International Journal of Research in Business Studies and Management Volume 3, Issue 7, July 2016, 28-36 ISSN 2394-5923 (Print) & ISSN 2394-5931 (Online) *Address for correspondence: azrain@uum.edu.my International Journal of Research in Business Studies and Management V3 ● I7 July 2016 28 Knowledge Management and Job Performance in the Public Sector: The Moderating Role of Organizational Commitment Azrain Nasyrah Mustapa¹, Rosli Mahmood² ¹School of Business Management, College of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Malaysia ²School of Business Management, College of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Malaysia ABSTRACT A number of factors have been suggested to explain how individual job performance of an organizational can be improved. To date, some factors have been considered such as person job fit, organizational structure, job characteristics, work involvement and other. Despite these studies, however, few have considered to attempt the influence of knowledge management on job performance. However, the results of those studies are significant and non-significant. Therefore, a moderating variable is proposed. Present study suggested organizational commitment as potential moderating variable on the knowledge management and individual job performance. The data were collected using a survey among 682 respondents from officers of Management and Professional Group (MPG) with grade 41-54 from Malaysian Local Governments. The data were analyzed using Smart PLS and the results showed that the second-order construct knowledge management has a significant effect on job performance. In contrast, no significant effect has been determined of organizational commitment as a moderating variable between knowledge management and job performance. The future implications and conclusion are discussed. Keywords: Job Performance, Knowledge Management, Organizational Commitment, Local Government. INTRODUCTION Local government (LG) has played an important role in providing public services to the communities. They deal at the public level directly and their performances are important towards providing positive public perception of the overall government structure (Mohamed Osman, Jusoh, Bachok & Bakri, 2014). In general, “traditional role of local government authorities (LGs) is to provide services to its local residents with the aim of raising the standard of living through better social and physical facilities and services” (Onu, 1988). As stated, “Malaysian LGs play a significant role in planning, coordinating and controlling the development process at the local level” (Othman, 2005). As for Malaysian LGs, they would face more wide-ranging and dynamic demands from publics to improve forefront services. The public rates efficient service delivery as an absolute main concern, so it is crucial for councils to present the best services they able to do. A smart and knowledgeable public might not simply view forefront employee as front liners, but they would also regard as rubbish collectors, enforcement officers, grass cutters and other LGAs employees as the front-line workers. Since government’s performance is significantly influenced by their employees’ job performance, the issue relating to the job performance of local government turns down with the question of how do local government authority officers perform their own jobs/tasks. Hence, employee performance standards were designed by the government to measure the performance of the organizations; job performance becomes the most crucial focus of administrators and academics (Salleh, Yaakub & Dzulkifli, 2011). Additionally, the issues of weakness of the LGs performance have been arising many times by interested and affected parties (Hamdan & Norudin, 2010). Thus, the study intends to investigate to what extend the current condition of LGs job performance. It is required in light to some features of greater understanding for local government job performance identified by certain factors, for instance knowledge management and public service motivation.