Incremental fit index (IFI) = 0.955, and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.054

5. Results

5.1. Participant Demographic

Table 1 provides information on the details of the socio-demographic participant’s profile. The total number of male respondents was greater than females, with 55.2% of men and 44.8% of women. In addition, the most significant number of participants were over 45 years old (42.3%), followed by those under 31–45 years old (36.6%), who held bachelor’s degrees (60.5%). Furthermore, the majority of the participants have worked in Indonesia’s Islamic bank for 11–25 years (38.2%), followed by over 25 years (32.5%) and the lowest, below ten years (29.3%). This study also used Harman’s single-factor test to propose post-detection procedures for the common latent factor (CLF). Thus, nonresponse bias should not be a concern. We also applied a critical selection technique, part of the purposive sampling strategy in the absence of a complete list of Indonesia’s Islamic bank employees. Critical sampling arises when a researcher uses the sample to confirm specific criteria. Furthermore, the recent study applied a two-step approach including confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) to validate casualties among variables and research hypotheses as recommended by Hair et al. (2021).

5.2. Measurement model

This study conducted the measurement model by adopting the AMOS software with maximum likelihood estimation. Table 2 shows the CFA model reproduces the covariance matrix of the observed variables with an adequate fit (Hair et al., 2021): χ²/df = 3.745, goodness-of-fit index (GFI) = 0.918, nonnormed fit index (NFI) = 0.915, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.955, incremental fit index (IFI) = 0.955, and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.054, composite reliabilities (CR) and average of variance extracted (AVE) for each construct are above 0.900 and 0.500. In addition, each item’s factor loading and square multiple correlations were larger than 0.7 and 0.1 as well as the Cronbach’s α for all constructs were larger than 0.8, indicating good reliability for all measurement items (Table 3), constructs, and convergent validity (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988).

Table 3. Correlation matrix for measurement scales

Constructs	Mean	SD	RL	SC	CC	RC	EP
RL	4.95	1.02	0.785
SC	5.40	0.99	0.578**	0.815
CC	5.20	1.01	0.635**	0.703**	0.773
RC	5.22	1.03	0.692**	0.732**	0.782**	0.751
EP	5.17	1.07	0.662**	0.751**	0.828**	0.770**	0.799

Note: RL: Religiosity, SC: Structural Social capital, CC: Cognitive social capital, RC: Relational social capital, EP: Employees’ performance

SD: standard Deviation

Diagonal elements are the square roots of the AVE for each construct

Pearson correlations are shown below the diagonal

Significant at *: p < 0.05, **: p < 0.01, ***: p < 0.001

5.3. Structural model

The model fit of the data was adequate χ²/df = 3.892, GFI = 0.908, NFI = 0.899, CFI = 0.935, IFI = 0.935, and RMSEA = 0.065. The results support all the research hypotheses as shown in Table 4. This study empirically validates that religiosity has a significant and positive effect on employees’ structural social capital (γ₁₁ = 0.595, p < 0.001), relational social capital (γ₂₁ = 0.282, p < 0.001), and cognitive social capital (γ₃₁ = 0.407, p < 0.001), supporting H1, H2 and H3. Furthermore, structural social capital also has a positive effect on relational social capital (β₂₁ = 0.244, p < 0.001) and cognitive social capital (β₃₁ = 0.496, p < 0.001), H4 and H5 are supported. Furthermore, cognitive social capital has a positive effect on relational social capital (β₂₃ = 0.470, p < 0.001) supporting H6. In organization context, structural social capital plays an important role in enhancing employees’ performance (β₄₁ = 0.193, p < 0.001). Similarly, relational social capital (β₄₂ = 0.164, p < 0.001) and cognitive social capital (β₄₃ = 0.624, p < 0.001) have positive and significant effects on employees’ performance. Hence, H7 and H8 are supported. Figure 2 shows the structural model of this research.

Figure 2. Structural model.

Notes: Model fit: χ²/df = 3.892, GFI = 0.908, NFI = 0.899, CFI = 0.935, IFI = 0.935, and RMSEA = 0.065.

Table 4. Proposed model results

Hypotheses	Symbol	Path			Coefficients	Test results
H1	γ11	Religiosity	➔	Structural Social capital	0.595***	Supported
H2	γ21	Religiosity	➔	Relational Social capital	0.282***	Supported
H3	γ31	Religiosity	➔	Cognitive Social capital	0.407***	Supported
H4	β21	Structural Social capital	➔	Relational Social capital	0.244***	Supported
H5	β31	Structural Social capital	➔	Cognitive Social capital	0.496***	Supported
H6	β23	Cognitive Social capital	➔	Relational Social capital	0.470***	Supported
H7	β41	Structural Social capital	➔	Employees’ Performance	0.193***	Supported
H8	β42	Relational Social capital	➔	Employees’ Performance	0.164**	Supported
H9	β43	Cognitive Social capital	➔	Employees’ Performance	0.624***	Supported

Note: Significant at *: p < 0.05, **: p < 0. 01, ***: p < 0.001

5.4. Mediating effect

The bootstrapping method was tested using a variety of mediating effects in this study. Bootstrapping is a nonparametric statistical procedure in which the dataset is repeatedly sampled and indirect effects are calculated using such a nonparametric statistical procedure (Hayes, 2018). The regression results indicate that all mediating effects are partial mediators (See Table 5). Hence, H10, H11, and H12 are supported.

Table 5. Mediation effects

IV	M	DV	IV->DV (c)	IV->M (a)	IV+M->DV		Bootstrapping 95% CI
					IV (c’)	M(b)	Percentile method	Bias-corrected
RL	SC	RC	0.410***	0.562***	0.292***	0.520***	[0.353, 0.467]	[0.647, 0.759]
Standard Error			0.029	0.030	0.035	0.030
RL	SC	CC	0.340***	0.562***	0.290***	0.516	[0.280, 0.401]	[0.572, 0.689]
Standard Error			0.030	0.030	0.040	0.031
RL	CC	RC	0.333***	0.630***	0.370***	0.586***	[0.276, 0.390]	[0.647, 0.759]
Standard Error			0.029	0.30	0.030	0.029
RL	SC	EP	0.360***	0.562***	0.336***	0.598***	[0.301, 0.419]	[0.636, 0.756]
Standard Error			0.029	0.030	0.042	0.030
RL	RC	EP	0.260***	0.703***	0.436***	0.620***	[0.192, 0.328]	[0.636, 0.756]
Standard Error			0.035	0.029	0.046	0.034
RL	CC	EP	0.240***	0.630***	0.455***	0.721***	[0.186, 0.296]	[0.636, 0.756]
Standard Error			0.028	0.029	0.042	0.028

Note: RL: Religiosity, SC: Structural social capital, RC: Relational social capital, CC: Cognitive social capital, EP: Employees’ performance

Significant at *: p < 0.05, **: p < 0.01, ***: p < 0.001

6. Discussion

6.1. Key findings

The results of this study confirm that religiosity significantly and positively influences social capital (e.g., structural, cognitive, and relational), which has a significant and positive effect on employees’ performance. These are innovative findings that, to the authors’ knowledge, have not been revealed by prior studies. It means that employees’ beliefs are influenced all of their lives by their religion. The employees’ belief process through frequent attendance at religious activities, hence the participants revealed that religious belief plays an important role in all aspects of their daily activities. This result is in line with other scholars who revealed that religion has a crucial role in influencing people’s attitudes and behaviors (Deller et al., 2018; Gheitani et al., 2019; Junaidi, 2022). Furthermore, the social communication and interaction among employees with each other during religious activities also influence employees’ social capital, including respect for their colleagues within and outside of their workplace post-merger as a team work. Furthermore, religion also has a positive and significant effect on employees’ cognitive social capital dimensions, including share of information and knowledge. All of these activities directly enhance their trust in other employees, which subsequently provides a solution if needed.

This study also confirms that structural social capital has significant and positive effects on both cognitive and relational social capital (Junaidi et al., 2020; Lefebvre et al., 2016). Both structural social capital and cognitive social capital are mediators between religiosity and relational social capital as well as employees’ performance in an organization context. Specifically, the findings show that Indonesian Islamic bank employees’ trust is high when they have higher levels of communication and interaction as well as shared language, reciprocity, respect, and vision over their activities. It also corroborates that social capital provides an effective two-way communication platform among employees. Moreover, the findings confirm the research hypotheses that religiosity and social capital can explain the motives of employees toward fulfilling their needs for knowledge and skills (Haniffa et al., 2022; Islam et al., 2020; Nawaz et al., 2021), which subsequently influence an employee’s performance.

7. Conclusion

Employees’ interchange of knowledge and information toward interaction for their various personal and organizational demands are directly and significantly impacted by religion and social capital. The findings of this study supported by Chetioui et al. (2023), Deller et al. (2018) and Junaidi (2022) who concluded religion has positive and significant effect on social capital. Furthermore, the recent study also in line with Ben-Hador (2019), Berraies et al. (2020), Haniffa et al. (2022), Gheitani et al. (2019), and Junaidi et al. (2020), which investigated the relationship between social capital and employees’ performance in an organizational and human resource management context. As mediator variables, this study also confirmed that religion has positive effect on employees’ performance in mediation by social capital (Fry et al., 2011; Gheitani et al., 2019; Hassi et al., 2021; Nawaz et al., 2021). These factors also contribute to the formation and maintenance of organizational relationships through trust, shared interests, language and vision, reciprocity, sense of communion, and sociability, all of which subsequently influence employees’ skills and knowledge. Employees’ personal and social motivation can be used to predict employees’ and organizations’ goals, as a medium for the exchange of information and knowledge, and as a means to make an organization’s dream a reality. The results of this study also indicate that the primary motivators of religion and social capital theory in this context are the exchange of information and knowledge, which also have a strong correlation to employees’ performance.

7.1. Academic implications

The findings contribute to the literature on religion, social capital theory, knowledge management in organizations, and employees’ communication and interaction. First, this study proposes and tests a model that illustrates the formation of religion and social capital for Indonesian Islamic bank employees’ performance. It provides an appropriate theoretical background. The study of employees’ performance after a merger is a trendy issue, specifically in the banking context (Clausen et al., 2019; Deller et al., 2018; Islam et al., 2020; Mäkikangas et al., 2016). Past studies have seldom established a model that simultaneously explains the antecedents of employees’ attitudes and behaviors, which have a correlation to their performance. On the other hand, this study extends social capital theory to explain Indonesian Islamic bank behavior in communication and interaction and provides theoretical contributions to the literature on human resource management in two ways. Firstly, the findings of this research demonstrate the effects of employees’ religiosity level on three dimensions of social capital, namely structural, cognitive, and relational dimensions, which subsequently influence employees’ commitment and performance. Secondly, this research demonstrates that social capital theory can explain the mediating effects of structural, cognitive, and relational social capital and bridge the relationship between religiosity and employees’ performance. It provides a theoretical ground for future research.

7.2. Practical implications

Social capital is an effective media by which employees can exchange information and express their skills and knowledge in order to develop social communication and interaction through trust, share value, language, norms, and reciprocity. Organizations and firms must be aware and endeavor to identify objective and rational characteristics to increase employees’ willingness to discuss topics regarding trust, social capital, exchange information, organization goals and performance, as well as invite everyone to participate in the interaction activities that include a great deal of employee control with and between employees, and timely response to their questions. In addition, employees’ interaction content and processes to foster long-term relationships, create value propositions, and use and create innovative products and services to maintain the organization’s sustainability. This will provide and enhance employees’ social capital and performance as well as enhance their connections. Our research provided practical implications for human resource management. Furthermore, organization leaders or practitioners should focus on the major dimensions of religion and social capital to maximize their employees’ communication and interaction in the workplace. They should investigate what prompts employees to create interesting posts or to discuss business and competitive advantage issues in order that reliable information and knowledge are provided to employees. In addition, organization leaders should pay particular attention to their reference groups, most especially the active employee communities in order to broaden their employees’ knowledge and skills.

7.3. Limitations and future research directions

There are some limitations to this research. Firstly, this study was conducted to examine Indonesian Islamic bank employees. A comprehensive study and extended approach could help researchers observe employees’ communication and interaction under dynamic conditions in order to elaborate on the content and impact of employees’ interaction based on religion, social capital, and business perspective. Secondly, it only considered the religion and social capital factors on information and knowledge exchange, which also have a correlation to employees’ performance. Thirdly, this study looked at the relationships between religion dimensions and three dimensions of social capital (e.g., structural, cognitive, and relational) from a beneficial perspective in organizations post-merger. Future research should also investigate internal factors (i.e., institution authority, economic cost, and information security) and external factors (i.e., operation ability, inter-organization relationships, and organizational comparability) from an organization perspective.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research has not received funding

Notes on contributors

Dyan Fauziah Suryadi

Dyan Fauziah Suryadi is a student in doctoral program in the faculty of economics and business Hasanuddin University. She also a lecturer at Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Ekonomi YPUP Makassar. Her research is in the areas of employee behavior, human resource management, public and private sector employees, Islamic banking. This paper was co-authored by Mahlia Muis an associate professor at faculty of economics and business Hasanuddin University. Her research focuses on human resource management, individual performance in the industrial sector and Islamic banking. M Idrus Taba an associate professor at faculty of economics and business Hasanuddin University. His research focuses on organizational behavior, human resource management, and social science. Wardhani Hakim is a senior lecturer at faculty of economics and business Hasanuddin University. Her research focuses on human resources performance, employee behaviour, and human resource competence.