The Effect of Internal Communication on Employee Performance in Informal Education Institutions: The Role of Organizational Commitment as a Mediation Variable

Human resources have a strategic role, especially for informal educational institutions in Indonesia. However, research on how to improve employee performance in informal educational institutions is still limited. This study aims to examine the effect of internal communication on employee performance in informal educational institutions by considering organizational commitment as a mediating variable. This study uses a survey method to collect data relevant to the research objectives. The sample involved was 116 employees from 14 informal educational institutions located in Kampung Inggris, Pare, Indonesia. The results showed that internal communication had a positive impact on employee performance and organizational commitment. It is also found that organizational commitment has a positive impact on employee performance. In addition, organizational commitment significantly mediates the relationship between internal communication and employee performance. This finding implies that informal educational institutions need to build an effective internal communication system as a medium to foster organizational commitment and employee performance.

(2016), organizational commitment indicates a strong desire of individuals to become members of a group, a high willingness of effort for the organization, a high willingness of effort for the organization. According to Allen and Meyer (1990), organizational commitment can be divided into three, namely affective commitment, continuous commitment, and normative commitment. Affective commitment refers to emotional attachment, identification and involvement in an organization. In this case the individual stays in an organization because of his own will. Continuous commitment is related to individual commitment which is based on consideration of what to sacrifice when leaving the organization. In this case the individual decides to stay in an organization because he considers it a fulfillment of needs. Meanwhile, normative commitment is an individual's belief about responsibility towards the organization. Individuals remain in an organization because they feel obliged to be loyal to the organization.
According to Yeh (2012), organizational commitment is a belief that connects feelings of organizational values and goals with individual values and goals. Organizational commitment represents the level of affection, loyalty, and employee concentration on job roles in an organization. Organizational commitment shows that individual goals are the same or identical to organizational goals and can stimulate employee productivity and loyalty. If members in an organization believe in and accept the organization's values, they are more willing to work hard to achieve organizational goals and have more organizational commitment. High organizational commitment will be beneficial for an organization because it indicates that employees have high organizational identification.
Organizational commitment is a strong desire to remain as a member of a particular organization, a desire to strive in accordance with the wishes of the organization, as well as certain beliefs and acceptance of organizational values and goals. In other words, organizational commitment is an attitude that reflects employee loyalty to the organization. Organizational commitment can also be viewed as a continuous process in which organizational members express their concern for the organization and the success and progress of the organization in a sustainable manner (Mathieu and Zajac, 1990).
Furthermore, Spanuth and Wald (2017) explain that employees who are highly committed will work better than employees who are less committed. According to Yeh (2012), there are at least five factors that can be used to measure employee organizational commitment, namely a strong intention to maintain membership in the organization, acceptance of the organization's main goals and values, positive evaluation in the organization, intention to work towards organizational goals, and willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organization.
Referring to Allen and Meyer (1990), organizational commitment can be classified into three dimensions, namely desire (affective commitment), need (continuous commitment), and obligation (normative commitment) to maintain in the organization. Organizational commitment can be a beneficial factor for employee behavior and work results and a reduction in turnover rates for individuals in an organization.
There are several researchers who have examined the relationship between organizational commitment and employee performance. For example, Yeh (2012) examined the effect of organizational commitment on leadership style and employee performance in Taiwanese companies operating in China. His research found that organizational commitment has a positive effect on employee performance. Based on the above discussion, this study formulates a hypothesis that organizational commitment has an influence on employee performance.

Research design
This study aims to investigate the effect of internal communication on employee performance at English language course institutions in English-Indonesian villages: the role of organizational commitment as a mediating variable. In this study, internal communication acts as an independent variable, employee performance acts as the dependent variable, and organizational commitment acts as a mediator variable. This study uses a questionnaire as a tool to collect data relevant to the variables studied. The questionnaires were distributed directly to employees of randomly selected English course institutions in English villages. The sample involved in this study were 116 employees. This research took place from September to December 2019. The study used structural equation modeling to analyze the data collected.

Variable measurement
This study uses a questionnaire as a research instrument to collect data. The questionnaire consists of four parts: a section on the characteristics of the respondents, the internal communication system within the organization, organizational commitment, and the respondents' perceptions of employee performance. There are three main variables examined in this study, namely internal communication, organizational commitment, and employee performance. Referring to Fletcher (1999), this study uses eight items to measure internal communication variables. Following Allen and Meyer (1990), this study used 24 items to measure organizational commitment variables. Referring to Storey (2004), this study uses ten items to measure employee performance variables. All European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1905(Paper) ISSN 2222-2839(Online) Vol.12, No.32, 2020 31 items were measured using a five-point Likert scale: ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).

Research model and hypotheses
This study aims to investigate the effect of internal communication on employee performance at English language course institutions in English-Indonesian villages: the role of organizational commitment as a mediating variable. The conceptual framework of this research is shown in Figure 1. In this study, internal communication acts as an independent variable, employee performance acts as the dependent variable, and organizational commitment acts as a mediator variable. Based on this conceptual framework, this study proposes a working hypothesis as follows. Hypothesis 1: The internal communication is positively associated with the organizational commitment Hypothesis 2: The internal communication is positively associated with the employee performance Hypothesis 3: The organizational commitment is positively associated with the employee performance Hypothesis 4: The organizational commitment mediates the relationship between internal communication and the employee performance

Overview of the respondents
The results showed that the age of most respondents was between 30-39 years old (46 percent). This shows that most of the employees at formal educational institutions in Kampung Inggris are still young or of productive age. From the educational aspect, the largest number of respondents were from the group of respondents with a bachelor's degree (67 percent). This illustrates that most of the employees at formal educational institutions in Kampung Inggris are educated individuals. Furthermore, most of the employees have worked for employees with a service period of more than 5 -10 years (41 percent). This shows that most of the employees at formal educational institutions in Kampung Inggris already have sufficient experience working in educational institutions.

Validity and reliability test
This study conducted validity and reliability tests to ensure that the instruments used in the study were valid or able to measure the measured variables appropriately. This study used Corrected item-total correlation (CITC) in testing the validity of the research instrument. In this case, an item will be declared valid if the item has a CITC indicators are derived from the 24 items proposed by Allen and Meyer (1990). Based on the survey results, this study found that the item of the organizational commitment variable that has the highest average value is the item of the employee's desire to continue to be part of the organization for a long time (4.4 points). Meanwhile, the item of the organizational commitment variable that has the lowest average value is the item of employee expectations to benefit from the organization if they remain as employees (3.2 points). For employee performance variables, this study uses 10 items to measure employee performance variables. These items are derived from items proposed by Storey (2004) to measure employee performance variables. Based on the survey results, this study found that the employee performance variable item that had the highest average value was the employee's item that was able to complete the assigned task in accordance with predetermined standard procedures (4.6 points). Meanwhile, the employee performance variable item that has the lowest average value is the employee's compliance item in wearing work uniforms in their daily work place (3.5 points).

Hypothesis testing
The first hypothesis of this study is about the relationship between internal communication and employee performance at informal educational institutions in Kampung Inggris, Pare, Indonesia. This study hypothesizes that internal communication has a positive effect on improving employee performance. In this case, Structural Equation Modeling is used to test the first hypothesis. The results of the analysis as shown in Figure 3 show that internal communication has a significant positive effect on improving employee performance (β = 0.182; p <0.05). The results of this analysis support the first hypothesis.
The second hypothesis of this study is about the relationship between internal communication and organizational commitment to informal educational institutions in Kampung Inggris, Pare, Indonesia. This study hypothesizes that internal communication has a positive effect on organizational commitment. In this case, Structural Equation Modeling is used to test the second hypothesis. The results of the analysis as shown in Figure 3 show that internal communication has a significant positive effect on organizational commitment (β = 0.441; p <0.01). The results of this analysis support the second hypothesis.
The third hypothesis of this study is about the relationship between organizational commitment and employee performance in informal educational institutions in Kampung Inggris, Pare, Indonesia. This study hypothesizes that organizational commitment has a positive effect on improving employee performance. In this case, Structural Equation Modeling is used to test the third hypothesis. The analysis results as shown in Figure 3 show that organizational commitment has a significant positive effect on improving employee performance (β = 0.483; p <0.01). The results of this analysis support the third hypothesis.
The fourth hypothesis of this study is about the role of the variable organizational commitment in the relationship between internal communication and employee performance and employee performance at informal educational institutions in Kampung Inggris, Pare, Indonesia. Referring to Kenny and Baron's (1986) research, this study conducted two model analyzes, namely a model without including organizational commitment as an intermediary variable and a model that includes organizational commitment as an intermediate variable. The first model only includes variables of internal communication and employee performance. This model is intended to test the direct effect of internal communication (Figure 2). Figure 2 shows that internal communication positively and significantly affects employee performance (β = 0.376; p <0.01). The second model includes the three variables studied, namely internal communication, organizational commitment, and employee performance. The second model is intended to examine the indirect effect of internal communication on employee performance, namely the effect of internal communication on employee performance through organizational commitment (Figure 3). Figure 3 shows that internal communication has a positive and significant effect on employee performance (β = 0.182; p <0.05). In this case, the effect of internal communication on employee performance in the second model ( Figure 3) is lower than the effect of internal communication on employee performance in the first model ( Figure 2). These findings indicate that organizational commitment mediates the relationship between internal communication and employee performance. The results of this analysis support the fourth hypothesis.

Figure 2
The direct effect of internal communication on employee performance