The Effects of Job Characteristics, Organizational Culture, and Work Ethics on Internal Communication and Employee Performance: Evidence from Southeast Maluku Regency and Tual City, Indonesia

Abstract

Purpose: This study examines the effects of job characteristics, organizational culture, and work ethics on employee performance, with internal communication serving as a mediating variable. The study is theoretically grounded in the premise that effective internal communication can translate organizational cultural values and ethical principles into productive work behaviors, thereby enhancing employee performance in public-sector organizations. Methods: An explanatory research design with a quantitative approach was employed in Tual City and Southeast Maluku Regency, Indonesia. The study population comprised 1,649 civil servants, from which 312 respondents were selected as the research sample. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine the direct and indirect relationships among job characteristics, organizational culture, work ethics, internal communication, and employee performance. Findings: The results indicate that organizational culture and work ethics have significant positive effects on both internal communication and employee performance, whereas job characteristics do not have a statistically significant effect. Internal communication plays a strategic mediating role in translating organizational cultural values and work ethics into productive work behaviors that contribute to improved employee performance. The model explains 79.1% of the variance in internal communication, as indicated by an R² value of 0.791, with the remaining 20.9% attributable to factors outside the model. For employee performance, the model yields an R² value of 0.697, indicating that 69.7% of its variance is explained by the three exogenous variables and internal communication, while the remaining 30.3% is attributable to other factors. Conclusions: The findings highlight the strategic role of internal communication in strengthening the effects of organizational culture and work ethics on employee performance in public-sector organizations. The non-significant effect of job characteristics further suggests that structural features of work alone may be insufficient to improve employee performance without supportive organizational values, ethical norms, and effective internal communication. Future research should extend the investigation to private-sector and non-bureaucratic organizations, conduct comparative studies across regions with different cultural characteristics, and integrate quantitative and qualitative approaches to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms underlying employee performance.