THE IMPACT OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE: THE CASE OF UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND APPLIED SCIENCES-IBRA IN OMAN

Organizational culture is one of the most important factors affecting the performance of employees in various organizations. A system of values and beliefs adopted by members of the organization affects their performance either positively or negatively. This study aims to investigate the factors of organizational culture (decision-making, organizational environment & reward and recognition system) on employee job performance at UTAS-Ibra in Oman, also the study will examine the effect of the organizational culture on employee job performance at UTAS-Ibra. The method used in this study to collect data is a survey questionnaire. For the purpose of this study, 114 completed questionnaires using stratified sampling method from all academic departments and Educational Technology Center at UTAS-Ibra received and analyzed through SPSS program and smart PLS-SEM. Moreover, the study used secondary data from previous studies in different books and journals as additional sources of data. The results indicate that decision-making and the organizational environment factors of organizational culture have a positive relationship with performance. While, reward and recognition system had a negative impact on employee performance. Based on the results of the study, the study recommending that officials in UTAS-Ibra and the university should strengthen the reward and recognition system so that an integrated system is designed to make employees work in a stimulating environment for work, which results in increasing their performance.


Introduction
Organizational culture plays a key role in raising employee job performance.Increasing employee job performance entails the implementation of culture that meet the requirements of the employees.Nearly 80% of organizations fall down because of poor performance due to organizational culture (Ugheoke, 2019).Consequently, leaders of organizations must shape a suitable culture for their organizations to reach the opted objectives.Accordingly, scholars will continue research on culture.Although, many research concerning culture are there most of these studies focused on private sectors and very few have been conducted on public sector and HEIs especially in Oman (Nier, 2009).Diamantidis and Chatzoglou (2019) investigated factors that affect the behavior of employees in an organization, including: organization value, organization climate, leadership style, employee motivation, compensation, employee recognition, job security, flexible time system., etc..These factors affect the employee's performance in a positive way, as the employee's performance increases whenever these factors are in the favor of negatively.You can know the organization's culture in action, for example when you see how the manager deals with crisis and how the team adapts.
Organizational culture effects all aspects of organization.If the organization's culture aligns with employees, they will be more comfortable and valuable.If the organization's culture does not align with employees that will affect them badly and feel Confused and decrease their performance.Following are the factors of organizational culture of this study: Decision Making Decision making is regarded as the cognitive process where it results in the selection best alternative among various possible alternatives possibilities every decision-making process comes up with a final decision or final choice.It aids in problem-solving.

Organizational environment
Organization environment is a component of features that describe the organization and make it unique from other organizations.These features influence the behavior of the employees and their motives.The nature of the environment can determine by the way of behaving the organization activities.

Reward and recognition system
Reward system is an attractive and stimulating attribute that encourages good behavior.It is also the behavior or act that makes us work hard and performs highly to get it.Reward system is used for different reasons; the important reason is the effort and performance.Where the employee's effort and performance contribute to increasing because of it.

Employee Performance
Employee performance defines as the measurement of quality and efficiency of work of your employees and how the employees complete the required tasks and duties.Its important concept where it hugely influences the success and failure of an organization/company.

Related Literature
Organizational culture has been regarded as one of the most important influences on employee performance as was mentioned in (AlShehhi et al., 2021).Diamantidis and Chatzoglou (2019).Scholars have studied the relationship between the two.organizational culture and performance, as evidenced by various research as shown in Table 2.1 which shows previous work related to the research topic.Taking for example recent research, which was conducted in Indonesia there were 103 IT developers who responded to the survey.who were carried out using the convenience sampling method quantitative method)?Employee motivation and job satisfaction have a favorable and significant impact on employee performance, according to the findings.(Riyanto, Endri & Herlisha 2021).
Similar to Abdullahi, Raman, and Solarin (2021) in Malaysia Educational Sector.A quantitative method was used for their research; the sample size of their study was 557 employees.Organizational culture has a considerable and favorable impact on employee performance, according to the findings.
Lately, AlShehhi et al. ( 2021) conducted a study about the effect of organizational culture on the performance of UAE organizations.In this study quantitative method was used.the sample size was 131 employees.Organizational culture and performance have a beneficial association, according to the research.
Moreover, Fidyah and Setiawati (2020) in Indonesia examined the relationship between organizational culture and employee job performance.Results revealed that employee engagement had a favorable impact on employee performance and that there was a positive association between employee engagement and performance.Job satisfaction, on the other hand, has a favorable impact on EP.They say that there's an indirect effect of (OC on EP through JS) is greater than the direct effect of (OC on EP).
Slimier to this study, in Indonesia it was concluded that organizational culture has a huge influence on employee performance, by providing them with the right job satisfaction, and also, employee performance is influenced by the leadership style.(Ratnasari, Sutjahjo & Adam 2020).
In addition to that, Mohsen, Neyazi, and Ebtekar (2020) conducted a study in Afghanistan and it was found that the organization culture influences employee performance as a whole, it was mentioned that providing the right coordinated team, Customer Orientation, Culture Strength, and Achieving Goals will positively influence the employee performance, however, Managing Change is also important but it has a low influence on employee performance.Diamantidis and Chatzoglou (2019) in Greece by using a quantitative method, a survey was conducted for measurement improvement and data collection the sample size was 79 managers and 392 employees.The research concluded by saying that intrinsic motivation and adaptability have a direct effect on job performance while the management support and job environment have both (direct and indirect) effects on job performance.
Furthermore, Nwakoby, Okoye, and Anugwu ( 2019) conducted research aim to determine whether or not bureaucratic culture has a significant impact on deposit money bank workers' performance and whether or not innovative culture has a significant impact on deposit money bank employees' performance.In the study, a quantitative research method was used and a survey of 94 research participants was conducted to collect data.The research concludes by saying that innovation culture has an enormous influence on employee performance.
Contrary to the previous study a study conducted by Sapta, MUAFI and SETINI (2021) during the covid-19 pandemic by using quantitative method.Sapta and his group found that all of the factors (technology, organization culture, job satisfaction) have a favorable effect on staff motivation It implies that a satisfied employee is a motivated worker, and that of course will impact positively on EP.However, in this research, the OC does not influence the EP.So the bank in this case pays attention to other factors better than OC to strengthen the work performance.
Finally, In Indonesia, empirical research of Islamic banks was conducted.A survey method was employed to gather roughly 600 respondents from staff of numerous Islamic banks in Indonesia using a quantitative method.This research demonstrates that organizational culture has a favorable impact on Islamic banks' performance, both directly and indirectly, via organizational commitment and work satisfaction.(Sopiah et al., 2021).
In the fields of accounting, business administration and human resources, there has been a great deal of curiosity in and study of the connection between corporate culture and worker productivity ( Alabdullah, 2023;Ahmad et al., 2023;Alabdullah, 2019;Alabdullah et al., 2023;Alabdullah et al., 2021;Almashhadani, 2020;Al-Hashimy et al., 2022;Almashhadani et al., 2021;Alfadhel and Alabdullah, 2016;2013).Corporate governance, an essential component of a company's framework, is key in establishing and preserving the culture of the company (Falah et al., 2020;Alabdullah and Hussein, 2023;AL-Fakhri and Alabdullah, 2021;Abushammala et al., 2015;Alabdullah, 2016;Ahmed et al., 2017;Al-Aamri et al., 2021).The complex relationship between organizational culture and worker efficiency is explored in this paragraph, which also explains how corporate governance affects the development and maintenance of a culture that encourages worker productivity, inspiration, and overall success.
Workers actions and achievements can be significantly influenced by organizational culture, which is frequently defined as the common principles, opinions, and standards that serve as an example for those who work for an organization.Performance among staff members is greatly influenced by an organization's strong cultural environment, which supports the mission and vision of the company.In contrast, corporate governance International Journal of Accounting, Management, Economics and Social Sciences.IJAMESC, PT.ZillZell Media Prima, 2023.249 refers to the set of laws, customs, and procedures that regulate and control a corporation.It serves as the framework for decision-making and promotes openness, responsibility, and moral conduct (Ahmed et al., 2017;Alabdullah et al., 2022;Almashhadani et al., 2020).Corporate governance, in light of the company's culture, acts as the cornerstone on which a healthy culture is created.Setting the tone for the company and influencing the actions of its staff serves as successful governance systems that promote moral behavior along with accountable leadership (Alsarmi and Ahemed, 2022).
A culture of honesty and confidence is fostered when governance systems place a high priority on disclosure and diversity.This makes workers feel appreciated and empowered.Employees are therefore more likely to match their own aspirations with organizational goals, increasing their dedication as well as their dedication for their jobs.Furthermore, corporate governance can affect how power is allocated and how decisions are made inside an organization (Alabdullah et al., 2016).
Employees are empowered to have a sense of ownership and accountability for their duties in an environment that encourages employee participation in making decisions and is supported by accessible governance practices.This joint decision-making approach fosters a culture of sharing and working together among workers in addition to improving the overall quality of decisions.Workers are more likely to put their full attention into their work when they feel that their efforts are valued, which enhances job happiness and job performance.
In addition, the values and fundamentals that direct a company's activities are frequently stated in corporate governance structures.Workers are more likely to internalize and use these guidelines in their daily work when they are included into the organizational culture.Employees can be strongly motivated to respect these principles in their interactions with coworkers, clients, and customers by working in an environment that promotes moral behavior, honesty, and justice and is supported by sound governance processes (Ahmed et al., 2020;Alamshhadani and Almashhadani, 2022;Alsulmani et al., 2021;Alabdullah, 2016;Alabdullah et al, 2014).
On the other hand, poor corporate governance can cause a positive organizational culture to degrade.Employee disenchantment and disengagement can be bred by instances of unethical behavior or decision-making that goes against the organization's professed ideals.Due to a lack of connection to the company's objective and a lack of motivation to work hard, this can lead to a toxic work environment.
The efficacy and efficiency of corporate governance are closely related to the effect of company culture on worker performance.Employee dedication, motivation, and productivity can all be fostered by an organization with a powerful, positive culture that is supported by inclusive, ethical, and transparent governance processes.On the other hand, poor governance or a mismatch between organizational culture and governance principles can result in mediocre employee performance and impede an organization's success as a whole.For an organization to develop a high-performing workforce and ensure its long-term viability, it is essential to recognize and support the link between company culture and corporate governance (Alabdullah et al., 2014;Alabdullah 2013;Ahmed et al., 2023).

Study Framework
Figure 2.1 displays the current study's conceptual framework, which consists of independent variables (organizational culture, decision making, organizational environment, and reward and recognition system).The figure shows also the dependent variable which is employee performance.

Methods
Researchers used the quantitative method because through the use of the questionnaire, measurement of the variables is very easily and it allows researchers to determine the measurement results accurately, as well as the use of the quantitative method to collect data reduces the time and effort spent.If a group of people are selected for research in statistics from the population, then a statistical sample is taken from that group.By definition, a population is a distinct group of people, whether it's a nation or an entire group of people with a common characteristic.A population is therefore any group of people who share a common feature.
Based on the data offered, there exist five departments in UTAS-Ibra that are administered by managers who responsible for each department.This study focuses on the academic employees of UTAS-Ibra from engineering, business, information technology, and educational technology center.The employees of this university play a 251 crucial role in providing teaching and learning to the students as well as supply the industry with graduates who adequate their requirements.
University employees are the primary respondents to this study who will evaluate their performance, factors that influence their performance such as decision-making, organizational environment, and reward system.Respondents from the UTAS-Ibra will be asked to complete questionnaires.This group will represent all academic departments and ETC of UTAS.The number of the academic employees in the university is 295 employees.We will take out of every hundred employees 38 employees as a sample.The sample size will be approximately 115 employees.
The SPSS program (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) is used for data management, as this study uses quantitative methods (questionnaires), and the SPSS program is useful to allow the researcher to perform statistical analysis, case selection, file conversion, compilation export data and data documentation.In addition, the study uses intelligent PLS-SEM (Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling) to analyze the structural model

Results and Discussion
Respondents Rate Stratified Sampling was used as a sampling method to collect data for people.In this sample, participants are chosen based on their groups which will help to equally distributed among them.According to data gathered the sample size of academic departments employees are 38% which equals 115 employees that are expected to respond.
Table 2 A comprehensive literature review was conducted to investigate the determinants of this study.As a result, three important independent variables that influence employee performance were identified.As stated in the literature review many research wrote about different kinds of independent variables but they give less focus the on the three factors that used in the current research that's why in this research researchers decided to focus on those factors.The second part served as the dependent variable which have a direct relation with all the factors.The last question in the questionnaire is an open question it includes all the types of answers from the employees that are generally related to the research.

Descriptive Statistics-Variables
Descriptive statistics were generated for all study variables, both dependent and independent.It is critical to be familiar with the frequency of a phenomenon when conducting organizational research.It's also crucial to compute the mean or average score of a group of data and describe the set's variability, or the central tendency and dispersion of the independent and dependent variables.An examination of descriptive statistics was carried out (mean values, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis).The skewness of the items of the variables ranges from (-3 to +3), and the Kurtosis ranges from (-10 to + 10) in Table 4.9 indicating that the data is regularly distributed.
Based on the descriptive information that was obtained, the dependent variable, which is the Employee Job Performance (EP), represents a mean (EP) of 4.6 with a standard International Journal of Accounting, Management, Economics and Social Sciences.IJAMESC, PT.ZillZell Media Prima, 2023.253 deviation of 0.65.The results also showed that the decision making represents a mean of 3.96 with a standard deviation of .930.Moreover, the organizational environment represents a mean of 4.242 with a standard deviation .716.Reward and recognition represent a mean of 3.66 and standard deviation of 0.97.Over all the results of the descriptive statistics are normally distributed.

Discriminant Validity
Certain requirements are applied for testing the special validity in PLS.Every AVE's square-root for each construct must be substantially connected with the other construct.To cope with discriminant validity, Fornell & Larcker (1981) suggest comparing the square root of each construct in its AVE to the constructions' correlations for all other constructs.
Table 5 The structural model was evaluated after analyzing the measurement model and passing all criteria.The coefficient of determination (R²) is checked from the structural model figure 4.9.In this work, the variable that is the internal supply has an R² value of 0.482 (DM), (OE), (RR) (large) indicating that the contrast in employee performance (EP) that can be elucidated by the predictors: variables were used in this Research (decision making, organizational environment, and reward and recognition) to measure the effect of organizational culture on employee performance mate the standard.
Table 6.Explanation of the Variance R Square EP 0.482

Reliability
Table 7. shows the independent variables factor, which are (decision making, organizational environment, and reward and recognition).The overall Cronbach's Alpha is 0.833 which is greater than 0.7 so the variable and items are reliable.
The items of organizational environment are reliable and the reliability of the variable is 0.868.So, it is reliable.Recognition and reward system is independent variable the researchers used it to see if this variable influence the performance of employee.When researchers conduct questionnaire, they found these results the reliability statistics of this variable is 0.906, which considered as excellent.Therefore, we can conclude that all independent variables are reliable.
The dependent variable of this study is Employee performance, researchers chose this variable to examine the effects of different independent variables that have been selected for this study.After analyze the questionnaire, researchers found that the reliability of this variable is 0.955.The Cronbach Alpha coefficient is 0.955.Overall, all the research variables of this study are reliable.Appendix 3 is showing the factor analyses of the variables.
Table 7 8. illustrates the results related to the supported hypothesis test.The results of regression co-efficient shown that there is a significant relationship between decision making and employee performance similar to that there is also a significant relationship between organizational environment and employee performance (Co-efficient Estimated > 0.001).However, opposite to that result shows there is insignificant relationship between recognition and reward system and employee performance.It means that decision making and organizational environment have major influence on performance of employee in UTAS-Ibra.On the other hand, employees are not satisfied with the reward system.

Discussion
The result of the survey showed that there is a significant relationship between decision-making and employee performance this rustle goes well with the prediction of the hypotheses so it is right to say that the employee of UTAS-Ibra they believe that maintaining decision-making is an important factor for better performance.Similar to decision-making, organizational environment has a significant relationship with employee performance it is also, goes along with the hypothesis's prediction.In additional to that, this information also was supported in the related literature according to Mohsen, Neyazi, and Ebtekar (2020), Nwakoby, Okoye, and Anugwu (2019), they have mention how organizational environment factors have an enormous influence on employee performance.It is understood that the employees in UTAS-Ibra have the same thought in this point of view.

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Moving to the factor of reward and recognition, "What is the effect of reward and recognition system on employee job performance at UTAS-Ibra?" the findings of the survey reveal that there is insignificant relationship between reward and recognition system and employee performance, which goes the opposite of the hypotheses.However, this result is in line with Sapta, Muafi and Setini (2021) in the related literature, they have mention that it is not necessary the OC factors influences EP.The result concluded that reward and recognition system should be re-manage properly and take it into consideration and try to improve it, in the recommendation part this point will be discuss widely.The fourth question was what is the effect of the organizational culture on employee job performance at UTAS-Ibra?Results of the study show that Organizational culture plays a key role in raising employee job performance the R2 Of employee, job performance is 48% approximately, which means that Organizational culture has a significant effect on employee performance as was discussed in the literature (AlShehhi et al. ( 2021), Abdullahi, Raman and Solarin (2021), Ratnasari, Sutjahjo and Adam (2020), Fidyah and Setiawati, 2020).

Study Implications
This research provided a new contribution to the literature regarding the performance of UTAS-Ibra staff in higher education in Oman with three organizational culture factors (decision making, organizational environment, and reward and recognition).
This study has enriched the literature on employee job performance by integrating several antecedents of employee performance into one holistic research model.The study reviled that there was a positive relationship between OC and DM as well as OC and OE, the current study showed an indirect effect of RR on performance.The literature has shown that employees' job performance can be predicted by decision-making, organizational environment, and reward and recognition.No research has been published to date on organizational culture and employee job performance in UTAS-Ibra.Therefore, the researcher has focused on this aspect in this study.
From a practical perspective, this research provides meaningful implications to UTAS-Ibra to boost employee job performance; UTAS-Ibra needs a positive organizational culture for better performance.In this study, the main factor affecting organizational performance is employee job performance.The results suggest that managers have a responsibility to improve employee performance.Therefore, it recommends that to promote a positive organizational culture among employees, UTAS-Ibra leaders must emphasize the factors that produce positive employee performance.These factors are indicators that can show the effectiveness of the UTAS-Ibra organizational culture.

Recommendation
Even though the current study has yielded some intriguing results and made significant contributions to the understanding of organizational culture and performance in UTAS-Ibra.In relevant to the main findings and conclusion of this study, the following recommendations are forwarded for better improvement of the organization's culture and employee performance: First, the level of knowledge of the effect or how the organization culture affects employee's performance where the researchers find that there are direct relationships between the organization culture factor (organization environment and decision-making) on employees' performance.Organizations should be aware of that because this will affect International Journal of Accounting, Management, Economics and Social Sciences.IJAMESC, PT.ZillZell Media Prima, 2023.

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employees' performance where it's an important to factor in the success of the organization and organization's progress.
Second, organizations must focus on all organizational factors that affect an employee's performance and try hard to provide the best work environment that supports the different employee's culture, to prevent any problems.Also, should monitor the employee's performance periodically and understand the cusses of low performance.The study recommends that UTAS-Ibra pay more attention to the reward and recognition of employees thus, focusing on this point, UTAS-Ibra may retain a high % of its employees.
Nevertheless, caring about employees' performance effect positively the organization and will lead to huge success.The researchers recommended an organization take into consideration the organizational culture where it will reflect on its progress, improvement, and staying at a high level.
Moreover, return the employee of the month award.UTAS-Ibra staff used to have an employee of the month award, every month they used to choose from each department the best employees of the month and list their names and pictures in a post or on the website of the University as an appreciation.The staff themselves in the questionnaire (survey) recommended this suggestion as they mention that they felt it makes them more motivated to continue their best performance.However, the employee of the year award is still applicable but they recommended expanding it in terms of the number of the employees rather than taking only two employees from each department.
Finally, Future research should address some of the study's limitations to shed more light on the dynamic interplay between independent and dependent variables that shapes effective performance.The model of this study was able to explain 48% of the total variance of the organizational culture factors, which means other variables could significantly explain the variance in the job performance of UTAS-Ibra staff.Therefore, the remaining percentage could be explained by other factors.

Conclusion
The problem description, research questions and objectives, and the study's scope were all included in this study's background information.The impact of organizational culture on employee performance at UTAS-Ibra was explored in this study.The study addressed the most important topics about the research methodology, design, and data analysis methods.The presented quantitative data.The quantitative data's overall findings are compatible with prior academics' theoretical and empirical studies.Based on the data, the study concludes and makes recommendations for future research.The findings have consequences for company culture and employee work performance, according to the study.
Finally, it was discovered that organizational culture had a direct impact on employee performance.like decision-making and organizational environment, except for reward and recognition.Apart from that, organizational culture factors act as a predictor of employee job performance.As a result, three of the four hypotheses proposed in the current study were supported, whereas one hypothesis concerning reward and recognition was not.UTAS-Ibra should adopt a positive organizational culture to bridge the gap between organizational culture and employee performance.by doing that Employees will accomplish their tasks more effectively, which will improve not only their performance but also their potential to improve the performance of others.

Table 1 .
Previous work related to the research topic e-ISSN 2986-8645 International Journal of Accounting, Management, Economics and Social Sciences.IJAMESC, PT.ZillZell Media Prima, 2023.e-ISSN 2986-8645 International Journal of Accounting, Management, Economics and Social Sciences.IJAMESC, PT.ZillZell Media Prima, 2023.

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The percentage of each department

Table 3 .
International Journal of Accounting, Management, Economics and Social Sciences.IJAMESC, PT.ZillZell Media Prima, 2023.The Survey Questionnaire utilized in the Research 252

Table 4 .
Descriptive Statistics of Variables