Abstract
This study examined the hypothesis that self-initiated job improvement is determined by two work attitudes, i.e., affective organizational commitment and orientation to career development, in addition to five work environments, i.e., leader's empowerment, controlling leadership, organizational empowerment, support for career development, and performance-based appraisal. A structural model was developed on the basis of this hypothesis and tested by covariance structure analysis using data obtained from 372 employees of five companies. The results indicate that self-initiated job improvement is positively correlated with orientation to career development, and leader's empowerment, and negatively correlated with performance-based appraisal. Organizational empowerment and affective organizational commitment were found to have indirect effects on self-initiated job improvement through orientation to career development. Validity and issues of the study were also discussed.
