工作设计的新视角:员工的工作重塑

工作重塑是从员工角度进行的自下而上的工作再设计方式,突破了从组织角度进行的自上而下的方式,强调员工改变的主动性.工作重塑存在多种类型,如任务重塑、关系重塑和认知重塑,以及个人工作重塑和合作工作重塑等.工作重塑与主动性人格、生涯取向、自主性、人-环境不匹配等因素之间存在密切联系,并对工作满意度、工作意义感、工作投入、工作绩效和组织承诺等具有积极预测作用.未来研究要加强工作重塑的纵向研究,深入探讨工作重塑的影响机制,开展其消极后果的研究,同时国内研究还要考虑到传统文化和集体主义文化对工作重塑的影响.     

自下而上提升组织绩效的主动尝试：基于动态过程视角的工作重塑

员工自下而上主动改进和重塑工作能够有效地弥补企业自上而下工作设计激励不足的问题。因此,本研究聚焦工作重塑,探讨如何通过个人和团队的工作重塑提升组织绩效。首先,基于行动理论,深入分析“工作重塑行为本身”,从而构建工作重塑的动态过程模型,并细致地阐述了工作重塑的发展过程以及工作重塑在个体和团队两个层次相互影响的过程。其次,从个体层探究了员工工作重塑影响个体绩效的两个机制。最后,应用团队过程视角,阐释了团队工作重塑影响团队绩效的作用机制。研究提炼出的工作重塑动态过程模型能为组织将工作重塑扩散并固化为可推广的工作模式提供理论指引和实践参考。     

工作重塑干预:对员工工作自主性的培养

工作重塑理论强调员工自发主动、自下而上地对自己的工作进行重新塑造,而如何对员工的工作重塑进行干预成为了当前学术界的热点。目前的干预研究中,干预内容主要包括激发员工的重塑动机、帮助员工形成良好的重塑认知与培养员工的重塑行为三个方面。它们彼此紧密联系,研究者可以选择对某一方面进行干预或对全部的三个方面进行干预。工作重塑的干预一般可以采用理论学习、计划制定与独立工作、反馈讨论这一操作流程来加以实施。未来的研究需要继续探讨工作重塑的概念、结构与相应测量工具,为干预研究提供支撑,同时丰富干预研究的种类,完善干预研究的技术,并尝试运用现代科技资源,推动干预研究的现代化。     

新员工工作重塑会带来积极的结果吗?领导成员交换与个体传统性的作用

每年都有大量的高校毕业生进入职场。在企业竞争日趋激烈的今天, 如何将这些大学毕业生快速地转变成高绩效的企业员工, 是一个重要的研究议题。基于自我表达的理论视角, 本研究探讨工作重塑能否促进新员工的任务绩效和创造力, 以及领导成员交换和个体传统性如何影响新员工的工作重塑。我们对256名新员工进行4轮的问卷调查, 最终得到125份有效的匹配问卷。数据分析结果显示: (1)工作重塑会正向影响新员工的工作投入, 进而影响他们的任务绩效和创造力; (2)对于传统性比较高的新员工, 领导成员交换可以促进他们的工作重塑; (3)个体传统性正向调节领导成员交换对任务绩效、创造力的间接作用, 当个体传统性高时, 领导成员交换通过工作重塑和工作投入对任务绩效、创造力的积极影响更为显著。本研究从新员工自我表达的视角为组织提升新员工的任务绩效和创造力提供了新的思路。     

职业可续视角下的工作重塑行为研究：动力、路径及干预机制

社会经济高质量、可持续发展的实现, 须依托具备可持续职业能力的人才来引领、支撑和保障。鉴于此, 本研究考虑职业与日间工作行为的联动效应, 探究个体于工作中实现持续竞争优势的潜在动力、路径及干预机制。首先, 确定职业可持续力的概念界定与结构测量, 并揭示其潜在的影响因素、动态发展机理以及对职业主动行为的作用路径。其次, 结合资源保存理论和社会认知理论, 探究职业可持续力与员工工作重塑行为的动态交互作用机制。最后基于职业可持续视角, 探讨组织层面对个体工作重塑行为的纵向干预机制。本研究将为个体实现职业可持续发展以及组织开展共赢的职业管理支持提供策略依据。     

工作重塑研究的新动向——基于调节定向的视角

以往学术界更多关注工作重塑的影响结果和作用机制, 缺乏对其内在动机及相关新构念的探讨。近年来, 基于调节定向理论的工作重塑研究逐渐增加。在已有研究的基础上, 首先基于特质及情境性调节定向的视角, 分别对其与工作重塑具体维度的关系进行探讨; 然后, 揭示领导的调节定向如何影响员工的工作重塑行为; 最后, 梳理工作重塑领域涌现的新构念(促进/防御定向型工作重塑、趋近/回避型工作重塑), 及其理论融合的基础。未来研究应重点关注调节定向和工作重塑的相互作用、促进/防御定向型工作重塑的前因变量及作用机制, 以及调节定向与“角色观”工作重塑的关系等问题。     

职业生涯晚期工作重塑与工作中成功老龄化

随着人口快速老龄化, 劳动人口中老年人的比重持续扩大。工作中成功老龄化(successful aging at work)积极看待工作中的老龄化过程, 指出老年员工不仅能很好地适应自身与工作变化, 还能为组织持续创造价值、发挥“余热”, 进而有助于缓解劳动力老龄化和年轻劳动力短缺所带来的难题。工作重塑(job crafting)作为员工的一种主动性行为, 与个体和环境因素的交互作用, 能有效帮助老年员工实现可持续的人-环境匹配和资源有效管理, 适应年龄与工作环境的变化, 在职业生涯晚期带来积极的工作结果, 最终实现工作中成功老龄化。工作中成功老龄化、老年员工工作重塑的概念和测量皆须进一步研究, 进而深入开展老年员工工作重塑对工作中成功老龄化的作用机制及干预方法实证研究。     

中庸工作重塑研究

采用中庸思想作为研究的理论基础,建构中庸工作重塑概念,并应用于工作要求-资源模型检验其构思效度。在288名医务人员中探索中庸工作重塑的结构,在178名医务人员中验证结构,并探讨中庸工作重塑在工作要求或工作资源与工作投入及工作倦怠之间的中介效应。研究结果发现,中庸工作重塑是由个体取向和群体取向构成的两维结构的工作重塑。其中,在工作要求-资源模型的压力机制中,人们通过工作重塑来降低工作要求引致的工作倦怠,促进工作投入;而在其激励机制中,人们通过工作重塑会增强工作资源的激励作用,促进工作投入。     

嵌入于社会情境的工作重塑

工作重塑实质上是一种情境性的主动性行为。基于已有研究成果, 首先系统归纳工作重塑与社会情境因素之间关系的4种研究视角, 即社会情境是工作重塑的目标、社会情境因素是工作重塑的组成部分、社会情境因素影响工作重塑、社会情境因素为工作重塑设立边界条件。此外, 梳理并讨论社会情境因素影响工作重塑的内在机制以及社会情境因素与个体特征的交互对于工作重塑的影响、工作重塑在特定情境中的有效性两方面的研究。在此基础上, 结合其他相关变量的研究现状对嵌入于社会情境的工作重塑的未来研究进行展望, 包括探索工作重塑对他人的影响、探索团队工作重塑驱动个体工作重塑的多重路径、探索社会情境影响工作重塑的内在机制、探索社会情境与个体特征的交互如何影响工作重塑, 以及探讨基于中国社会情境的工作重塑的有效性。     

冲突还是增益？员工资质过剩感知对工作家庭关系的影响

近年来,随着高等教育的普及和经济环境变化,组织中员工感知的资质过剩现象愈发普遍,引发了越来越多企业管理者和学者的关注和讨论。然而以往有关员工资质过剩感知的研究主要聚焦于对组织内成员工作态度或行为的影响,而对于其是否以及如何产生工作外溢出效应,特别是如何对工作家庭关系产生影响,尚缺乏系统研究。为了更深入地探讨员工资质过剩感知的影响,本研究从员工个体的工作-家庭关系和其配偶的家庭-工作关系两方面,探讨了员工资质过剩感知的工作场所外溢出效应和交叉影响。具体而言,第一,基于认知评价理论,构建了员工资质过剩感知对其自身工作-家庭冲突的“悖论”中介模型,从而揭示其潜在的双刃剑效应;第二,基于工作-家庭增益模型,探讨员工资质过剩感知对其工作-家庭增益的双路径机制和边界条件;第三,结合交叉效应和性别角色导向理论,探索员工资质过剩感知对其配偶家庭-工作冲突和家庭-工作增益的交叉效应模型,明确员工性别与性别角色导向的双重调节作用,从而深化并拓展员工资质过剩感知的工作外影响研究。相关发现不但有助于从不同理论视角揭示员工资质过剩感知对工作家庭关系的影响,丰富现有理论基础,同时也将为企业的管理实践提供建议。     

Job crafting mediates how empowering leadership and employees’ core self-evaluations predict favourable and unfavourable outcomes

ABSTRACT

Based on job crafting theory and workplace resources theories, the present study develops a model of both antecedents and consequences of job crafting. We hypothesized subordinates’ perceptions of empowering leadership and core self-evaluations influence employee job crafting behaviours, which subsequently influence four outcomes: improving three employee well-being outcomes, (a) work-family enrichment, (b) flourishing, and (c) life satisfaction; and simultaneously reducing the organizational outcome of (d) deviant behaviours. Three-waves of data over nine months were collected from U.S. full-time employees (n = 276). Results showed empowering leadership and core self-evaluations positively related to expansive/approach forms of job crafting behaviours, which in turn related to the three different well-being outcomes. However, job crafting did not affect employee deviant behaviour. Instead, empowering leadership and core self-evaluations directly predicted less deviant behaviour. With the imputed data, we also found job crafting had a significant but weak relationship with deviant behaviour. These findings provide an integrated understanding of how and why employees engage in job crafting, and the important influence that job crafting has on employees’ subjective well-being. The present study advances leadership and job crafting theories, providing practical recommendations for promoting employee well-being and decreasing undesirable behaviours in the form of workplace deviance.     

Supervisor Reactions to Avoidance Job Crafting: The Role of Political Skill and Approach Job Crafting

Avoidance job crafting refers to employees proactively changing work boundaries by reducing tasks and/or interactions with others. Although avoidance job crafting may help employees to address work demands, if noticed by others, specifically supervisors, it may trigger negative reactions from them. While previous research posits that job crafting is largely unnoticed by supervisors, using a dyadic supervisor-employee study (N = 141 dyads), we found that supervisors were in fact aware of their employees’ avoidance job crafting, which related to a reduction in supervisor support. This relationship was moderated by employee political skill (but not approach job crafting), such that high avoidance job crafting in combination with high political skill resulted in fewer negative outcomes, presumably because supervisors were less likely to notice their employees’ avoidance job crafting. In a second, vignette study (N = 92 supervisors), we experimentally replicated the relation between observed avoidance job crafting and negative supervisor reactions, and found that this relation can be explained by supervisors perceiving avoidance job crafting as destructive work behavior. Our findings introduce the supervisor perspective to the job crafting literature and highlight the importance of engaging in avoidance job crafting in a skillful way that aligns with the external context.     

The consequences of job crafting: a three-wave study

This longitudinal study examined the consequences of job crafting on two important employee outcomes: psychological capital (PsyCap) as a work-related personal resource and work engagement as an indicator of employee well-being. The study also tested the reverse causation effects of PsyCap and work engagement on job crafting. It used a three-wave, three-month panel design to survey 940 employees from three European countries working in a broad range of economic sectors and occupations. The results of the cross-lagged longitudinal structural equation modelling demonstrated that job crafting predicted PsyCap and work engagement over time. No reverse causation effects were found. Overall, this study shows that when individuals proactively build a resourceful and challenging work environment for themselves, it can lead to diverse positive outcomes that are crucial to employee health and well-being. Employees should therefore be encouraged and be given the opportunity to craft their own jobs.     

Linking Proactive Personality to Creative Performance: The Role of Job Crafting and High-Involvement Work Systems

This study proposed that job crafting serves as a mechanism reflecting how proactive personality affects creative performance, and this study explored whether these relationships are moderated by high-involvement work systems. Drawn from the conservation of resources theory to develop a cross-level moderated mediation model, a three-wave longitudinal study was conducted with 346 employees and their supervisors in 27 high technology firms in China. This study found that proactive personality was positively related to creative performance and that job crafting mediated the relationship between proactive personality and creative performance, and an indirect effect of proactive personality on creative performance through job crafting was significant when high-involvement work systems was low but not high. Thus, the research results indicate that when human resource management involves less participatory management, incentive rewards, extensive training and information sharing, proactive employees can draw from their personality to craft their job tasks, relations and cognitions, thereby improving creative performance. The theoretical and managerial implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.     

The effects of a job crafting intervention on the success of an organizational change effort in a blue-collar work environment

The current study in a blue-collar context investigates whether a job crafting intervention may facilitate employee adaptation to organizational change, while decreasing exhaustion and increasing positive attitudes towards change and safety behaviour. It was hypothesized that the intervention would increase job crafting behaviours (i.e., seeking resources, seeking challenges, and optimizing demands) resulting in decreased employee exhaustion, and improved change attitudes and employee safety behaviour (i.e., adherence to organization’s standard operating procedures). The quasi-experimental study revealed that, after the intervention (consisting of a workshop, four weeks of job crafting implementation, and an evaluative session), employees reported an increase in two of the three trained job crafting strategies (i.e., seeking challenges, optimizing demands). Moreover, those who participated in the intervention reported lower levels of exhaustion, improved cognitive and behavioural attitudes towards change, and increased safety behaviour. The intervention was found to improve the affective, cognitive, and behavioural components of a change attitude due to increases in seeking challenges. Results were similar after controlling for quality information and leadership behaviour during the change. It is concluded that a job crafting intervention and resulting job crafting behaviour can be an effective way to achieve successful adaptation to organizational change.     

Interactive Effects of Approach and Avoidance Job Crafting in Explaining Weekly Variations in Work Performance and Employability

Meta-analyses on job crafting reveal that while approach-oriented job crafting (e.g., increasing job resources or challenging job demands) relates positively to employee performance, avoidance-oriented job crafting (e.g., decreasing hindering job demands) has either non-significant or negative implications for employee functioning. However, the joint effects of approach and avoidance job crafting remain an underdeveloped area of research. We administered a three-week diary survey among 87 employees to test interaction effects of approach and avoidance job crafting on employee (other-referenced and past-referenced) work performance and employability. Results revealed that decreasing hindering job demands related positively to other-referenced performance when increasing social job resources was higher than employees’ average, and to past-referenced performance when increasing structural job resources was higher than employees’ average. Also, decreasing hindering job demands related negatively with employability only at lower levels of increasing challenging job demands, while the relationship was non-significant at higher levels of increasing challenging demands. These results indicate that considering job crafting strategies in tandem adds to our understanding of their role for employee functioning.     

Job crafting and job performance: A longitudinal study

In this three-wave study (N = 288), we examined whether job crafting intentions and work engagement led to actual job crafting behaviours and, in turn, to higher levels of prospective work engagement and job performance. We used the Job Demands-Resources model as a theoretical framework and defined job crafting as the self-initiated changes that employees make in their job demands and resources. One month after reporting their job crafting intentions, respondents rated their actual job crafting behaviours. Again one month later, they rated their levels of work engagement, in-role performance, and organizational citizenship behaviour towards individuals (OCBI). Results of structural equation modelling showed that job crafting intentions and work engagement significantly related to actual job crafting, which, in turn, related to higher levels of work engagement, while controlling for job characteristics. Results further showed that engaged employees performed better on their in-role tasks but did not perform more OCBIs. The findings suggest that employees can increase their own work engagement and job performance through job crafting.     

The influence of future time perspective on work engagement and job performance: the role of job crafting

This two-wave study aimed to examine future time perspective (FTP) as an antecedent of job crafting, and in turn job crafting as a mediator in associations between FTP and work outcomes. Based on the lifespan socio-emotional selectivity theory, we expected that open-ended and limited FTP would evoke different forms of job crafting, which in turn would be associated with changes in work engagement and job performance. In line with our expectations, we found that employees whose open-ended FTP increased over a 1-year time period also crafted more job resources and challenging job demands such that their job provided them with more opportunities for knowledge acquisition, which in turn resulted in increased levels of work engagement and job performance. However, contrary to our expectations, employees whose limited FTP increased over the 1-year time period did not proactively reduce their hindering job demands. Hence, although crafting fewer hindering job demands was directly related to decreased levels of work outcomes as expected, we found no indirect effect of changes in limited FTP on changes in work engagement and performance via changes in this job crafting behaviour. These findings have important implications for the literature on job crafting and FTP.