How Can Job Crafting Be Reproduced? Examining the Trickle-Down Effect of Job Crafting from Leaders to Employees

The Impact of Leader Proactivity on Follower Proactivity: A Chain Mediation Model

This study aims to explore the linking mechanisms underlying the relationship between leader proactivity and follower proactivity. Drawing on social learning theory, the present research investigates the effects of leader proactivity on follower proactivity by developing a chain mediation model. An analysis of three-wave lagged data (N = 575) on 575 employees of six firms in China shows that leader proactivity is positively related to follower proactivity and that employees' role breadth self-efficacy (RBSE) and felt responsibility for constructive change (FRCC) mediate this relationship. The analytical results also show that leader proactivity facilitates follower value congruence, which in turn enhances followers' RBSE and FRCC and ultimately promotes followers' proactivity. The results extend the current proactivity literature and fill the research gap by investigating the relationship between leader proactivity and follower proactivity. The current study also contributes to the literature by identifying the mediating mechanism of the "can do" and "reason to" mechanisms that link leader proactivity to follower proactivity.

How Surgical Leaders Transform Their Residents to Craft Their Jobs: Surgeons' Perspective

BACKGROUND

Surgeons should transform their residents to take the lead in their jobs and optimize their working conditions, so-called job crafting. We investigated the actions undertaken by surgeons with a transformational leadership style to encourage residents' job crafting, about which there is at present a paucity of information.

METHODS

We performed a qualitative study based on principles of constructivist grounded theory. In-depth interviews were held with a purposive sample of surgeons who were perceived as transformational leaders by their residents. During data analysis (open, axial, and selective coding), we compared inductive codes with deductive codes drawn from the job demands-resources and transformational leadership theories to reach a consensus on the interpretation of data and identification of the main themes.

RESULTS

Sixteen surgeons participated. Surgeons undertook five actions that enhanced job crafting in residents. They: one) modeled positive behaviors of a good surgeon; two) used a stepwise individual approach toward autonomy; three) connected with the resident as a person; four) supported residents in handling complications and errors; and five) they coached the resident to deal with competing interests. These actions had four consequences for residents. They led to: one) more responsibilities in patient care; two) more constructive relationships in the workplace; three) less pressure from workload and surgical care duties; and four) less personal difficulties and errors in patient care.

CONCLUSIONS

The actions undertaken by surgeons with a transformational leadership style have a positive association with the residents' ability to craft their jobs. This knowledge has implications for surgeons' leadership development with a view to workplace education.

Reclaiming cognitive crafting: an integrative model of behavioral and cognitive practices in job crafting

Purpose

This paper aims to present a model of how cognitive and behavioral crafting practices relate, reconciling the two dominant and conflicting job crafting theoretical perspectives.

Design/methodology/approach

Starting by examining the role of cognition and cognitive practices in job crafting, this paper reconstitutes the theorizing path that led to the exclusion of cognitive crafting from job crafting theory, explores existing theorizing efforts to (re)integrate cognitive crafting back into job crafting and proposes a new job crafting model (re)integrating behavioral and cognitive practices.

Findings

By conceiving cognitive crafting practices as a sensemaking layer that spans across and reciprocates with all behavioral crafting practices, the proposed model specifies the role of behavior and cognition (and the mutual relations between them) in job crafting, while resuming its meaning-making orientation.

Originality/value

This paper offers novel insights on underspecified aspects of the job crafting theory, improving its heuristic value. It clarifies how meaning is assembled and enacted by people in work environments, allowing for more integrated and comprehensive explanations about how people relate to work.