Can job crafting reduce job boredom and increase work engagement? A three-year cross-lagged panel study

The positive side of stress: Investigating the impact of challenge stressors on innovative behavior in higher education

Stress can be a double-edged sword. Given the intricacy of the innovation process, the link between job stress and individual innovation behavior remains uncertain. To clarify the relationship between challenge stressors and the innovative behavior of higher education teachers, this study was based on the conservation of resources (COR) theory and adopted the structural equation modeling method to explore the impact of challenge stressors on the innovative behavior of higher education teachers and reveal its influencing mechanism and boundary conditions. By analyzing the data from 208 questionnaires of higher education teachers, the findings reveal that challenge stressors positively influence innovative behavior, with task crafting serving as a critical bridge. Additionally, a favorable employment relationship climate enhances the positive impact of challenge stressors. Gender dynamics are also explored, adding nuance to the understanding of this relationship. These results shed light on the inherent mechanisms governing the relationship between challenge stressors and innovative behavior among higher education teachers, and underscore the significance of task crafting. In addition, the discoveries provided fresh insights and ideas for investigating how organizational climate affects individual innovative behavior.

Is boredom at work bad for your health? Examining the links between job boredom and autonomic nervous system dysfunction

Job boredom refers to an unpleasant state of passiveness at work that has been found to negatively relate to self-reported health. To date, however, the relation between job boredom and physiological indicators of health has not been examined. The present study investigates whether job boredom relates to dysfunction in autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity as indicated by reduced heart rate variability (HRV) during night sleep. The sample of this study consisted of Finnish public sector workers (n = 125). Job boredom was assessed with an electronic questionnaire and HRV with an ambulatory monitoring period of two nights of sleep. The results supported the hypothesis by showing a negative relation between job boredom and HRV, after controlling for demographic and lifestyle factors. The findings extend previous knowledge on the detrimental consequences of job boredom by showing that it is related to dysfunction in ANS activity. Consequently, it is important to acknowledge boredom at work as a threat to occupational health and well-being and pay more attention to how it can be prevented at workplaces.

Boredom and engagement at work: do they have different antecedents and consequences?

This study aimed to demonstrate the empirical distinctiveness of boredom at work and work engagement in relation to their potential antecedents (job demands and job resources) and consequences (psychological distress and turnover intention) based on the Job Demands-Resources model. A three-wave longitudinal survey was conducted among registered monitors of an Internet survey company in Japan. The questionnaire included scales for boredom at work, work engagement, psychological distress, and turnover intention as well as participants' job characteristics and demographic variables. The hypothesized model was evaluated via structural equation modeling with 1,019 participants who were employed full-time. As expected, boredom at work was negatively associated with quantitative job demands and job resources and positively associated with psychological distress and turnover intention. In contrast, work engagement was positively associated with job resources and negatively associated with turnover intention. Thus, boredom at work and work engagement had different potential antecedents and were inversely related to employee well-being and organizational outcomes. However, contrary to expectations, qualitative job demands were not significantly associated with boredom at work. Further investigation is needed to understand the relationship between boredom and qualitative job demands, which require sustained cognitive load and the use of higher skills.

The association between team job crafting and work engagement among nurses: a prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND

Team-level job crafting has been put forward as a method to promote nurses' mental health. However, a longitudinal association is unclear. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the association between team job crafting at baseline and work engagement, work performance, psychological distress, and intention to leave at three-month and six-month follow-ups among Japanese hospital nurses. Also, whether an increase in the team job crafting during 3 or 6 months was associated with an increase in the work engagement during 3 or 6 months of individual nurses was examined.

METHODS

A multilevel prospective cohort study was conducted. Data were collected from nurses of five hospitals in Japan at baseline (T1) and follow-ups at 3-months (T2) and 6-months (T3). A total of 2,478 nurses were included. The team job crafting scale for nurses and its three subscales were measured for the independent variables. Ward-means were used as ward-level variables. The dependent variables were work engagement, work performance, psychological distress, and intention to leave. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) was used to examine the multilevel association. The study protocol was registered at the UMIN Clinical Trials Registry (ID = UMIN000047810) (May 22, 2022).

RESULTS

A total of 460 nurses completed the T1 survey (response rate = 18.6%), and data from 391 nurses nested in 30 wards were included in the analyses. The intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) at T1 were 0.02 for work engagement and 0.07 for team job crafting. The HLM revealed that ward-level team job crafting at T1 was not significantly associated with work engagement, work performance, psychological distress, and intention to leave at T2 or T3. The ward-level change (T3-T1) of "crafting for the task considering the team's growth" (subscale for team job crafting) was significantly and positively associated with the change (T3-T1) in work engagement.

CONCLUSIONS

Ward-level team job crafting at baseline did not predict nurses' work engagement, work performance, psychological distress, or intention to leave at a three-month or six-month follow-up. The impact of ward-level team job crafting may attenuate over several months.

Relationship between leadership-member exchange (LMX) and flow at work among medical workers during the COVID-19: the mediating role of job crafting

Based on relational leadership theory and self-determination theory, this study aims to investigate the relationship between leader-member exchange (LMX), job crafting, and flow at work among medical workers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants in the study consisted of 424 hospital employees. The results showed that: (1) the LMX positively predicted flow at work; (2) two types of job crafting (increasing structural job resources and challenging job demands) played a mediating role between the LMX and flow at work; and (3) gender did not moderate these mediating effects as suggested by previous studies. These results indicate that the LMX can not only directly predict flow at work, but also indirectly predict work-related flow through job crafting by increasing structural job resources and challenging job demands, thus providing new insights for enhancing flow experiences of medical workers.

Work limitations as a moderator of the relationship between job crafting and work performance: results from an SEM analysis of cross-sectional survey data

PURPOSE

Job crafting is an incremental, employee-initiated job design process used to achieve a better fit between job demands and worker skills. Persons with work limitations face multiple barriers to optimal work performance. Some persons with work limitations may innately use job crafting as a strategy to achieve better alignment with their job tasks and demands, however the extent to which job crafting may be helpful in improving work performance and engagement is unknown. The purpose of this study is (1) to examine the moderating role of work limitations in the relationship between job crafting and work performance and (2) to understand the complex relationship between job crafting, work limitations, work engagement, work performance, readiness to change, and worker characteristics.

METHODS

We conducted an online survey of workers with and without disabilities (final N = 742) in 2020-2021. Our sample included workers aged 18 and older. Descriptive statistics, bivariate statistics, and Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) were used to assess the relationships among job crafting, work limitations, work engagement, work performance, readiness to change, and worker characteristics.

RESULTS

Work limitation moderates the relationship between job crafting and work performance by weakening the impact of innate job crafting on work performance. Worker characteristics such as education and years of work experience predict crafting behaviors and work engagement mediates the relationship between job crafting and work performance.

CONCLUSIONS

Work limitation weakens the relationship between job crafting and work performance. Workers with limitations may benefit from job crafting interventions to increase work engagement and performance.

Work Time Control and Job Crafting as Predictors of Work Method Control Among Health Workers

Introduction

Nigerian dilapidated health sector is confronted with unprecedented work method control challenges caused by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, which has changed the world of work, health, and well-being attainment. The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged work method control employed by the Nigerian health sector as they seek to mobilize leftover resources from embezzlement required to accomplish desired tasks and, as a result, altered the work methods, job descriptions, characteristics, and demands the attainment of organizational and personal goals.

Objective

Based on Job Demands-Resources Theory (JD-R) and Self-Determination Theory (SDT), the researchers' principal objective was to investigate the moderating role of job crafting in the relationship between work time control and work method control among Nigerian health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

The participants for this study comprised (220) health employees sampled through the purposive and convenient method. Three instruments, Breaugh's Work Autonomy Scale, Work Time Control Scale, and Job Crafting Questionnaire, were used for data collection, and hierarchical multiple regression was employed for data analysis.

Results

Results of this study showed that work time control and job crafting were positively associated with work method control of Nigerian health workers. Job crafting moderated the relationship between work time control and work method control. This research deepened the knowledge of work method control while integrating work time control, and job crafting, with other health and work challenges of health workers in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, COVID-19 has turned neglected Nigerian health workers into heroes as their work time control and job crafting helped manage the pandemic despite the poor infrastructure, corruption, bigotry, and ethnocentrism.

Conclusion

During pandemics, the work method must be understood and used with work time and job crafting to improve patient recovery, health workers' well-being, the nation, and the universe.

“The perfect moment is this one. The effect of mindfulness on employees: a perspective from self-determination theory”

Purpose

This paper aims to show the direct and indirect effects of mindfulness on the employees’ commitment in the employees who perform monotonous work. Moreover, it also shows the role of basic psychological needs proposed by self-determination theory (SDT), on the relationship between mindfulness and commitment.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper has used a time-lagged approach. Data has been collected from the nurses in public sector hospitals through a survey strategy. Structural equation modeling has been used to validate the measure and to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The results of thi study reveal that there is a positive relationship between mindfulness and employee affective organizational commitment. This study also shows that in the existence of a high level of autonomy, mindfulness does have more effect on commitment. Moreover, this study also shows that this relationship is mediated by employee boredom. However, this mediation is not moderated by the satisfaction of the need for autonomy.

Practical implications

This study serves as a guide for frontline managers in situations where they want their subordinates who perform monotonous and boring work to remain committed to the organization. This study also emphasizes the recruitment of employees who may show more trait mindfulness.

Originality/value

This study enriches the literature in the field of organizational behavior by showing how basic psychological needs proposed by SDT collaborate with mindfulness in producing employees’ positive attitudes.

Occupational Health of Education Personnel-The Role of Job Crafting and Other Control Strategies on Healthy Ageing at Work

This article looks at the strategies that influence healthy ageing at work from the motivational theory of life span development (MTD). It aims to better understand the influence of job crafting as a selective primary control, help-seeking as a compensatory primary control, positive reappraisal as a selective secondary control, and downward social comparison and downgrading expectation as a compensatory secondary control on healthy ageing at work (work engagement, health, and motivation to continue working after retirement). A total of 386 educational personnel participated in the study. This study used hierarchical regression analysis to test incremental validity, supplemented with confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling as a solution to solve the potential error problems caused. The results show that job crafting is positively correlated with healthy ageing at work. Positive reappraisal and downward social comparison showed incremental validity in predicting healthy ageing at work beyond job crafting among the middle-aged group (45-65-years-old); in particular, positive reappraisal was the determinant of healthy ageing at work among the middle-aged group. However, both help-seeking and downgrading expectation did not show incremental validity. This study can contribute to the evolution of career development interventions and human resource management focused on supporting older people at work.

Getting crafty: Examining social resource crafting's relationship with work engagement and social support

Social resource crafting is a job crafting strategy in which employees proactively increase their social resources (e.g., feedback from coworkers, coaching from supervisor). We examined social resource crafting's relationships with work-related social support (perceived supervisor and coworker support) and work engagement. Specifically, as there has been growing interest in understanding resource crafting and work engagement, we investigated the directionality of this relationship. Using a two-wave study and structural equation modelling, we tested the dual pathways between resource crafting and work engagement as well as resource crafting's relationship with each type of support. The results suggested social resource crafting was associated with higher levels of coworker support-but not supervisor support - over time and supported a unidirectional path from social resource crafting to work engagement. Our findings provide valuable insight into the power employees have to craft their own positive experiences at work.

Impact of boredom on perceived inequity and discretionary behaviors: a latent growth curve approach

Purpose

This study seeks to examine the effect of work-related boredom and a perceived lack of external stimulation on benevolent and entitled employees' perceived inequity and discretionary workplace behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 668 useable three-wave panel data were obtained via Amazon Mechanical Turk during a three-month period. The hypothesized model was tested using a latent growth curve modeling via EQS 6.4 for Windows.

Findings

This study finds the following results. First, benevolent employees who experience higher initial work-related boredom report positive inequity. Second, entitled employees who experience higher initial work-related boredom and a perceived lack of external stimulation report negative inequity. Third, increases in work-related boredom and a perceived lack of external stimulation result in a faster increase in entitled employees' perceived negative inequity. Fourth, entitled employees who perceive higher negative inequity at the initial measurement period report higher interpersonal deviance. Finally, increases in entitled employees' perceived negative inequity result in a faster increase in interpersonal deviance.

Originality/value

This study highlights how employees may assess their effort and rewards when experiencing boredom. This study also offers some practical recommendations that help human resource managers manage boredom in the organization effectively.

The impact of challenge and hindrance stressors on newcomers’ organizational socialization: A moderated-mediation model

The importance of work stress on newcomers’ organizational socialization has been a topic of substantial interest. However, the impact mechanism of different stressors on newcomers’ organizational socialization is still in the early stages of theory development. This study, based on the theory of the dual work stress model, explored how to challenge stressors and hindrance stressors impact newcomers’ organizational socialization via the mediation of job crafting. Based on the empirical data from 247 newcomers, we found that challenge stressors positively affected newcomers’ organizational socialization; on the contrary, hindrance stressors would result in negative influences. In addition, leader-member exchange enhanced the positive effect of challenge stressors on newcomers’ job crafting and further moderated the indirect influence of challenge stressors on newcomers’ organizational socialization via job crafting. These findings provide a practical guide for organizations to apply stress management and promote newcomers’ socialization.

In praise of boredom at work

In the context of management and organisational literature, boredom has largely been seen in individual, psychological and negative terms, both for those experiencing it and for organisational outcomes. Through selective references to a wider sociological, historical and philosophical set of perspectives, we make a case here for refiguring boredom at work as a more relational and political notion. Rather than being seen as negative or trivial, we suggest that it is central to the concerns of organisation studies (and more widely) as a ambivalent everyday condition and experience. In particular, boredom is intimately linked to the project and promises of modernity and its associated effects on time, from factory industrialisation to contemporary work platforms. Both in terms of philosophical argument and applied fields such as art, literature, architecture and design, we suggest that boredom is both emancipatory/productive and alienating. Such an understanding establishes opportunities for research which would be central to the experience of contemporary paid employment and wider experience.

Person–Job Misfit: Perceived Overqualification and Counterproductive Work Behavior

Grounding on person–job fit theory, we examined perceived overqualification relation with counterproductive work behavior (CWB) by identifying job boredom as a mediator and job crafting as a moderator. Hierarchical linear regression and Hayes’ PROCESS macro-method were used to assess hypotheses in a three-wave survey of 317 textile sector employees. The findings show that perceived overqualification is positively related with CWBs. This study further examined the mediating function of job boredom and the moderating impact of job crafting in the association between perceived overqualification and CWB. The findings suggest that job crafting moderates the positive relation between perceived overqualification and job boredom and the indirect connection between perceived overqualification and CWB via job boredom. The model was tested using 3-wave data; however, since the data were attained from a single source, questions of common method bias cannot be ruled out. Managers should look for changes in employee attitudes and promptly modify employees’ positions when they indicate that they have more experience, abilities, and talents required for their roles in their organizations.

The Effects of Job Crafting on Job Performance among Ideological and Political Education Teachers: The Mediating Role of Work Meaning and Work Engagement

Achieving sustainable development in education requires teaching staff who are committed to sustainability in their professional practice. This study investigated how job crafting, work meaning, work engagement and job performance were related in educational organizations. We analyzed the data of 536 ideological and political education teachers in China using structural equation modeling (SEM). The study found that job crafting was significantly and positively related to job performance, work meaning and work engagement. Moreover, work meaning and work engagement mediate the relationship between job crafting and job performance both individually and in series. Our findings highlight that job crafting is a crucial aspect of teacher performance and must be systematically encouraged by educational managers to increase the meaning and engagement that help sustain performance levels at work.

The impact of engaging leadership on employee engagement and team effectiveness: A longitudinal, multi-level study on the mediating role of personal- and team resources

Most research on the effect of leadership behavior on employees' well-being and organizational outcomes is based on leadership frameworks that are not rooted in sound psychological theories of motivation and are limited to either an individual or organizational levels of analysis. The current paper investigates whether individual and team resources explain the impact of engaging leadership on work engagement and team effectiveness, respectively. Data were collected at two time points on N = 1,048 employees nested within 90 work teams. The Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling results revealed that personal resources (i.e., optimism, resiliency, self-efficacy, and flexibility) partially mediated the impact of T1 individual perceptions of engaging leadership on T2 work engagement. Furthermore, joint perceptions of engaging leadership among team members at T1 resulted in greater team effectiveness at T2. This association was fully mediated by team resources (i.e., performance feedback, trust in management, communication, and participation in decision-making). Moreover, team resources had a significant cross-level effect on individual levels of engagement. In practical terms, training and supporting leaders who inspire, strengthen, and connect their subordinates could significantly improve employees' motivation and involvement and enable teams to pursue their common goals successfully.

What do expectations change? Optimistic expectations, job crafting, job satisfaction and a new theoretical model

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of optimistic expectations on job satisfaction at work and whether job crafting behaviour plays a mediating role in this effect. At the same time, this model presents the need for “expectation management” in the context of work psychology to the attention of all academics and practitioners.

Design/methodology/approach

To test the hypotheses of the study, data were obtained from 475 health-care workers in a public hospital. Hypotheses were tested using Process Macro Model of Hayes (2018).

Findings

The result of the analyses determined that the optimistic expectations for the organization as a whole have a positive effect on job satisfaction, both directly and indirectly, and that job crafting behaviour has a partial mediating role in this effect.

Research limitations/implications

The first limitation is that the data were obtained only by a cross-sectional method. The second is that among the various workplace behaviours and workplace psychologies job crafting and job satisfaction were examined in the study. The partial mediation effect between the research variables reveals the existence of many other variables and constitutes the third limitation. The fourth is that only optimistic expectations effects on positive behaviours and positive psychological states were evaluated in this study. Finally, a fifth limitation of this study is that the sample is limited to those working in the health sector and public hospitals.

Practical implications

First, the data were obtained only by a cross-sectional method, and the longitudinal method was not implemented in how the study was designed. Second, among the workplace behaviours, only job crafting behaviour and only job satisfaction as a workplace psychology were analysed. Third, partial mediation effect was found to be among the other variables might indicate the role of additional variables that could be uncovered by further research. Fourth, only optimistic expectations and their effects on positive behaviours and positive psychological states at the workplace were evaluated. Fifth, the sample is limited to those working in the health sector and public hospitals.

Social implications

This study draws attention to “Expectation Management” as a management activity worth exploring and its potential in terms of social and working relations.

Originality/value

This study provides versatile answers to the question of why individuals perform differently despite working under the same conditions. The model suggested in the study takes the conventional way of thinking in the literature one step further by offering an alternative answer to this critical question, whose answers we have been discovering step by step since the Hawthorne studies. In addition, the proposed model draws attention to the need for “expectation management” in the context of business psychology in theory and practice.

How Do Determiners of Job Performance Matter During COVID-19? The Conservation of Resource Theory

During the COVID-19 pandemic, business managers are facing many challenges from a severe challenge. Many organizations have changed their original management mode and organizational behavior to improve employees' organizational citizenship behavior, thus reducing their sense of anxiety and incapability. Thereinto, job performance of the employees also affects the growth and development of the organization. To explore how to fragment employees' positive psychology and job performance, this study discusses the influence on employees' subjective wellbeing and job performance from relevant factors at the organizational and individual levels. Also, to explore the influence of organizational support and occupation self-efficacy on job performance and the mediating role of subjective wellbeing during COVID-19, a total of 618 valid questionnaires were collected from all walks of life in 2020. Hypotheses were tested by structural equation modeling and Bootstrap technology. The results show that: (1) Professional self-efficacy and subjective wellbeing have a significant positive impact on job performance; (2) Subjective wellbeing plays a complete mediating role between organizational support and job performance, and subjective wellbeing plays a partial mediating role between professional self-efficacy and job performance; (3) Compared with the sense of organizational support, the positive effect of self-efficacy on job performance is more significant.

Employees' fear at work, job crafting, and work engagement on a daily basis: The case for fear of COVID-19

In the present study, we seek to understand how public sector employees that go to work to perform essential duties for the society and the economy cope with the fear of COVID-19 and maintain their motivation, energy, and enthusiasm for their work. We hypothesized that because employees are motivated to protect their health, an increase in daily fear of COVID-19 would be related to a daily increase in coping behaviors in the form of job crafting, which would consequently be related to employees' daily motivation. Data were based on 64 tenured employees working in public service organizations during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2021), who completed a quantitative diary for five consecutive workdays (N = 320 occasions). Results from multilevel analysis indicated that fear of COVID-19 had an indirect effect on work engagement through only one dimension of job crafting, seeking job resources. The study contributes to the ongoing theoretical extension of the beneficial role of job crafting by suggesting seeking social resources as an effective coping strategy for fear of COVID-19.

Loneliness and Depression in College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: the Role of Boredom and Repetitive Negative Thinking

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered increased rates of depression, especially among college students. Due to social distancing guidelines, loneliness has been suspected as a prominent factor in depression during the pandemic. Research is needed to identify possible mechanisms through which loneliness conveys risk for pandemic-era depression. Two potential mechanisms are boredom and repetitive negative thinking (RNT). This study examined cross-sectional associations between depression, loneliness, boredom, and RNT in a sample of college students (N = 199) in April 2020 immediately following campus closure. Results showed a serial indirect effect of loneliness on depression through boredom then RNT. Moreover, specific indirect effects of loneliness on depression were found through boredom and RNT, individually. Though limited by the cross-sectional design, these data align with cognitive-behavioral theory and identify boredom and RNT as possible mechanisms of the association between loneliness and depression in college students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Balancing Work Life: Job Crafting, Work Engagement, and Workaholism in the Finnish Public Sector

The aim of this study was to investigate how job crafting, work engagement, and workaholism were related in public sector organizations. The participants (N = 213) were civil servants from three Finnish public organizations, representing different professions, such as school personnel, secretaries, directors, parking attendants, and ICT specialists. We duly operationalized job crafting, work engagement, and workaholism by using the Job Crafting Scale, the UWES-9, and the Work Addiction Risk Test. The current study focused on the Finnish public sector, since work engagement is recognized at the governmental level and has been shown to be strongly and positively associated with economic activity and productivity, while workaholism is associated with poor wellbeing. We analyzed the data by using structural equation modeling and found that three job crafting dimensions were strongly intertwined with one another. These dimensions were increasing structural job resources, increasing social job resources, and increasing challenging job demands. In the structural model, dimension “increasing structural job resources” was positively related to work engagement, whereas dimension “decreasing hindering job demands” was negatively associated with workaholism. This study highlighted the relevance of employees learning to balance their job resources and demands. We recommend that, in the public sector, employees be systematically encouraged to practice job crafting behavior by enabling them to increase structural job resources. These results are of high relevance, considering the heavy workload of public sector employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s About Time: Understanding Job Crafting Through the Lens of Individuals’ Temporal Characteristics

Job crafting refers to the myriad ways employees customize their jobs, such as by altering their tasks and social interaction at work. Numerous scholars over the past 20 years have remarked on the overall need to better understand the role of time in job crafting. However, the literature has not considered how employees think about time, or, relatedly, how they use and manage it—and why this might matter for job crafting. To address these unresolved issues, the current paper develops a conceptual model of individual-level, time-related characteristics that shape employees’ engagement in job crafting and the effects of job crafting efforts on their well-being. We first review the prevailing understanding of time in job crafting research: merely operating as a medium for change, in the background. We then introduce our new conceptualization of time as central to job crafting—as temporal characteristics of the job crafter—and develop a conceptual model in which time-related constructs play a key role in influencing job crafting and its effects. Our model proposes that employees’ career stage, as well as their polychronicity preference and temporal focus, predicts engagement in job crafting, whereas employees’ time management and time urgency act as key moderators that shape the implications of job crafting for employees’ well-being. By theorizing on time in job crafting, our model thus contributes to understanding relevant antecedents and outcomes of job crafting. We conclude our paper by offering an agenda for future research to further incorporate the role of time in job crafting.

The Life Crafting Scale: Development and Validation of a Multi-Dimensional Meaning-Making Measure

Finding meaning in our lives is a central tenet to the human experience and a core contributor to mental health. Individuals tend to actively seek the sources of meaning in their lives or consciously enact efforts to create or "craft" meaning in different life domains. These overall "Life Crafting" behaviors refer to the conscious efforts individuals exert to create meaning in their lives through (a) cognitively (re-)framing how they view life, (b) seeking social support systems to manage life challenges, and (c) actively seeking challenges to facilitate personal growth. Specifically, these behaviors are actioned to better align life goals, personal needs, values, and capabilities. However, no psychological assessment instrument currently exists to measure overall life crafting. As such, the purpose of this paper was twofold: to conceptualize life crafting and to develop, validate and evaluate a robust measure of overall life crafting. A mixed-method, multi-study research design was employed. First, nine participants were interviewed to determine the methods or techniques used to craft meaningful life experiences. These methods/techniques were used as indicators to create an initial item pool which was then reviewed by a panel of experts to ensure face validity. Second, in Study 1, the factorial structure of the instrument was explored by gathering data from a convenience sample (N = 331), with the results showing support for a three-factor structure of life crafting, consisting of (a) cognitive crafting, (b) seeking social support, and (c) seeking challenges. Finally, in Study 2 (N = 362), the aim was to confirm the factorial structure of the Life Crafting scale and to determine its level of internal consistency, partial measurement invariance across genders, and criterion validity [meaning in life (β = 0.91), mental health (β = 0.91), work engagement (β = 0.54), and job burnout (β = -0.42)]. The results supported a second-order factorial model of Life Crafting, which comprised of three first-order factors (cognitive crafting, seeking social support, and seeking challenges). Therefore, the Life Crafting Scale can be used as a valid and reliable instrument to measure- and track the effectiveness of life crafting interventions.

Imagining positive workplaces: extrapolating relationships between job crafting, mental toughness and authentic happiness in millennial employees

Purpose

Millennial managers are required to adopt to contemporary management practices and continually evolve to manage the workforce. To help them evolve and create positive workplaces, this study aims to extrapolate the associations between job crafting, mental toughness and authentic happiness (AH) among millennials and derive implications.

Design/methodology/approach

Data was collected from 496 millennial employees at Time-1 (March 2018), Time-2 (November 2018) and Time-3 (August 2019) from multiple sectors. A combined structural equation modelling and artificial neural networks approach was implied to test the strength of the proposed associations.

Findings

With reference to the relationships thus obtained between job crafting, mental toughness and AH, the results specifically conclude that challenging job demand is significant predictor of AH. Mental toughness partially mediates the relationship between challenging job demands and AH, indicating that mental toughness is an essential component for employee happiness.

Practical implications

Millennial managers and policymakers must challenge the skills of employees for obtaining optimal performance. When employees perceive adequate workload and have a set deadline for the completion of tasks assigned to them, they carry out the tasks with greater efficacy, in turn, leading them to find greater meaning (focusing on essential tasks), purpose and engagement in life (enthusiastic, interested, engaged). Overall, when millennial managers focus on such associations, they can help enhance productivity and constitute happier workplaces.

Originality/value

This study explores constructs such as mental toughness to support the job crafting and happiness relationship. A hybrid statistical analysis strengthens the accuracy of the proposed model and enhances its empirical and implied value.

Reviewing the Effect of English as a Foreign Language Teachers’ Positive and Negative Affectivity on Their Work Engagement

This review strives to illuminate the related studies on the effect of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ positive and negative emotions on their work engagement. The negative correlations among teachers’ boredom, apprehension, shame, frustration, and work engagement have been confirmed in the review of the literature. Furthermore, few studies have validated the effect of teachers’ positive emotions, such as enjoyment and pride, on their work engagement in educational contexts. The studies showed that some factors, such as teacher self-efficacy, teacher self-sufficiency, increased academic challenges, and ambiguity in educational contexts, can mediate the relationship between teachers’ negative emotions and work engagement. The review of literature has emphasized the mediating role of growth mindset in the relationship between teachers’ positive emotions and work engagement. To improve the language teaching quality, the pedagogical implications are explained in the end. Some suggestions for further research are provided to expand the literature about teachers’ emotional variables.

Perceived Overqualification and Intensive Smartphone Use: A Moderated Mediation Model

Previous studies only considered the impact of personal or environmental factors on intensive smartphone use separately, while largely ignoring the impact of person-environment (P-E) fit on it. Drawing on the P-E fit theory, we proposed that perceived overqualification (POQ), an indicator of person-job misfit, positively affects intensive smartphone use via job boredom, and affective commitment moderates this indirect effect. We examined our hypotheses using four-wave time-lag data of 450 workers from 62 teams. The results revealed that POQ raised job boredom of an individual and thus increased their intensive smartphone use. In addition, when the affective commitment was high, the indirect effect from POQ to intensive smartphone use via job boredom was weaker. The implications, limitations, and future directions of this research were discussed.

Do digital competencies and social support boost work engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic?

In today's world of work, the need for digital communication and collaboration competencies became even more prevalent during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, research and practice are lacking solid measurement instruments assessing digital communication and collaboration competencies of workers so far. Furthermore, it is yet unknown if digital communication and collaboration competencies and other so far known resources indeed act as drivers of work engagement during the pandemic. Based on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model and the conservation of resources theory, we hypothesized that personal (digital communication and collaboration competencies) and job (social support) resources positively influence each other over time, also boosting work engagement. In a cross-lagged study design during the pandemic, we investigated our hypotheses in a sample of German workers (N = 231). Against our expectations, we did not find support for effects from personal or job resources on work engagement over time or effects of the resources influencing each other. Instead, we found high stabilities of digital communication and collaboration competencies and work engagement. Our results provide important insights into the motivational process of individuals working during a pandemic. The theoretical and practical implications for the JD-R model in times of crisis are discussed.

Examining Job Complexity on Job Crafting Within Conservation of Resources Theory: A Dual-Path Mediation Model

This study examined the different ways in which job complexity influences employees’ job crafting. Specifically, we draw on conservation of resources (COR) theory to hypothesize that job complexity is positively related to approach crafting via work engagement (i.e., resource gain process). At the same time, job complexity may also induce employees to engage in avoidance crafting (i.e., resource loss process) as employee energy resources are depleted. Our data consist of 251 employees working in Macau. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) in Mplus software to test the proposed hypotheses. Our findings confirm that job complexity has differential effects on approach and avoidance crafting through work engagement and energy depletion. These findings highlight the importance of costs and benefits of job complexity and the importance of resources in the employees’ job crafting process. We discuss the practical implications for modern organizations in which complex jobs are prevalent.

Alleviating state boredom through search for meaning and affirmation of workplace heroes

Purpose

Employee boredom is of concern to organizations because of its impact on employees’ quality of work life and productivity. This study aims to test the regulation of workplace boredom through meaning in life by workplace heroes to contribute to theory by examining the relationships between the variables and to practice by uncovering the potential of workplace heroes in alleviating state boredom.

Design/methodology/approach

Using online surveys and structured interviews for a mixed-method study, data were collected for state boredom, meaning in life and hero affirmation at work for a quantitative study, and data from the open-ended questions provided further insights regarding hero affirmation at work for a qualitative study.

Findings

Spearman rank-order correlations concluded correlations between state boredom and meaning in life. However, unlike personal heroes that influence meaning in life, workplace heroes were found not to. The qualitative analysis revealed three prime differences between workplace and personal heroes: proximity, symbolic representation of ideologies and qualities admired in the heroes. These reasons entailed that state boredom was not regulated by workplace heroes.

Originality/value

The model of Coughlan et al. (2019) explored trait boredom regulation through meaning in life by personal heroes. This study tested for the regulation of state boredom through meaning in life by workplace heroes; thus, contributing to theory through a nuanced model with enhanced usefulness in practice. The study also further dissects the concept of heroes by uncovering differences between workplace and personal heroes that perpetrated the differences in the findings.

Leader-Follower Congruence in Work Engagement and Leader-Member Exchange: The Moderating Role of Conscientiousness of Followers

Extant research has investigated the relationship between work engagement and various outcomes, such as job performance and organizational commitment, neglecting the effect of work engagement on social relationships at work. Drawing upon person-environment fit theory and LMX theory, the present study aims to examine the effect of (in)congruence between leader and follower work engagement on leader–member exchange (LMX) and the moderating effect of conscientiousness. About 273 employees and 72 leaders participated in this study and completed the measurements of work engagement, conscientiousness, and LMX at two time points. Using cross-level polynomial regressions, we found that, compared with incongruent work engagement, employees perceived high levels of LMX quality when their work engagement was aligned with that of their leaders. Regarding the congruence, the employees reported higher levels of LMX when congruence in work engagement was at higher rather than lower levels. Regarding the incongruence, when the employees engaged less in their work tasks than their leaders, they were more likely to experience lower LMX. Moreover, the negative relationship between incongruence in leader and follower work engagement and LMX was mitigated when followers were more conscientious. All our hypotheses were supported. Both theoretical and practical implications for work engagement as well as future directions are discussed.

Loneliness and Mobile Phone Addiction Among Chinese College Students: The Mediating Roles of Boredom Proneness and Self-Control

INTRODUCTION

Mobile phones bring convenience to people's lives, but also affect their physical and mental health (especially in college students). Previous studies have revealed that mobile phone addiction is positively related to loneliness. This study further explored the mediating effects of boredom proneness and self-control on the relationship between loneliness and mobile phone addiction.

METHODS

A cross-sectional design was conducted in the present study. The investigation employed the Chinese version of the UCLA Loneliness Self-report Scale, Boredom Proneness Scale-Short Form, the Chinese version of the Self-control scale, and the Mobile Phone Addiction Index. Out of 1122 college students, 1078 completed the questionnaire survey and became our final subjects. PROCESS macro of SPSS 21 was used to conduct explore the mediating roles of boredom proneness and self-control in the relationship between loneliness and mobile phone addiction.

RESULTS

Loneliness, boredom proneness, and mobile phone addiction were significantly and positively correlated with each other, as well as significantly negatively correlated with self-control. Boredom proneness and self-control, when operating in parallel, partially mediated the relationship between loneliness and mobile phone addiction. By contrast, when occurring sequentially, they fully mediated the relationship between loneliness and mobile phone addiction.

CONCLUSION

Mobile phone addiction among lonely college students can be eliminated by exercising self-control and alleviating boredom proneness.

How Does High-Performance Work System Prompt Job Crafting through Autonomous Motivation: The Moderating Role of Initiative Climate

By invoking self-determination theory, we proposed an integrated, multilevel model to investigate the impact of a high-performance work system (HPWS) on employees’ job crafting through autonomous motivation, along with the moderation effect of initiative climate. Adopting a three-wave, time-lagged research design, we collected data from 615 employees of 54 Chinese companies. The results of multilevel path analysis revealed that (1) HPWS is positively related to employees’ job crafting; (2) HPWS has a positive impact on employees’ autonomous motivation; (3) employees’ autonomous motivation positively affects their job crafting; (4) employees’ autonomous motivation mediates the positive relationship between HPWS and employees’ job crafting; (5) initiative climate moderates the relationship between employees’ autonomous motivation and job crafting; and (6) the indirect relationship between HPWS and job crafting through autonomous motivation is also moderated by initiative climate. The findings of this study provided several implications for job crafting research and for human resource management in organizations.

Interactions of Approach and Avoidance Job Crafting and Work Engagement: A Comparison between Employees Affected and Not Affected by Organizational Changes

Job crafting describes proactive employee behaviors to improve the design of their work and working conditions, and to adapt their job to better suit their abilities and needs. During organizational changes, employees may use job crafting to adjust to the changes in their work and protect their well-being and motivation, i.e., work engagement. However, research shows that although the effects of job crafting strategies that expand the design of work (approach job crafting) have been positive on work engagement, the effects of job crafting strategies that diminish the scope of work (avoidance job crafting) have often been negative. This study investigated the effects of the interactions between different job crafting strategies on work engagement, an aspect that has not thus far been studied. Specifically, we hypothesized that avoidance job crafting is not harmful for work engagement when it is conducted in combination with approach job crafting, particularly during times of organizational change. A two-wave, 18-month follow-up study was conducted among public sector workers who either experienced (n = 479) or did not experience (n = 412) changes in their work. Latent moderated structural equation modeling revealed that avoidance job crafting did not reduce work engagement when combined with approach job crafting behaviors. Moreover, job crafting best benefited work engagement when it was combined with these opposing strategies. However, job crafting was beneficial for work engagement only among employees who were affected by organizational changes, that is, among employees whose job design had changed. Practically, organizations implementing changes could encourage proactive job redesign approaches among their employees—particularly both approach and avoidance types of job crafting strategies.