Crafting Task and Cognitive Job Boundaries to Enhance Self-Determination, Impact, Meaning and Competence at Work

Advice Network Centrality as a Social Origin of Task Crafting: The Bridging Roles of Basic Psychological Needs

Little is known about the predictive role of advice networks in task crafting despite the growing academic and practical interest in its antecedents. Accordingly, as centrality in advice networks is expected to have a positive relationship with task crafting, this study develops a research model encompassing the mediating roles of the fulfillment of basic psychological needs to clarify this relationship. The model was tested using a sample composed of 198 employees from various firms in South Korea. The results showed that employees who occupy central positions in the advice network fulfilled their autonomy and competence needs, consequently engaging in task crafting. This study contributes to the literature on social networks, self-determination, and task crafting by discovering hidden antecedents and pivotal mechanisms in determining task crafting.

Proactive Personality as a Critical Condition for Seeking Advice and Crafting Tasks in Ambiguous Roles

In increasingly ambiguous work contexts, advice-seeking and task crafting behaviors are becoming more significant than ever before. Drawing on the uncertainty reduction theory, this study examined how role ambiguity would affect advice-seeking and task crafting. We also investigated whether a proactive personality would moderate the effects based on the capacity-willingness-opportunity model. The results, based on a two-wave design with a sample of 160 employees in South Korea, revealed that role ambiguity did not affect advice-seeking and task crafting directly. However, it was found that, as role ambiguity increased, employees with proactive personality became more involved in advice-seeking and task crafting. These findings indicate that role ambiguity serves as an opportunity for proactive employees who have the capacity and willingness to seek advice and craft tasks.

The curvilinear relationship between hindrance stressors and bootlegging: the moderate role of state ownership

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to provide insights into bootleg innovation by investigating whether perceived hindrance stressors play an important role in bootlegging and how different organizational ownership types (state-owned enterprises (SOEs) vs non-SOEs) affect this relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

The study samples comprised 3,967 employees from 674 knowledge-intensive companies in southern China. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses.

Findings

Drawing on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, the results show that hindrance stressors have a curvilinear (U-shaped) influence on bootleg innovation, and that the curve relationship between the hindrance stressors and bootlegging is more pronounced among employees in non-SOEs.

Practical implications

The findings indicate that either a low or high level of hindrance stressors can activate a high level of bootlegging activities among employees. These results suggest that managers need to be vigilant in detecting the level of hindrance because different motivations predominate at different stressor levels.

Originality/value

Based on the COR theory, the findings cast perceived hindrance stressors as an antecedent of bootlegging at the individual level. The inquiry into state ownership types further provides a comprehensive understanding of the non-linear relationship between hindrance stressors and bootlegging.

Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction, Job Crafting, and Meaningful Work: Network Analysis

To satisfy the psychological needs at work, employees engage in job crafting, which allows them to modify their jobs in meaningful ways. This study extends the research by examining the relationships between variables of job crafting model (i.e., basic psychological need for autonomy, competence and relatedness, perceived opportunities to craft, job crafting, and meaningful work) in a single system network. Participants were 340 Brazilian professionals (mean age 46 years, 61% female). We used network analysis (e.g., partial correlations, shortest paths, centrality measures). The results indicated that psychological needs influenced behavioral crafting and that cognitive crafting served as a mediator of these strategies to meaningful work. Autonomy and perceived opportunities to craft were the shortest paths to meaningful work. Cognitive crafting exerted the strongest influence on meaningful work. The findings suggest that meaningful work is developed through a proactive bottom-up process.

Analysis of the Mediating Role of Psychological Empowerment between Perceived Leader Trust and Employee Work Performance

High levels of trust between employees and leaders moderate the relationship between organizational management practices. A collaborative environment encourages employees to have more Psychological Empowerment, which in turn leads to better performance. Based on Intrinsic Work Motivation and Self-Evaluation, this paper uses Perceived Leader Trust as an independent variable, Employee Work Performance as a dependent variable, and introduces Psychological Empowerment to explore the internal mechanism of perceived trust. This paper proposes a total of 28 hypotheses, and 25 hypotheses have been verified. The specific research conclusions are as follows: (1) Perceived Leader Trust has a positive impact on Employee Work Performance. (2) Perceived Leader Trust positively affects employees' Psychological Empowerment. Perceived Leader Dependence has a significant impact on all dimensions of Psychological Empowerment, but the relationship between Perceived Information Disclosure and Work Meaning is not significant. (3) Psychological Empowerment is positively correlated with Employee Work Performance, in which the four dimensions of Psychological Empowerment are significantly related to Employee Task Performance, while Work Meaning and Autonomy are not significantly related to Employee Relationship Performance. (4) Psychological Empowerment, as the overall perception of employees, plays a partial mediating role between Perceived Leader Trust and Employee Work Performance. This paper verifies the role of Psychological Empowerment between Perceived Leader Trust and Employee Work Performance, and explores the internal mechanism of Perceived Leader Trust from the perspective of employees' Intrinsic Work Motivation, which promotes the development of organizational management practices.

Job Crafting: A Challenge to Promote Decent Work for Vulnerable Workers

In recent years, the decent work agenda has called upon vocational psychologists to advance psychological research and intervention to promote work as a human right. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic is having disproportionate consequences on vulnerable workers, such as unemployment and underemployment, highlighting the need to enhance access to decent work for these workers. As a response, the present perspective article advances job crafting as a promising way to shape decent work for marginalized workers. To this end, the article deals with decent work and job crafting, starting with the definition of decent work according to the psychology of working theory (PWT) and examining the evolution of the construct of job crafting. Subsequently, the literature on job crafting is discussed, focusing on variables related to the PWT model of decent work and their effect on vulnerable workers. Finally, possibilities for further research and intervention aimed at promoting decent work through job crafting are discussed.

Management of Slum-Based Urban Farming and Economic Empowerment of the Community of Makassar City, South Sulawesi, Indonesia

The handling of slums based on urban farming and community empowerment is oriented toward improving the welfare and independence of the community. This study aimed to (1) analyze the influence of business motivation, human resource capacity, community participation, and economic business management on the economic empowerment in the handling of slums; (2) analyze the direct and indirect effects of urban farming, community capacity, and capital support efforts to improve the welfare and independence of the community; and (3) formulate a sustainability model for community-based slum management in the Metro Tanjung Bunga area. The research approach used was a sequential explanatory design, which is a combination of quantitative and qualitative research, and data were obtained through observation, surveys, in-depth interviews, and documentation. The research findings show that business motivation, human resource capacity, community participation, and economic business management have a significant effect on economic empowerment. The direct influence of urban farming increases the welfare of the community by 27.66%, strengthens the capacity of the community to increase welfare by 55.95%, and provides business capital support to improve community welfare by 36.72%. Urban farming, community capacity-building, and business capital support provide a positive effect on improving the welfare and independence of the community in slums. Sustainability in slum settlements includes infrastructure, developing economic potential, and community participation.