Can Belief in One’s Abilities Drive Organizational Loyalty? An Empirical Investigation of Occupational Self-Efficacy as an Antecedent of Organizational Commitment

Organizational commitment is a long-established construct that has been extensively discussed in the industrial and organizational psychology literature, the present study aims to investigate whether occupational self-efficacy (OSE) is a valid antecedent of organizational commitment (OC). The study sample consisted of 300 employees who work in IT sector. Data analysis was conducted using tools like independent t-test, one-way Anova, person correlation analysis and hierarchical multiple regression on SPSS. Results revealed significant gender differences on OSE, t (298) = –3.254**, p = 0.001, with women (M = 79.60, SD = 8.32) reporting higher OSE compared to men (M = 75.95, SD = 10.50). Similarly, significant gender differences were observed for OC, t (298) = –2.203*, p = 0.02, with women (M = 30.56, SD = 4.71) scoring higher than men (M = 29.35, SD = 4.66). There were significant mean differences found between other work-related variables too in OSE and OC, which are furnished in the results section in detail. Correlation analysis indicated a moderately strong positive association between OSE and OC (r = 0.508***, p < 0.001), suggesting that as occupational self-efficacy increases, organizational commitment also tends to increase. Regression analysis (Model 1) showed that OSE significantly predicted OC, accounting for 25.8% of the variance, F (1,298) = 103.59***, p < 0.001. These findings underscore the role of occupational self-efficacy as a meaningful antecedent of organizational commitment and provide implications for organizational practices aimed at enhancing employee efficacy and commitment.