The Impact of Social Factors on Job Crafting: A Meta-Analysis and Review

The influence of psychosocial work environment, personal perceived health and job crafting on nurses' well-being: a cross-sectional survey study

BACKGROUND

The World Health Organization urged governments to prioritize the health and work well-being of nursing staff by promoting a positive working environment. A safe and healthy physical and psychosocial work environment is a basic human right for nurses. Job crafting is a necessary skill when facing challenging working conditions.

OBJECTIVES

This cross-sectional correlational research based on the Job Demands-Resources Model aimed to explore the correlation between psychosocial work environment and work well-being among nurses working in the intensive care unit (ICU) and determine whether personal perceived health could mediate the relationship and whether job crafting can moderate the mediating effect. The study hypothesized that: 1. The psychosocial work environment would impact nurses' work well-being; 2. Personal perceived health would play a role as a mediator in the relationship between psychosocial work environment and work well-being; 3. Job crafting would moderate the relationship between personal perceived health and work well-being.

METHODS

A total of 655 registered nurses (RNs) from 7 ICUs in a teaching hospital in Beijing participated in this study. The RNs completed a battery questionnaire measuring their health, psychosocial work environment, well-being, and job crafting. PROCESS macros analysis was used to test mediating and moderating effects.

RESULTS

Personal perceived health mediated the relationship between psychosocial work environment and work well-being (b = 0.012, 95% CI [0.008, 0.016]). The moderated mediated analysis revealed that job crafting moderated perceived health's impact on work well-being (b = -0.007, 95% CI [- 0.010, - 0.003]).

CONCLUSION

A better psychosocial work environment with well-designed work organization and job content through job crafting could positively impact nurses' health and work well-being.

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.

Network crafting, goal attainment, and work-to-family facilitation among hotel employees: the mediating roles of positive affect and information exchange

Background

The hospitality industry is experiencing new developmental opportunities after the coronavirus pandemic, such as the expansion of digital presence, the introduction of wellness offerings to cater to health-conscious guests, and a growing focus on local and sustainable tourism. However, despite these positive changes, we still lack knowledge on how hospitality workers can proactively adjust their work conditions to excel in their professional domain while also flourishing in their family domain. Thus, the current study proposed and examined how network crafting behaviors can have positive effects on hotel employees' work goal attainment and work-to-family facilitation. Based on the affectivity theories and the social cognitive theory, we examined the mediating roles of positive affect and information exchange on the relationship between network crafting behaviors and work goal attainment and work-to-family facilitation.

Methods

We collected data from three 5-star hotels in Jinan, China. We sent out the surveys in three waves to avoid the common method bias. We obtained 199 valid responses in total in three waves and entered them into the data analysis. Structural equation modeling was conducted to examine our hypotheses.

Results

We found that network crafting was positively related to hotel employees' work goal attainment and work-to-family facilitation. We also confirmed the mediating roles of positive affect and information exchange in this relationship.

Conclusion

We revealed a dual process of network crafting - that is, a positive affective process and an information exchange process. We contribute to the social network and networking literature by highlighting an optimization-oriented networking strategy, rather than one simply maximizing networks. We enrich the work-family enrichment literature by suggesting an effective behavioral strategy that can transmit the resources and gains from one domain to the other domain.

The Impact of a Job Crafting Intervention on Wellbeing in Health Care Leaders

BACKGROUND

Job Crafting is a strategy undertaken by highly motivated individuals to modify their own work. Educating individuals about the benefits of this approach has recently been explored in other professions as a wellbeing intervention.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to demonstrate that a Job Crafting intervention for health care leaders would result in improved wellbeing, lower burnout, and enhanced job resources.

METHODS

Fourteen health care leaders across 6 departments at one academic medical center participated in a two-part workshop on Job Crafting between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2020. Participants completed electronic surveys before and 4-6 weeks after the sessions. Pre- and post-intervention scores were compared using Wilcoxon signed rank sum tests.

RESULTS

Eighty-six percent of participants stated the sessions were useful and applicable to their jobs, with 93% stating they were a valuable use of time and would recommend sessions to others. Participant Job Crafting behaviors increased following the intervention, with 46% increasing structural and social resources (P = .03) and 85% decreasing Hindrance Demands (P = .02). Increased meaning in work was identified by 38% post-intervention (P = .04). No statistically significant differences were identified in Distress Scores at high risk for burnout pre- and post-intervention (86% for both), but 30% of participants had an absolute improvement (decrease) in their Distress Score.

CONCLUSIONS

A Job Crafting intervention was associated with high rates of satisfaction among participants and was successful in increasing Job Crafting behaviors and perceptions of meaningful work, but did not result in a change in risk for burnout in the short follow-up period.

Service Employees' Mindfulness and Job Crafting amid COVID-19: The Roles of Resilience, Organizational Health Climate, and Health-Oriented Leadership

Due to changes in the work environment resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, service employees' behavior, that proactively reshapes the content and meaning of work (i.e., job crafting), is increasingly important. We identified mindfulness as a key individual trait contributing to job crafting in the pandemic context. The purpose of our study was to examine the mediating effect of resilience on the relationship between mindfulness and job crafting, and the moderating effects of perceived organizational health climate and health-oriented leadership on the mindfulness-resilience relationship. We administered two-wave online surveys to 301 South Korean service employees after the onset of COVID-19 (January 20, 2020). Data for mindfulness, resilience, perceived organizational health climate, and health-oriented leadership were collected via participants' self-report in March, 2020. One month later (April, 2020), we obtained their self-ratings of job crafting. Results showed that resilience mediated the relationship between mindfulness and job crafting. The positive relationship between these two variables was more pronounced when perceived organizational health climate was high than when it was low. Perceived organizational health climate further moderated the indirect effect of mindfulness on job crafting through resilience.

[Effects of Clinical Nurses' Job Crafting on Organizational Effectiveness Based on Job Demands-Resource Model]

PURPOSE

This study aimed to examine the mediating effects of clinical nurses' job crafting on organizational effectiveness based on the job demands-resources model proposed by Bakker and Demerouti (2017).

METHODS

The participants consisted of 393 nurses working in nursing units of a tertiary general hospital located in Cheongju region. The data, collected using questionnaire from August 9 to August 20, 2021, were analyzed using SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 27.0.

RESULTS

The goodness-of-fit (GoF) test results on the modified model (χ² = 2.7, GFI = .94, SRMR = .03, RMSEA = .06, NFI = .92, CFI = .94, TLI = .92, AGFI = .90), indicated that the GoF index satisfied the recommended level. Regarding the effects of each variable on organizational effectiveness, job crafting showed statistically significant direct (β = .48, p < .001), indirect (β = .23, p < .001), and total effects (β = .71, p < .001). Burnout showed statistically significant direct effect (β = -.17, p < .001). Work engagement showed statistically significant direct (β = .41, p < .001) and total effects (β = .41, p < .001). The factors explaining organizational effectiveness were job crafting, burnout, and work engagement, which had an explanatory power of 76.7%.

CONCLUSION

Nurses' job crafting is an important mediating factor for enhancing the organizational effectiveness of nursing organizations. Hospitals should develop job-crafting success cases and related education and training programs as a strategy for enhancing the job crafting of nurses and, consequently organizational effectiveness.

The Effect of Job Crafting on Performance and Satisfaction: Physical Engagement as a Mediator and Cognitive and Emotional Engagement as Moderators

This study explores the relationship between job crafting on task performance and job satisfaction among faculty members in higher educational institutions. A conceptual model was developed wherein the moderating role of cognitive and emotional engagement and the mediating role of physical engagement in influencing the task performance. Data was collected from 592 faculty members from higher educational institutions in southern India. First, the instrument’s psychometric properties were checked by performing structural equation modelling using the LISREL package. The hypothesized relationships were tested using Hayes’ PROCESS macros. The findings indicate that (a) job crafting and physical engagement are positively related to task performance, (b) job crafting is positively related to physical engagement, (c) physical engagement mediates the relationship between job crafting and task performance and (d) task performance mediates between job crafting and job satisfaction. The results also suggest that cognitive engagement moderates between job crafting and physical engagement.

Furthermore, emotional engagement (second moderator) moderates the relationship between job crafting and cognitive engagement (first moderator) in influencing task performance mediated through physical engagement. The three-way interaction between task crafting, emotional engagement and cognitive engagement in influencing physical engagement is a novel contribution of this study. The implications for theory and practice in human resource management and personnel psychology are discussed.

Daily Job Crafting and Adaptive Performance During Organizational Change: The Moderating Role of Managers’ Influence Tactics

Is job crafting relevant for adaptive performance in the absence of managers’ effective influence tactics and the presence of ineffective tactics? Based on job demands-resources and conservation of resources theories, we examined whether employee daily job crafting behaviors (i.e., resources seeking, challenges seeking, demands reducing) interact with overall managers’ influence tactics during times of organizational change in explaining change outcomes. Twenty-nine hotel employees completed a questionnaire to evaluate their managers’ influence tactics, and then a diary for five consecutive workdays to assess daily job crafting behaviors and daily adaptive performance during a large-scale change. Multilevel analyses revealed that daily seeking resources related positively to adaptive performance particularly when specific managers’ influence tactics were low. These findings imply that employees compensate for the absence of managers’ influence tactics by seeking resources in order to facilitate their own adaptation to organizational changes.

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.

Who needs transformational leadership to craft their job? The role of work engagement and personal values

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss relationships between transformational leadership and job crafting. Using the job demands-resource (JD-R) theory, this study investigates the mediating role of work engagement in the relationship between transformational leadership and job crafting. The author has also tested the moderating roles of personal values.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is based on data from 450 knowledge workers representing companies of various sizes from the knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) sector in Poland. The questionnaires were completed using the computer-assisted telephone interview method. The statistical verification of the mediation and moderation analyses was conducted using macro PROCESS (ver. 3.3).

Findings

The findings show that transformational leadership was positively related to job crafting. Statistical analysis also confirmed the research hypothesis that as a personal resource, self-enhancement values moderate relationships between transformational leadership and work engagement, thus strengthening them. The study integrated research on leadership and personal and organisational resources to examine the collective impact of these variables on employee job crafting.

Originality/value

The study is the first to explore the mediating mechanism (through work engagement) between transformational leadership and job crafting in the context of KIBS companies in Poland.

Influence of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Awareness on Employee Creativity in the Hotel Industry

The current literature in artificial intelligence and robotics awareness (AIRA) focused on the dark side of AIRA. Accordingly, this study sheds light on the positive effect of AIRA on employee creativity by exploring how and when hotel employees may take proactive behavior facing the threat of AI and robotics to further stimulate creativity. Based on the work adjustment theory (TWA) and the locus of control theory, this study constructs a moderating multiple mediation model to explain the influence of AIRA on employee creativity, in which active learning and task crafting are used as mediating variables, and locus of control is used as moderating variable. Data collected from 264 employees in a Chinese hotel are used for empirical analysis. Results show that (a) AIRA indirectly positively affects employee creativity via active learning and task crafting and (b) Locus of control not only moderates the mediating effect of active learning between the relationship of AIRA and employee creativity but also moderates the mediating effect of task crafting between the relationship of AIRA and employee creativity. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

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.

Contextual antecedents of job crafting: review and future research agenda

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to critically review current studies on job crafting to identify contextual factors related to employees’ job crafting and to integrate the findings to help organizations improve employees’ job crafting.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the guidelines provided by Torraco (2016), the authors reviewed 44 quantitative studies on job crafting published between 2001and 2020.

Findings

The authors identified 35 contextual antecedents of job crafting at the job (11), group (6), leadership (12) and organizational (6) levels. The findings reveal that a significant number of studies have focused on contextual aspects related to employees’ job crafting. In particular, multiple studies discussed the important role of empowering leadership, servant leadership, transformational leadership, leader-member exchange in job crafting.

Originality/value

The authors emphasize contextual factors influencing job crafting including job, group, leadership and organizational levels. Based on the review, the authors suggest a future research agenda on job crafting in terms of job, group, leadership and organizational antecedents.

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.

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.

How and when goal-oriented self-regulation improves college students' well-being: A weekly diary study

This study investigates how (i.e., through what mechanism) and when (i.e., under what conditions) goal-oriented self-regulation behaviors improve college students' psychological well-being. On the basis of data from 74 s-year Chinese college students in a weekly diary study (296 observations), we conducted a moderated mediation model and found that goal-oriented self-regulations behaviors (i.e., planning, monitoring, controlling, and reflecting) were positively related to college students' psychological well-being through increased academic performance. Further, such an indirect effect was stronger when college students' optimism and social support were high. This study contributes to student development and self-regulation literature by underscoring that academic performance plays a vital intermediate role in the relationship between self-regulation behaviors and college students' psychological well-being. Besides, we highlight that optimism and social support act as important personal and social resources for college students that can better unleash the positive effects of goal-oriented self-regulation behaviors.