Development and validation of the job crafting scale

We developed and validated a scale to measure job crafting behavior in three separate studies conducted in The Netherlands (total N = 1181). Job crafting is defined as the self-initiated changes that employees make in their own job demands and job resources to attain and/or optimize their personal (work) goals. In Study 1 and 2 the Dutch job crafting scale (JCS) was developed and tested for its factor structure, reliability, and convergent validity. The criterion validity of the JCS was examined in Study 3. The results indicated that there are four independent job crafting dimensions, namely increasing social job resources, increasing structural job resources, increasing challenging job demands, and decreasing hindering job demands. These dimensions could be reliably measured with 21 items. The JCS shows convergent validity when correlated with the active constructs proactive personality (+), personal initiative (+), and the inactive construct cynicism (?). In addition, results indicated that self-reports of job crafting correlated positively with colleague-ratings of work engagement, employability, and performance — thus supporting the criterion validity of the JCS. Finally, self-rated job crafting behaviors correlated positively with peer-rated job crafting behaviors.     

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 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.     

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.     

Who Seeks Job Resources,and Who Avoids Job Demands? The Link Between Dark Personality Traits and Job Crafting

Although job crafting has been linked repeatedly to positive employee and organizational outcomes, its detrimental side has not been well explored. To understand the way dark personality traits affect the type of crafting in which employees engage, this research focuses on two frameworks: the PEN (psychopathy, extraversion, and neuroticism) framework and the Dark Triad (narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism). In Study 1, we collected data on the PEN traits and job crafting from 155 individuals in various occupations. We found that neuroticism was negatively related to seeking structural job resources, whereas psychoticism was negatively related to seeking social job resources. We also found that extraversion was positively related to seeking structural and social job resources and to seeking challenging job demands. In Study 2, we examined how the Dark Triad traits predicted job crafting among police officers (N = 135). The results showed that narcissism was positively related to seeking social job resources and challenges, whereas psychopathy was negatively related to seeking social resources. Age and narcissism were positive predictors of reducing job demands. We conclude that personality plays an important role when choosing how to craft one's job. We discuss the practical implications of these findings.     

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.     

Job crafting and its relationships with person–job fit and meaningfulness: A three-wave study

Although scholars imply that job crafting contributes to person–job fit and meaningful work, to date, no study examined the relationships between these variables. The present three-wave weekbook study was designed to gain more knowledge about the influence of job crafting on person–job fit and meaningfulness. We collected data among a heterogeneous group of employees (N = 114) during three consecutive weeks (N = 430 occasions). At the end of their working week, employees reported their job crafting behaviors, their person–job fit (demands–abilities fit and needs–supplies fit), and the meaningfulness of their work that week. Results indicated that individuals who crafted their job by increasing their job resources (e.g., support, autonomy) and challenging job demands (e.g., participate in new projects), and by decreasing their hindering job demands (e.g., less emotional job demands) reported higher levels of person–job fit the next week. In turn, demands–abilities fit related to more meaningfulness in the final week. No support was found for alternative causal models. These findings suggest that by crafting their job demands and job resources, individuals can proactively optimize their person–job fit and as a consequence experience their work as meaningful.     

工作重塑：获得意义性工作与个人成长的新途径

工作重塑是组织行为学中新近出现的一个热点话题,是指员工通过自己对工作进行重新建构来形塑自己的工作认同以及工作角色,其核心目的就是员工对他们的工作进行再设计以获得较高的工作意义感、工作投入以及工作满意度等,进而快乐地工作。在系统梳理有关工作重塑的理论与实证研究文献的基础上,从工作重塑概念的解读、工作重塑的方式与方法、工作重塑的预测因素、工作重塑对个体与组织的影响以及工作重塑的培养策略等方面进行了综述,以便人们更深入地体会其丰富的理论内涵和实践价值;最后,该文指出未来工作重塑的研究应继续注重理论建构的丰富与完善、关注工作重塑的个体与群体差异性以及深化工作重塑与组织之间的关系研究。     

The Ambivalent Effects of Participation on Performance and Job Stressors: The Role of Job Crafting and Autonomy

ABSTRACT

Literature provides mixed results on the effect of participatory practices on outcomes such as individual performance and job stressors. By examining these relationships via the mediation of job crafting behaviors, while considering the moderating effect of autonomy, we help clarifying the reasons behind the apparently ambiguous effects of participation. We surveyed 318 employees in an Italian mass retail company. On the one hand, we found a positive effect of participation on performance and a reduction of both role conflict and role overload thanks to increased job crafting behaviors aimed at seeking job resources. On the other hand, we also found that participation and autonomy may augment job stressors because of an associated increase of job crafting behaviors aimed at seeking challenging demands.     

Weekly work engagement and flourishing: The role of hindrance and challenge job demands

Two studies were conducted to examine how home healthcare nurses stay engaged in their work and maintain their psychological well-being. In Study 1, we hypothesized that nurses would perceive work pressure more as a hindrance demand than as a challenge demand, and that the reverse would be true for emotional demands. We approached 120 home healthcare nurses who filled in a survey. Results of a series of paired sample t-tests supported our hypotheses. In Study 2, we used the JD-R model to hypothesize that weekly job demands can either facilitate or undermine the positive impact of personal resources on work engagement and flourishing, depending on the nature of the job demand (hindrance vs. challenge). A sample of 63 nurses filled in a questionnaire at the end of the working week during three consecutive weeks (N = 3 × 63 = 189 occasions). Results of hierarchical linear modeling showed that emotional job demands strengthened the effect of personal resources on weekly well-being, whereas work pressure undermined this effect. Taken together, the present findings challenge the idea that whether job demands act as hindrances or challenges is the same for all occupations and for all individuals.     

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.     

Employee psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany: A longitudinal study of demands,resources, and exhaustion

Many governments react to the current coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic by restricting daily (work) life. On the basis of theories from occupational health, we propose that the duration of the pandemic, its demands (e.g., having to work from home, closing of childcare facilities, job insecurity, work-privacy conflicts, privacy-work conflicts) and personal- and job-related resources (co-worker social support, job autonomy, partner support and corona self-efficacy) interact in their effect on employee exhaustion. We test the hypotheses with a three-wave sample of German employees during the pandemic from April to June 2020 (N_w1 = 2900, N_w12 = 1237, N_w123 = 789). Our findings show a curvilinear effect of pandemic duration on working women's exhaustion. The data also show that the introduction and the easing of lockdown measures affect exhaustion, and that women with children who work from home while childcare is unavailable are especially exhausted. Job autonomy and partner support mitigated some of these effects. In sum, women's psychological health was more strongly affected by the pandemic than men's. We discuss implications for occupational health theories and that interventions targeted at mitigating the psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic should target women specifically.     

Working memory and fluid intelligence as predictors of work engagement—Testing preliminary models

This study aimed to investigate the relationships between working memory capacity, fluid intelligence (Gf), and work engagement within the framework of the job demands–resources theory. Multioccupational employees (N = 175 in Study 1 and N = 383 in Study 2) completed sets of Gf, complex span, and n‐back tests, along with job resources and work engagement surveys. Structural equation modeling with latent variables and bootstrapping procedures revealed that complex span was indirectly positively related to work engagement via job resources, and n‐back was indirectly positively related to work engagement via job complexity. Moreover, the one common factor g composed of Gf, n‐back, and complex span was positively indirectly related to work engagement via job resources and job complexity. These results highlight that the cognitive capacities of employees should be given greater consideration as cognitive personal resources in models aimed at accounting for employee work engagement.     

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

     

工作自主性对中小学教师幸福感的影响：工作重塑与工作家庭平衡的链式中介效应

采用问卷法调查了997名中小学教师,考量工作自主性与中小学教师幸福感之间的关系,检验工作重塑和工作家庭平衡在其中的中介作用。结果显示：工作自主性不仅对中小学教师幸福感具有显著直接影响,且能通过工作重塑与工作家庭平衡各自的中介效应及二者的链式中介效应三条路径,对幸福感产生间接影响。     

Weekly work engagement and flourishing: The role of hindrance and challenge job demands

Two studies were conducted to examine how home healthcare nurses stay engaged in their work and maintain their psychological well-being. In Study 1, we hypothesized that nurses would perceive work pressure more as a hindrance demand than as a challenge demand, and that the reverse would be true for emotional demands. We approached 120 home healthcare nurses who filled in a survey. Results of a series of paired sample t-tests supported our hypotheses. In Study 2, we used the JD-R model to hypothesize that weekly job demands can either facilitate or undermine the positive impact of personal resources on work engagement and flourishing, depending on the nature of the job demand (hindrance vs. challenge). A sample of 63 nurses filled in a questionnaire at the end of the working week during three consecutive weeks (N = 3 × 63 = 189 occasions). Results of hierarchical linear modeling showed that emotional job demands strengthened the effect of personal resources on weekly well-being, whereas work pressure undermined this effect. Taken together, the present findings challenge the idea that whether job demands act as hindrances or challenges is the same for all occupations and for all individuals.     

Evidence on the Hierarchical,Multidimensional Nature of Behavioural Job Crafting

While to date job crafting has been conceptualised as consisting of behaviours aiming at seeking more resources, decreasing hindering demands, and seeking more challenges, recent research suggests that individuals may restore the fit between their demands and preferences also by optimising their demands. Accordingly, optimising demands has been introduced in the resource-based perspective to job crafting as an additional strategy that aims at making the work processes more efficient, simplifying procedures and eliminating obstacles. In this paper, we explore and provide evidence for the validity of a four-factor, hierarchical structure of behavioural job crafting constituted by increasing resources, seeking challenges, decreasing demands, and optimising demands. Moreover, our results provide initial evidence suggesting that overall job crafting may be more strongly characterised by effortful actions to expand the work characteristics rather than to reduce them.     

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。