“The impact of emotional intelligence, employee empowerment and cultural intelligence on commercial bank employees’ job satisfaction”

This paper aims to examine the impact of emotional intelligence (EQ), employee em- powerment (EE), and cultural intelligence (CQ) on commercial bank employees’ job satisfaction in Bangladesh. For this purpose, a survey questionnaire was developed based on pre-tested constructs. The study used a convenience sampling technique, supplemented by a non-probability sampling method. 200 bank employees were in- vited to participate in the survey; finally, 130 responses were received as fully complete, with a 65% response rate. Hence, the sample size is n = 130. Cronbach’s alpha value was used to determine the internal consistency of the study constructs. SPSS version 26.0 was used to analyze the correlation test and hypotheses test. The findings show that emotional intelligence (EQ) with a beta (β) value of 0.510 has a statistical and positive effect on bank employees’ job satisfaction. Also, employee empowerment (EE) with a beta value of (β) 0.418 and cultural intelligence (CQ) with a beta (β) of 0.372 were found to be significant predictors of job satisfaction. This indicates that bank managers should utilize EQ and CQ to increase bank employee satisfaction and focus on employee engagement at the workplace. According to the study, if bank employees become more emotionally stable and culturally intelligent at their workplace, they will be more satisfied with their current jobs. Besides, if bank employees are given more op- portunities to carry out their job responsibilities, they will be more satisfied with their jobs. The paper outlines several significant implications for commercial bank manag- ers and offers some notable directions for future research. organizational goals 2020). Simultaneously, job satisfaction has become a prerequisite for business organizations to accelerate sustain-able organizational performance and business growth. In recent times, employees are the essential resources to tackle any business challenges in the competitive market environment The success of a business organization is essentially driven by employee job satisfaction, and an increase in job satisfaction leads to a higher level of customer satisfaction. Thus, the banking sector has to retain their business growth through providing better services to the customers, and it will be possible when bank employees become satisfied at their workplace. Satisfied employees are expected to foster organizational sustainability in a rapidly changing environment, and employees’ job

The impact of emotional intelligence, employee empowerment and cultural intelligence on commercial bank employees' job satisfaction

INTRODUCTION
Employees are regarded as the most valuable asset of an organization, and their services are treated as a vital indicator to attain organizational goals (Shuvro et al., 2020). Simultaneously, job satisfaction has become a prerequisite for business organizations to accelerate sustainable organizational performance and business growth. In recent times, employees are the essential resources to tackle any business challenges in the competitive market environment (Stefurak et al., 2020). The success of a business organization is essentially driven by employee job satisfaction, and an increase in job satisfaction leads to a higher level of customer satisfaction. Thus, the banking sector has to retain their business growth through providing better services to the customers, and it will be possible when bank employees become satisfied at their workplace. Satisfied employees are expected to foster organizational sustainability in a rapidly changing environment, and employees' job productivity and performance depend on job satisfaction (Culibrk et al., 2018). Satisfied employees will enthusiastically contribute to organizational objectives and performance. Job satisfaction increases employees' job involvement, organizational commitment, and affects business performance and growth. Also, satisfied employees are indispensable for attaining the strategic goals of the business organization. Therefore, the overall success of a banking institution depends on satisfied employees, and employees' job satisfaction has become one of the significant concerns to the banks for their survival and growth (Ali & Anwar, 2021).
Bangladesh is now considered a newly developing country in the Asian context (Tu et al., 2021). The banking sector of Bangladesh has now been flourishing and passing through a development stage, where many local and foreign banking intuitions are actively engaged in this sector. The competition in the banking sector has increased over the years as new banks are being approved to enter the financial market of Bangladesh. It is also assumed that competition between public and commercial banks will be intensive in the future (Shuvro et al., 2020). In this competitive environment, it is very challenging for a bank institution to survive in the long run. To survive and grow, banks pay more attention to meeting up the satisfaction of their bank customers. Hence, to compete in the financial market, bank institutions essentially need to develop their customer-oriented marketing strategies and emphasize fulfilling customers' needs and demands. If the bank employees remain satisfied and energetic about their job life, generally, they strive to offer better customer services that will lead to a higher level of customer satisfaction (Sobaih & Hasanein, 2020). Similarly, the success of a business organization has been reliant on satisfied employees. Hence, it is critically important for bank managers to keep tracking the satisfaction level of their employees so that they can produce a higher level of performance (Girdwichai & Sriviboon, 2020). Without having satisfied employees, organizational growth and performance can be hindered in the long run. Henceforth, bank managers of Bangladeshi commercial banks should identify the determining factors of bank employees' job satisfaction. Henceforth, the study aims to explore the impact of emotional intelligence (EQ), employee empowerment (EE), and cultural intelligence (CQ) on job satisfaction of bank employees.

LITERATURE REVIEW
In the current literature, it is noted that there have been several studies on emotional intelligence (EQ) in various aspects. All of these studies especially highlighted the relationship of emotional intelligence (EQ) with employee performance (Sembiring et al., 2020), workplace behavior of bank employees in the Indian context (Makkar & Basu, 2017), academic achievement in higher education in Kuwait (Halimi et al., 2020), job fulfillment in the hospitality industry (Jung & Yoon, 2016). But the relationship between EI and employee job satisfaction in the banking sector has been merely explored. Again, some research studies have been conducted to measure the impact of employee empowerment (EE) on employee performance in the UAE (Bose, 2018), on job gratification in five-star hotels in Jordan (Al-Ababneh et al., 2017), on job contentment among the nursing staff in Pakistan (Shah et al., 2018), and on job performance of manufacturing workers in South Africa (Mukwakungu et al., 2018). But scarce studies were conducted to determine the impact of employee engagement on bank employees' job satisfaction in developing countries such as Bangladesh. On the other hand, several prior studies have investigated the effect of cultural intelligence (CQ) on employee burnout, engagement, job performance, and job fulfillment (Min et  To the best of the author's knowledge, limited research has been conducted by considering the influence of emotional intelligence (EQ), employee empowerment (EE), and cultural intelligence (CQ) on employee job satisfaction in the banking sector, which has led to a research gap in the existing literature. Therefore, taking the issues mentioned earlier into account, the current study fills the research gap. Therefore, this study examines the effect of emotional intelligence, employee empowerment, and cultural intelligence on bank employees' job satisfaction in Bangladesh.
Emotional intelligence (EQ) is an essential concept for organizational behavior; EQ can be defined as the self-perceived ability or skills to ascertain, assess and control the emotions of oneself, groups, and others (Setiawan, 2020). EQ is an ability that directly affects job satisfaction and job activity (D. Kim & B. Kim, 2021). EQ refers to the combination of skills and the ability to regulate and understand emotions properly. It helps to encourage a person to recognize, produce, express, understand, and evaluate others and themselves to escort the thoughts, emotions, and actions to incredulous environmental anxieties and compressions (Sembiring, et al., 2020). In a broader viewpoint, culture is another essential ingredient that is supposed to play a fundamental role in the emotional capability of employees (Alkahtani et al., 2021). Basically, it is the essential factor that acts as an initiative to accomplish a target, and actualize the organization's potential objective (Gopinath & Chitra, 2020). However, EQ is the most significant factor of employee job satisfaction that provides skills, knowledge, abilities, and capabilities to achieve organizational goals and objectives in a specified time (Arfara & Samanta, 2016). Nevertheless, EQ is derived from social intelligence where societal people are needed to make better judgments and decisions. It also helps to monitor peoples' own feelings and the feelings of others (Halimi et al., 2020). Therefore, every organization has its society that is a combination of different employees and employers where emotional intelligence determines their feelings. Empirical research indicates that emotional intelligence (EQ) has a significant and positive impact on job satisfaction (Orhan & Dincer, 2012). This investigation stated that the higher level of job satisfaction depends on high emotional recognition. Another study found that the higher emotional intelligence level conveys the higher job satisfaction level among employees (Praveen, 2015). Higher emotional intelligence will maintain a higher job satisfaction level in the workplace (Shooshtarian et al., 2013). Likewise, Greiner and Ennsfellner (2010) also conclude that emotional intelligence positively correlates with job satisfaction. Similarly, it is the key indicator that positively affects customer satisfaction and job satisfaction among employees in companies (Sarinnapakorn & Sucaromana, 2013), and emotional intelligence is linked with organizational behavior, job satisfaction, performance in the service sector, including in bank industries (Koc & Boz, 2020).
Employee empowerment (EE) refers to giving power, and it is one kind of intrinsic motivation of employees that supports mental satisfaction to work in the organization (Widodo et al., 2020). Essentially, it is considered inherent work motivation that directly impacts an employee's productivity at work (Hasan & Kashif, 2020). EE is defined as a predictor of work motivation where employees are granted authority and given responsibilities (Marta et al., 2021). Also, empowerment is defined as giving power where employees are given authority to make a decision, and it is one kind of motivational factor that influences an employee's behavior and his/ her job satisfaction in the organization (Francis & Alagas, 2020). Moreover, it is a process to give employees power, authority, obligation, liberty, and resources to solve problems and make profitable decisions (Selvi et al., 2020). EE also provides control to employees at every level, and it gives the authorization to allocate responsibilities, resources, power, and liberty (AlKahtani et al., 2021). Therefore, employee empowerment is the essential factor of organizational efficiency, accomplishment, and development (Baird et al., 2018). According to Dizgah et al. (2018), empowerment is an information-sharing atmosphere wherever all types of information, such as goals and objectives, employees' performance, reward-based, and performance, are widely shared, and also it gives the power to take decisions and direction. Nevertheless, EE is one kind of a management technique that helps to think of the workers as the work owner, and subordinates are re-empowered and become final decision-makers in the organization (Ulutas, 2018). Several studies have found that empowerment helps foster commitment and trust in an organization (Zaraket et al., 2018). Empowerment has a significant and positive effect on job satisfaction (Hanaysha & Tahir, 2016). Also, Sarwar and Khalid (2011) found that employee empowerment positively affects job satisfaction. Moreover, Ugboro and Obeng (2000) also informed that a lower degree of empowerment decreases the level of job satisfaction of employees in their workplace. However, when the employees get empowerment, they participate in decision-making, which increases job satisfaction among them (Widodo & Damayanti, 2020). Additionally, Sadati (2012) also reported a positive and significant association between empowerment and job satisfaction.
Cultural intelligence (CQ) can be delineated as the driving force behind effective work in culturally diverse conditions, and it is the critical determinant factor of job satisfaction (AlMazrouei & Zacca, 2020). CQ is the ability of an individual to establish positive working relationships from a cultural viewpoint. Besides, Earley and Ang (2003) stated that cultural intelligence is an individual's competence to function and manage work effectively in culturally different situations. CQ refers to the individual's capacity where one person can efficiently interact with others from different cultural contexts and cultural backgrounds (Brislin et al., 2006). Also, cultural intelligence is the strong ability to adjust and adapt oneself to one's environmental condition that helps to function effectively and efficiently in different cultural circumstances (Ang et al., 2007). It comprises four related dimensions: motivational, behavioral, cognitive, and metacognitive (Earley & Ang, 2003

AIM AND HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT
This paper aims to examine whether the three independent variables -EQ, EE, and CQ -affect bank employees' job satisfaction, as there has been very little research done to examine bank employees' job satisfaction, especially in the Bangladesh perspective. Based on previous research, the following hypotheses are advanced: H1: Emotional intelligence (EQ) has a significant impact on employee job satisfaction.
H2: Employee empowerment (EE) has a significant impact on employee job satisfaction.
H3: Cultural intelligence (CQ) has a significant impact on job satisfaction.
Based on the literature review and the developed hypotheses, the study proposes the following research model (see Figure 1).

METHODOLOGY
To justify the need for this study, a convenience sampling method has been used because the exact number of bank employees of Bangladesh is unknown. Therefore, the Bangladeshi bank employees were the targeted population of this study. Therefore, this study was quantitative and exploratory, and primary data have been used. The study developed an online survey questionnaire, and the questionnaires were adapted from previous studies. Using a Google form, the questionnaire was emailed to 200 bank employees in Bangladesh. The clarification of emotional intelligence, employee empowerment, and cultural intelligence was given in the survey questionnaire so that the respondents could easily understand. In return, 145 responses were received in response emails, and it was observed that out of 145 responses, 15 responses were removed for incompleteness. Hence, the final sample size of the study was n = 130. The survey questionnaire had two parts. The first part included demographic information of the respondents (such as gender, marital status, age (years), educational level, and experience (years). And the second part described the Likert-based questionnaire on study variables like emotional intelligence ("self-perceive ability or skills to control the emotions"), employee empowerment ("autonomy or power in work to create encourage among the employees"), and cultural intelligence ("individual's competence to function and manage effectively in culturally different situations").
To measure the reliability of the constructs, the Cronbach Alpha (α) value of 0.70 or more than 0.70 was considered as an acceptable value. The item-wise questionnaire was taken from the previously tested concept. Emotional intelligence (EQ) was adopted from Jung and Yoon (2016) and was examined by four items. The construct of EI was found reliable (α = 0.937). The Employee empowerment (EE) was adopted from Appelbaum et al. (2000) and Paré and Tremblay (2007) and was assessed by three items. The reliability score of the construct of EE was found reliable (α = 0.752). Cultural intelligence (CQ) was adopted from Gozzoli and Gazzaroli (2018) and was surveyed by six items. This variable was found reliable as the value of α is 0.759. Finally, Job satisfaction was adopted from Jung and Yoon (2016) and Vuong et al. (2021) and also measured by four items. In the five-point Likert scale dimension, point "1" stands for "Strongly Disagree" and point "5" stands for "Strongly Agree". This study has applied SPSS software (version 26.0) for data analysis. In this study, hypotheses are tested using SPSS, where the 5% significance level is considered to accept hypotheses.

Respondents' demographic statistics
The respondents of this study were bank employees (n = 130) who were working at several commercial banks in Bangladesh. Out of 200 online survey questionnaires, 130 bank employees fully completed the survey forms as respondents, and the study estimated 130 as the final sample size. Table  1 shows the basic information about the bank employees. In respect of demographic information, 53% were male bank employees, and 47% were female bank employees among respondents. 65% of the respondents' age was between 20-35 years, while 32% of the respondents were between 35- 45 years. Only 4 employees' age was found above 45 years of age (3%). In this study, there were no respondents who had age less than 20 years (see Table 1). Hence, it is lucid from Table 1 that the majority of the bank employees were in their mid-age career. Out of 130 respondents, 60% respondents were single, and 68% were married. Only 2% were divorced among the total 130 respondents. As per the working experience as bank employees, 42% of the respondents' working experience was less than five years as bank employees, while the working experience of 26% was between 5 to 10 years, and 29% was between 10 to 15 years. Only 4 respondent's working experience was found above 15 years (3%). In respect of educational background, about 22% of the respondents (n = 130) had a master's degree and 49% had a bachelor degree. Only 24% of the respondents have completed their study up to the HSC (higher secondary school certificate) level, and only 8 respondents (6%) were the SSC degree holders (see Table 1).

Hypotheses testing and regression analysis
From Table 2, it is found that the value of the Durbin-Watson test of this study is 1.257, which is considered as an acceptable value as it fell in the recommended value range from 1.5 to 2.5 (Durbin & Watson, 1950). Furthermore, in this study, the values of VIF (variance inflation factor) are found to fall under the down value of 5.00, and also tolerance values are fallen within the permissible range of 0.1 to 1.0 (Kutner et al., 2004); this essentially points out that no multi-collinearity problems were found in the given research model of this study.    Figure 2 also show the analysis of the regression coefficient results. The R 2 value of 0.830 indicates the research model explains 83 percent variance, which implies that three independent variables: emotional intelligence (EQ), employee empowerment (EE), and cultural intelligence (CQ), have explained about 83 percent variance in determining employee job satisfaction in the study context. Table 2 shows that EQ, EE, and CQ have been found a significant determinants of bank employee job satisfaction as all the hypotheses are accepted at the 5% significance level. Table 3 also indicates the summary of the hypotheses test.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS
This study measures the impact of emotional intelligence (EQ), employee empowerment (EE), and cultural intelligence (CQ) on job satisfaction of commercial bank employees in the Bangladeshi context. In this study, three hypotheses based on the research objective were developed, which were tested using regression analysis. The first hypothesis reports that emotional intelligence (EQ) has a significant impact on employee job satisfaction (H1), and the first hypothesis is accepted (β = 0.510, p < 0.05). From this study, it is assumed that emotional intelligence has a stronger influence on employee job satisfaction. This result correlates with the past research findings. Emotional intelligence has an impact on employee job and psychological satisfaction in the workplace (Naz & Liaquat, 2015). The second hypothesis of this study indicates that employee empowerment (EE) has a positive and significant impact on employee job satisfaction (H2), and the second hypothesis is accepted (β = 0.418, p < 0.05). The result is consistent with prior studies. Employee empowerment has a significant and positive effect on job satisfaction (Hanaysha & Tahir, 2016). The third, and final, hypothesis assumed that cultural intelligence (CQ) has a significant impact on employee job satisfaction in the banking sector (H3), and the hypothesis is accepted (β = 0.372, p < 0.05). This indicates that cultural intelligence (CQ) always helps increase job satisfaction among workers in their workplace. This finding aligns with the past literature. Employees are not fatigued when dealing with interactions and can experience a higher level of job satisfaction by addressing cultural intelligence.

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH
This study intends to examine job satisfaction of a commercial bank's employees and to fulfill the research aim. Emotional intelligence (EQ), employee empowerment (EE), and cultural intelligence (CQ) have been considered as the independent variables and significant predictors of job satisfaction. In the study, data were obtained from the current commercial bank employees in Bangladesh. The study proposed a research model, which was developed based on prior literatures, and the regression analysis was administered to test hypotheses. The regression result of this study indicates that emotional intelligence (EQ), employee empowerment (EE), and cultural intelligence (CQ) have a positive and significant impact on employee job satisfaction in a developing country context: Bangladesh. Therefore, bank managers should promote active employee engagement at the organizational level to enhance the level of job satisfaction of their bank employees so that they can remain pleased with their current responsibilities. Because employees will have a high contribution to the organization if they are satisfied with getting different facilities, they will stay in the organization, not move to another organization. The study adds value to the literature by examining the relationship of EQ, EE, and CQ with job satisfaction of commercial bank employees. The study finds that all three independent variables: emotional intelligence (EQ), employee empowerment (EE), and cultural intelligence (CQ), have been evidenced to be a significant predictor of job satisfaction. The study also found that EQ, EE, and CQ have explained 83 percent variance in job satisfaction, which provides solid knowledge and empirical findings in the current body of knowledge. In this study, it is proven that CQ has been a vital factor in helping employees to improve job satisfaction levels. Furthermore, a higher level of EQ also has been linked to a greater level of employee's job satisfaction.
The study has offered several future research directions for future researchers. First, the study has utilized a quantitative approach to test the research model by applying the regression method through SPSS software. So, future researchers might think of applying qualitative research tools to find new research findings that will enrich the body of literature. The study has measured the impact of three variables on job satisfaction. However, bank authorities should consider different policies and strategies to enhance employee job satisfaction by considering other variables such as work-life balance and mindfulness, refresher training, and career progressivism. To overcome the limits of generalization of the current findings, future studies should consider public banks to collect data from their current bank employees to measure their job satisfaction.