Determinants of Knowledge-Worker Performance and Mediating Role of Organizational Commitment in Public Sector

Background - Malaysian government has given a very high importance in developing the knowledge and skills among public service officers since human capital has been the key towards high performance achievement enshrined not only in 11th Malaysian Plan but also in the 12th Malaysian Plan. However, there are many issues on unsatisfactory performance in public sector which were flagged by numerous reports and complaints by Auditor General Report and Public Complaints Bureau such as poor performance management, irrelevant service delivery, poor information governance, lack of training in financial management and inadequate supervision. These may result in public dissatisfaction and loss of trust and confidence towards the public sector. Disappointed publics as a taxpayer with high expectations from the Malaysian government had further made the government to be criticized and pressurized by the public for better representativeness, accountability, approachability, and responsiveness compared to private entities. Therefore, Malaysian government should take serious measures in looking into these issues by establishing strong goals and strategies as a possible way to address these challenges. Hence, uplifting public performance is crucial in Malaysia because government agencies provide essential services to publics which are administered through public service officers; known as knowledge workers. In accordance with this, the study investigates the effect of knowledge productivity dimensions in the perspective of human and job-related factors towards knowledge-worker performance. In order to support the proposed model, Drucker’s Knowledge Productivity Theory is used as an underpinning theory and further backed by modified Job Design Theory. Purpose - The purpose of this study is to investigate antecedents of Knowledge Productivity namely knowledge-oriented leadership, knowledge sharing behaviour, job related autonomy, job crafting, job related innovation and continuous learning, and its effect on knowledge-workers performance. This is followed by examining the mediating impact of organizational commitment. Design/methodology/approach - The nature of this research is quantitative research and the statistical analysis will be conducted using Variance based Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). This crosssectional study uses probability sampling to obtain responses from public sector officers. Stratified random sampling and disproportionate random sampling is used to ensure that the population have sufficient representative based on the sampling frame given by Public Service Department. This study investigates the relationship between knowledge productivity dimensions and knowledge-workers performance from Federal Ministries mediates by organizational commitment. The research is a deductive approach since the conclusion is obtained based on development and testing of hypothesis. Hence the research paradigm is positivism. In order to better understand knowledge-worker performance in public sector, individual opinion will be obtained from public service officers through self-administered questionnaires. Findings/Expected Contributions - The results obtained from this study will benefit the academia in providing new body of knowledge in the field of knowledge productivity and its relationship with knowledge-worker performance and organizational commitment. Suggestions from this research may provide an insight to government to strategize the right initiative to improve knowledge-worker performance which may enhance the deliverables of the public sector as a whole; besides building up the trust and confidence in public sector. Originality/value - This research also offers a new perspective on incorporating human-related factors and job-related factors into a single model as well as its relationship between the variables with organizational commitment and knowledge worker performance. Role of knowledge-oriented leadership, knowledge sharing, job crafting and the mediating role of organizational commitment is proposed into Drucker’s Knowledge-Worker’s Productivity Theory