Abstract: Job crafting is defined as the self-initiated behaviors that employees take to shape, mold, and change their jobs. The motivation for job crafting arises from three individual needs which are needs for control, positive image, and connection at work. Surprisingly, although there are nearly 150 studies focusing on job crafting, few of them have investigated the critical role of self-identity. Drawing from the self-identity theory, the current proposal aims to explore what challenges individuals will confront when the ways work gets done have changed fundamentally. A research agenda is articulated to reveal the mediating roles of self- enhancement and self-protection through which individuals adopt to effectively manage those challenges so as to survive or thrive in this changing workplace. Based on the job crafting model, a research framework is developed to demonstrate how job crafting and leisure crafting serve as the dual process in turning those challenges into surviving and thriving. Furthermore, it’s supposed that individual dispositions (e.g., regulatory focus, goal orientation, and work motivation) and the situational characteristic (e.g., situational strength and job autonomy) function as the boundary conditions for such effects. Furthermore, an intervention design is proposed to cross-validate whether self-identity-based training is effective in fostering self crafting and bringing in positive outcomes.

Key words: job crafting, leisure crafting, self-identity, job design