The value of job crafting for work engagement,task performance,and career satisfaction: longitudinal and quasi-experimental evidence

We examine how job crafting (i.e. seeking resources, seeking challenges, decreasing demands) increases the person-job fit of employees. In Study 1, we studied job crafting’s effects over time. 111 employees filled out a questionnaire at two time points with 6 months in between. We found that seeking resources behavior at Time 1 positively affected work engagement, task performance, and career satisfaction at Time 2. Decreasing demands at Time 1 negatively affected work engagement, task performance, and career satisfaction at Time 2. In Study 2, we tested a job crafting intervention using a quasi-experimental design (i.e., intervention group, N = 60, and a control group, N = 59). The intervention was successful, as participants in the intervention group increased seeking resources and decreasing demands behaviors. Furthermore, seeking resources behavior was the main driver of increased participants’ work engagement, task performance, and career satisfaction.     

专念对工作重塑的影响：工作投入的中介作用

基于工作要求-资源理论,检验工作投入在专念与工作重塑之间的中介作用。以238名医务人员为研究对象,开展两阶段的追踪问卷调查。专念对工作重塑有积极的直接预测作用。另外,在横断数据中,工作投入在专念与工作重塑之间的中介作用显著。在纵向数据中,专念(T1)能正向预测工作投入(T2),进而影响工作重塑(T2),中介效应显著。专念(T1)能正向预测工作投入(T1),但工作投入(T1)不能显著正向预测两个月后的工作重塑(T2)。在一定的时间范围内,专念可以通过激发工作投入,进而促进工作重塑行为。     

Does job crafting assist dealing with organizational changes due to austerity measures? Two studies among Greek employees

In this paper, we focussed on Greek employees that are heavily affected by austerity-led organizational changes, and studied whether job crafting (defined as seeking resources, seeking challenges, reducing demands) helps them deal with these changes. In the first, cross-sectional study we examined whether job crafting relates to adaptive performance, and whether individuals’ assessment of changes moderates this relationship. The results showed that the relationship between reducing demands and adaptive performance was positive for those assessing the changes more positively, and negative for those assessing them more negatively. This interaction was replicated in the second, quasi-experimental field study, where we examined the effects of an intervention designed to help employees deal with organizational changes and increase their well-being, adaptive performance and openness to such changes by stimulating job crafting behaviours. Participants received training and worked for 3 weeks on self-set job crafting goals. The intervention was effective in increasing reducing demands, positive affect and openness to change. Moreover, it had a positive effect on openness to change and adaptive performance through positive effect, but a negative effect on adaptive performance through reducing demands. Thus, the intervention facilitated to some extent employee functioning under unfavourable working conditions that result from austerity measures.     

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.     

A meta-analysis on promotion- and prevention-focused job crafting

The purpose of this study is to present a meta-analytical summary of the job crafting literature. We integrate resource- and role-based job crafting conceptualizations in one job crafting model, which can theoretically account for beneficial and detrimental job crafting effects. Applying reasoning from regulatory focus theory we differentiated promotion-focused (increasing job resources and challenging job demands; expansion-oriented task, relational, and cognitive crafting) from prevention-focused (decreasing hindering job demands; contraction-oriented task and relational crafting) job crafting. We hypothesized that promotion-focused job crafting relates positively and prevention-focused job crafting relates negatively with employee health, motivation, and performance. Results of cross-sectional meta-analytical structural equation modelling showed that promotion-focused job crafting was positively related with work engagement and negatively related with burnout, while prevention-focused job crafting was negatively related with work engagement and positively related with burnout. Moreover, promotion-focused job crafting was positively and prevention-focused job crafting was negatively related with performance through work engagement and burnout. Results of longitudinal meta-analytical structural equation modelling showed that there were reciprocal, positive relationships between promotion-focused job crafting and work engagement, and between prevention-focused job crafting and burnout. Implications for future research and practice 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.     

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.     

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.     

The role of personal resources in explaining well-being and performance: A study among young veterinary professionals

This study examines the role of three personal resources (i.e., proactive behaviour, reflective behaviour, and self-efficacy) in the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model in order to predict self and other ratings of performance. The sample consisted of 860 Dutch veterinary professionals and 170 colleagues. We hypothesized and found that work engagement mediates the relationship between job as well as personal resources and extrarole performance and the relationship between job resources and work engagement. Although hypothesized, we found no support for the mediating role of exhaustion in the relationship between job demands as well as personal resources and inrole performance. Moreover personal resources were directly related to in- and extrarole performance. In conclusion, the study expands the JD-R model by integrating personal resources at a behavioural level and performance measures in the model, and shows that personal resources have a mediating and initiating role in explaining work engagement and performance in young veterinary professionals.     

Work Engagement: Investigating the Role of Transformational Leadership,Job Resources,and Recovery

While the relationship between job resources and engagement has been well established, a greater understanding of the upstream factors that shape job resources is required to develop strategies to promote work engagement. The current study addresses this need by exploring transformational leadership as an upstream job resource, and the moderating role of recovery experiences. It was hypothesized that job resources would mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and engagement. Recovery experiences were expected to moderate the relationship between resources and engagement. A sample of 277 employees from a variety of organizations and industries was obtained. Analysis showed direct relationships between: transformational leadership and engagement, and transformational leadership and job resources. Mediation analysis using bootstrapping found a significant indirect path between transformational leadership and engagement via job resources. Recovery experiences did not significantly moderate the relationship between job resources and engagement. To date, the majority of published literature on recovery has focused on job demands; hence the nonsignificant result offers insight of a potentially more complex relationship for recovery with resources and engagement. Overall, the current study extends the JD-R model and provides evidence for broadening the model to include upstream organizational variables such as transformational leadership.     

The Job Demands–Resources model: An analysis of additive and joint effects of demands and resources

The present study investigated the additive, synergistic, and moderating effects of job demands and job resources on well-being (burnout and work engagement) and organizational outcomes, as specified by the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model. A survey was conducted among two Chinese samples: 625 blue collar workers and 761 health professionals. A series of multi-group structural equation modeling analyses supported the two processes proposed by the JD-R model: (1) the stress process that originates from job demands and leads, via burnout, to negative organizational outcomes (turnover intention and low organization commitment); and (2) the motivational process that originates from job resources and leads, via work engagement, to positive organizational outcomes. In contrast to moderating effects, synergistic effects of job demands and job resources on burnout and work engagement were found in both samples. However, after controlling for additive effects of job demands and job resources, these synergistic effects largely disappeared. In conclusion, the hypothesized additive effects of the JD-R model were found but the evidence for additional synergistic and moderating effects was weak.     

工作要求-资源模型与工作倦怠的相互影响

采用间隔六个月的三波纵向设计,对国内263名企业员工的工作倦怠、工作要求、工作资源进行测量,探讨中国文化背景下企业员工工作环境的动态变化和倦怠体验的相互影响及其作用机制。研究结果表明,控制基线水平后,工作要求增量正向影响工作倦怠增量,工作资源增量负向影响工作倦怠增量;而工作倦怠增量进一步对员工所处的微工作环境产生一定的负面影响,导致工作要求进一步增加,工作资源进一步降低,因此易形成“工作环境恶化→工作倦怠加剧→工作环境进一步恶化”的恶性因果关系回路。     

Does it matter in the long run? Longitudinal effects and interactions in the differentiated job demands–resources model

The distinction of challenge and hindrance stressors in the job demands–resources (JD–R) model has increasingly attracted the interest of occupational health researchers. Drawing on the differentiated JD–R framework, we tested causal, reciprocal, and interaction effects of challenge demands, hindrance demands, and job resources on emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and work engagement. Cross-lagged structural equation modelling was used to analyse cohort data of N = 400 German physicians across three waves comprising 9 years of observation. Overall, support for our hypotheses was limited. Higher job resources were associated with reduced depersonalization in the first time lag of 2 years. No cross-lagged effects were found for the second time lag of 7 years. Out of 12 hypothesized interaction effects, only 1 significant interaction was observed, where job resources attenuated the positive association between challenge demands and depersonalization between the first and second waves. Results provide only modest support for differential effects of challenge and hindrance demands in the JD–R model. Potential shortcomings and implications for future research are discussed.     

职业倦怠的工作要求-资源模型

工作要求 -资源 (JD R)模型从工作要求和工作资源两个维度出发 ,研究了工作条件对职业倦怠各个维度的影响。大量的研究支持了该模型 ,但是由于对该模型的研究还存在一些不足之处 ,尤其是对工作要求与工作资源之间的交互作用的验证性结论有一些矛盾的方面。因此 ,有必要对这一模型进行更多的实证研究 ,并有针对性地提出干预倦怠的有效策略     

Not all job demands are equal: Differentiating job hindrances and job challenges in the Job Demands–Resources model

This study aimed to integrate the differentiation between two types of job demands, as made in previous studies, in the Job–Demands Resources (JD-R) model. Specifically, this study aimed to examine empirically whether the differentiation between job hindrances and job challenges, next to the category of job resources, accounts for the unexpected positive relationships between particular types of job demands (e.g., workload) and employees' work engagement. Results of confirmatory factor analyses supported the differentiation between the three categories of job characteristics in two samples (N ₁ = 261 and N ₂ = 441). Further, structural equation modelling confirmed the hypotheses that job hindrances associate positively with exhaustion (i.e., the main component of burnout) and negatively with vigour (i.e., the main component of work engagement). Job resources displayed the reversed pattern of relations. Job challenges were positively related to vigour. Rather unexpectedly, they were unrelated to exhaustion. Based on these findings, we discuss the importance of the differentiation between different types of job demands in the JD-R model for both theory and practice.     

Work engagement and burnout: testing the robustness of the Job Demands-Resources model

This study focuses on work engagement and its negative antipode, burnout, as well as their antecedents and consequences. According to the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, two different processes have to be distinguished: a motivational process that links job resources with turnover intention through work engagement, and an energetic process that links job demands and health complaints via the mediating role of burnout. The robustness of the JD-R model was tested in a heterogeneous occupational sample (N = 846). Structural equation modeling analyses yielded a slightly modified model with only exhaustion being indicative of burnout and vigor, dedication along with absorption being indicative of engagement. The results provide evidence for the dipartite structure of the JD-R model. Multi-group analyses revealed the model to be invariant across age and gender. Although strengths of path coefficients and factor loadings differed among white- and blue-collar workers, the basic structure of the model was also confirmed among these subgroups. Therefore, the findings underscore the robustness of the JD-R model.     

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。     

Transmission of reduction‐oriented crafting among colleagues: A diary study on the moderating role of working conditions

Zooming into reduction‐oriented job crafting among employees, next to minimizing demands (i.e., making a job less strenuous), we introduced optimizing demands (i.e., simplifying the job and making work processes more efficient) and suggested that optimizing demands should be positively related to work engagement, whereas minimizing demands negatively related to work engagement. Moreover, we suggested that both forms of reduction‐oriented crafting can be transferred among colleagues, and this will particularly occur in jobs that are high on demands (workload and emotional demands), low on resources (autonomy), and when the colleagues have a high‐quality relationship. We examined these hypotheses among 65 dyads of employees who filled in a general questionnaire and a diary for three working days. Multilevel analyses supported the transmission of both job crafting dimensions among colleagues. Moreover, there is more transmission of minimizing demands among colleagues when workload and emotional demands are high and autonomy is low. Additionally, optimizing demands was transmitted among colleagues when autonomy was low and quality of relationship with colleague was high. Optimizing demands was positively related to work engagement, whereas minimizing demands was unrelated to work engagement. These findings imply that optimizing demands is a favourable behaviour and can be transmitted among colleagues under specific conditions.

Practitioner points

• Working smarter is related to higher work engagement
• Employees model their colleague's proactive behaviour
• Unfavourable working conditions stimulate modelling behaviour of colleagues

     

Antecedents of daily team job crafting

This study investigated potential antecedents of team job crafting defined as the extent to which team members engage together in increasing (social and structural) job resources and challenges, and decreasing hindering job demands. Mindful of the teamwork literature, we hypothesized that individual employee factors (self-efficacy for teamwork, daily affect), team features (team cohesion, climate) and the organizational context of teams (engaging leadership and organizational resources for teamwork) relate positively to daily team job crafting behaviour. Data were collected among 46 multi-professional rehabilitation teams whose members completed two daily surveys after their weekly meetings. Multilevel regression analyses showed that self-efficacy for teamwork and team members’ positive affect were positively associated with team job crafting behaviour at the individual (within-team) level. In addition, a team climate characterized by a clear vision of the teams’ targets, supportiveness and innovation and connecting leadership were positively related to daily team job crafting at both the within- and between-team levels of the data. Overall, the study offers novel insights into the antecedents of teams’ daily job crafting behaviours. For practice, the results suggest that actions and interventions conducive to positive team processes offer the most promising route to enhancing team job crafting behaviour.     

Work engagement interventions can be effective: a systematic review

Work engagement is associated with important individual and organisational outcomes (e.g. employee health and well-being, performance). This narrative systematic review aims to synthesise the increasing number of work engagement interventions and inform future research by exploring: (1) the specific intervention foci, delivery methods and content of engagement interventions; (2) intervention effectiveness; and (3) underlying mediators and moderators. A systematic search for interventions employing a validated engagement measure revealed 40 studies. Five were personal resource building, twelve job resource building, three leadership training, eighteen health promotion, and two job and personal resource building. Twenty (50%) studies observed significant positive effects on work engagement, two (5%) had a negative effect, and eighteen (45%) had no effect. Job and personal resources, job demands and well-being were important mediators. Moderators included the specific intervention focus and delivery method, employee participation, manager support, and intervention level (top-down vs bottom-up). Bottom-up interventions, and job crafting and mindfulness interventions particularly, were most successful. Implementation difficulties were common, including poor response and attrition rates, and adverse factors (e.g. organisational restructuring, redundancy, economic downturn). We highlight implications for research and practice and stress the need to test underlying theories to build knowledge around how, why, and when interventions work.