This study establishes a model by drawing from key postulates and findings under information asymmetry to explain the formation of organization commitment and job self-efficacy. In the proposed model, organizational commitment and job self-efficacy are influenced indirectly by social support, knowledge creation, and information intensity via the mediation of decision-making quality and perceived opportunism. Knowledge creation is influenced directly by both social support and information intensity. Empirical testing of this model, by investigating personnel from firms in one of Taiwan's well-known industrial zones, confirms the applicability of information asymmetry in understanding employees’ organizational commitment and job self-efficacy. The test results indicate that all the model paths except one (linking perceived opportunism and job self-efficacy) are significant. Finally, the research provides managerial implications and limitations.
The issue of organizational commitment continues to receive attention from both practitioners and researchers in organizational behavior research (e.g., Avolio et al., 2004, Sturges et al., 2005 and van Knippenberg and Sleebos, 2006). Organizational commitment is seen as individuals’ attachment to or identification with their organization (Bartlett, 2002). Nevertheless, organizational commitment can be also considered an emotional response to a positive appraisal of the work environment (Testa, 2001). Such an emotional response may be viewed as an attachment, especially when the individuals believe strongly in the values and goals of an organization or display a strong desire to maintain their membership in the organization.
In addition to organizational commitment, efficacy beliefs are another important issue in organizational behavior research. Self-efficacy perceptions, concerning self-regulatory behaviors, affect the goals people set, the strategies people choose, the effort people extend, and the perseverance people show (Bandura, 1991). Job self-efficacy of business organizational members is defined as employees’ judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of organizational performance (Mosley, Boyar, Carson, & Pearson, 2008). Job self-efficacy is as important as organizational commitment, because they are both critical to great performance (e.g., Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994). For example, previous research indicates that job self-efficacy is a cognitive self-appraisal of the ability to perform well in individuals’ job, and thus the job self-efficacy positively relates to psychological and physical health and job performance at the end of workers’ work terms (Lubbers, Loughlin, & Zweig, 2005).
