The purpose of this study is to add new insights into the mechanism through which job satisfaction relates to job performance. Affective commitment was tested as a potential mediator between job satisfaction and job performance, and traditionality was used as a potential moderator between job satisfaction and affective commitment. A survey study was conducted on 292 employees from seven companies in China. The study findings suggest that affective commitment serves as one of the mechanisms through which job satisfaction influences job performance. Job satisfaction can strengthen people's identification with, involvement in, and emotional attachment to their organization which in turn can foster better performance. The second major finding of this study is that cultural values influence how well people translate job satisfaction into affective commitment. People who are culturally more traditional tend to transfer their satisfaction with their job into stronger commitment than people lower in cultural traditionality. HRD implications are drawn. (Contains 1 figure and 4 tables.)