Abstract:

By proactively changing and crafting their jobs, employees can effectively compensate for the lack of motivation due to a top-down approach adopted by firms. Therefore, our research focuses on job crafting by exploring how to enhance organizational performance via job crafting behaviors enacted by individuals and work teams. First, drawing on the action theory, we flesh out the nature of job crafting behavior and propose a dynamic process model. Accordingly, we elaborate on the dynamic process via which job crafting occurs such that it has interactive implications at the individual and team levels at the same time. Next, we explore how individual job crafting shapes individual job performance via two distinct mediating mechanisms. Last, drawing on a team process view, we delineate how team job crafting contributes to team performance.

In summary, our research makes several contributions to the job crafting literature. To start with, it enriches our understanding of the job crafting concept and evolution. Drawing on ontology and action theory, we focus on exploring the definition of job crafting and offer a comprehensive view of the dynamic development of job crafting by revealing two specific processes. In contrast to the consequences of job crafting, the nature of job crafting behaviors is understudied in previous studies. Moreover, far too little attention has been paid to the association between individual and team job crafting. Based on the dynamic process model of job crafting, we provide a nuanced examination of the elements and structures of job crafting activities and explain the interaction between individual job crafting and team job crafting. Therefore, our study not only enhances the knowledge of what job crafting is but also offers insights into how this bottom-up behavior grows and changes.

Second, we contribute to the individual job crafting literature by introducing a new theoretical perspective to explore the mechanism of how individual job crafting influences job performance. Previous studies investigating this process are limited to work engagement, job satisfaction, and well-being. These findings, however, have ignored the individuals’ self-awareness and adjustments after crafting their jobs. Beyond the traditional theoretical views, such as the JD-R model and social exchange theory, applied in prior research, our study introduces the social distance theory to explain the differential impacts of individual approach and avoidance job crafting on job performance, and reveals the moderating role of task time pressure. This new theoretical perspective advances the outcomes of individual job crafting and encourages more future research to analyze the cognitive mechanisms at the individual level.

Third, the present study contributes to the team job crafting literature by examining the mechanisms and boundary conditions. Current research has majorly focused on the effects of job crafting at the individual level. However, few studies have investigated how team job crafting influences team outcomes. In this research, our model addresses the gap by differentiating the mediating roles of team reflection and team conflict in the relationship between team job crafting and team performance. In addition, we highlight that the team transactive memory will moderate these two pathways. By conducting studies from a team-level view, our research contributes to a more thorough understanding of the distinctions between team approach job crafting and team avoidance job crafting, and improves the comprehensiveness of the current theoretical framework of job crafting.

Finally, our research extends the application of theories in job crafting literature by building a flow-based integrative model. Previous studies have mainly focused on individual social learning, job demands and resources, and attribution theory to explain the effects of job crafting. In this study, we integrate theories from different levels and explore changes and links in the job crafting process by the flow, instead of particular variables. Additionally, the flow-based model will contribute to empirical studies and managerial practices.

Key words: job crafting, dynamic process, mediating mechanism, organizational performance