Perceived organizational support (POS), involving employees' perception that the organization values their contributions and cares about their well‐being, has been found to be the work experience most strongly linked to their emotional bond to the organization (affective organizational commitment, or AC). We suggest that employees' perception concerning the organization's ability to achieve its goals and objectives (perceived organizational competence, or POC) may enhance this relationship by more effectively fulfilling socio‐emotional needs. We conducted three studies with employees in the United States and South Korea to assess the interactive relationship between POS and POC and their distinctive antecedents. Our hierarchical linear modeling and ordinary least squared regression results showed that POC strengthened the relationship between POS and AC and that this association carried over to extra‐role performance. Further, leader initiating structure contributed more to POC than to POS, whereas leader consideration contributed more to POS than to POC. These findings suggest POC plays an important role in moderating the relationship between POS and AC. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.