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

Impact of Job Crafting on Employee’s Innovative Work Behaviour in Renewable Energy Companies in Amman

Employees that are highly engaged are more likely to put out effort in their given responsibilities, solve problems creatively and innovatively, and show initiative and enthusiasm at work. The service company has become innovative. Due to the obvious short product life cycle and globalization, companies cannot imagine growing without innovation. Unlike in the past, when the quest for innovation was limited to a select few, today’s search for innovation involves all of the company’s employees. Hence, this study examined impact of job crafting on employee’s innovative work behavior in Renewable Energy Companies in Amman. The data were collected from 200 managers, heads of departments, production supervisors and workers in renewable energy companies. In addition, the study employed Multiple Regression Analysis. The results of this study showed that task crafting, cognitive crafting and relation crafting have significant and positive effect on innovative work behavior in Renewable Energy Companies in Amman. This research is aimed to get a deeper understanding of job crafting and its micro level investor consequences, which have never been studied previously.

A scenario-based quasi-experimental study of co-workers’ cognitive responses to an individual’s resource-focused job crafting

Research on job crafting has demonstrated a more positive effect of an individual’s approach crafting on co-workers and supervisors compared to the effect of avoidance crafting, but how the availability of resources and demands affects this relationship remains unclear. Our study investigates co-workers’ cognitive responses to an individual’s resource-focused job crafting when resources are finite. We applied a scenario-based quasi-experimental research design to test the moderating effect of resource availability on the relationship between an individual’s resource-focused job crafting and co-workers’ evaluation. The results show that co-workers rate avoidance resources crafting as more destructive than approach resources crafting. When an individual steps away from unlimited resources, co-workers perceive the behavior more negatively than they do when the individual avoids limited resources. For approaching resources, the effect is reversed. The study provides insights into co-workers’ responses to job crafting and the influence of contextual factors.

Uncovering the antecedents and motivational determinants of job crafting

Purpose

The purpose of this mixed-methods study is to examine the motivational determinants and contextual antecedents of individual job crafting behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach

The current research uses the mixed-methods design to elucidate the relationship between career outcome expectations and different forms of job crafting through external regulation. In Study 1, surveys were collected and analyzed from 151 employees across occupations and ranks using purposeful sampling approach. In Study 2, interview data were thematically analyzed to add complementarity and completeness to the findings.

Findings

In Study 1 (n = 151), a direct relationship between career outcome expectations and different forms of job crafting was established. Mediation analysis indicated an indirect relationship between career outcome expectations and approach crafting through external-social regulation. The authors found support for the accentuating role of turnover intentions on career outcome expectations and external social and material regulations. In Study 2 (n = 25), a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews confirmed that when employees experience unfulfilled career expectations, employees attempt to realign the work situations. Such expectations may be tied to various forms of work-related external regulations and may lead to job crafting behaviors. The individuals depicted these behaviors while experiencing turnover intentions.

Originality/value

The current study brings together literature from job design, motivation and careers to consider the role of career expectations and external regulation in predicting job crafting behaviors. Taken together, the findings unearth the cognitive and contextual antecedents of job crafting.

A state-of-the-art overview of job-crafting research: current trends and future research directions

Purpose

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the founding of Career Development International, a state-of-the-art overview of recent trends in job-crafting research was conducted. Since job crafting was introduced twenty years ago as a type of proactive work behavior that employees engage in to adjust their jobs to their needs, skills, and preferences, research has evolved tremendously.

Design/methodology/approach

To take stock of recent developments and to unravel the latest trends in the field, this overview encompasses job-crafting research published in the years 2016–2021. The overview portrays that recent contributions have matured the theoretical and empirical advancement of job-crafting research from three perspectives (i.e. individual, team and social).

Findings

When looking at the job-crafting literature through these three perspectives, a total of six trends were uncovered that show that job-crafting research has moved to a more in-depth theory-testing approach; broadened its scope; examined team-level job crafting and social relationships; and focused on the impact of job crafting on others in the work environment and their evaluations and reactions to it.

Originality/value

The overview of recent trends within the job-crafting literature ends with a set of recommendations for how future research on job crafting could progress and create scientific impact for the coming years.

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.