Abstract:

With the booming development of digital economy and digital technology, digital transformation has changed from an “optional” choice for some leading enterprises to a "mandatory" requirement for more enterprises. However, many companies face several problems in the digital transformation process such as slow performance growth and insufficient transformation sustainability. Among possible reasons for these problems, the misfit between employees' digital competencies, digital technologies, and digital job demands (i.e., individual-task-technology misfit) is the main one. Therefore, understanding how employees can proactively change the digital job environment and increase individual-task-technology fit to improve job performance has both theoretical and practical implications. On the basis of the new work environment element of digital technology, this project intends to introduce the individual-task-technology fit theory and explore new digital job crafting strategies to help employees actively adapt to the digital transformation of enterprises and promote individual-task-technology fit, in turn improving job performance.
Specifically, this project focuses on digital work, a new type of work practice, with particular attention to employees' adaptation to digital work. In order to help employees adapt to and manage their digital work, this project will propose a new concept called digital job crafting, which refers to the process by which employee make physical and cognitive changes in digital task characteristics, interpersonal interactions, and digital technology use in order to match personal needs, digital technology use, and digital work demands. We propose that digital job crafting promotes job performance via individual-task-technology fit. We intend to use multi-wave surveys and diary surveys to explore the mechanisms for the effect of digital job crafting on employees' job performance. Meanwhile, from the perspectives of colleagues, leaders, and organizational structure, this project will examine digital job crafting support, digital leadership, and organizational formalization as potential boundary conditions of the relationship between digital job crafting and job performance.
This project firstly proposes the concept of “digital job crafting” and develops a theoretical model of the promoting mechanism of digital job crafting on job performance. This project will contribute to expanding digital job research from a proactive adaptation perspective and initiate new research themes for job crafting research. It also provides theoretical guidance and practical intervention plans for employees to proactively adapt to digital transformation and gain digital intelligence dividends.

Key words: digitalization, digital job crafting, individual-task-technology fit, job performance