One of the most significant current discussions in work and organisational psychology centres on the ways in which employees can face and adapt to growing levels of uncertainty and complexity in the workplace. In this regard, the construct of job crafting has gain momentum, as it designates a set of employees’ proactive behaviours balancing the job characteristics to allow optimal functioning in dynamic work environments. Despite a common agreement on the nature of job crafting as a bottom-up, self-initiated work redesign behaviour, construct clarification is still needed to advance knowledge on its nomological network. Against this background, this dissertation aimed at deepening knowledge on the structure and behavioural features of job crafting, in order to further investigate the role of employees’ psychosocial beliefs in driving such proactive behaviours, and whether and how intervention initiatives can be used to support them. To reach these aims, we present one theoretical chapter and three empirical contributions, conducted with different research designs. Chapter 2 presents a systematic literature review on the scales developed to measure job crafting and three empirical studies (i.e., cross-sectional, three-wave, and weekly diary) aimed at investigating the validity of a four-dimensional, hierarchical conceptualisation of behavioural job crafting. Our conceptualisation integrates the dimension of optimising job demands as a constituting domain of job crafting and accounts for the hierarchical features that reflect or form an overall job crafting construct. Results showed that a four-factor solution fitted the data well at both the within- and between-level of analysis. Also, these dimensions were relatively stable over time. Moreover, our results provide initial evidence suggesting that overall job crafting may be more strongly characterised by effortful actions to expand the work characteristics rather than to reduce them. In Chapter 3, we adopt a dynamic perspective to the theory of planned behaviour as an overarching theoretical framework allowing us to understand how personal and social beliefs drive behavioural job crafting over time. Assuming a bi-directional perspective, we further propose that previous engagement in job crafting serves to shape the drivers of job crafting behaviours. Results suggest that modelling and initiatives providing employees with the tools and techniques to craft their jobs are critical to stimulating virtuous cycles for job crafting to flourish in the work environment. Chapter 4 and 5 present a theoretical contribution and an intervention study on how the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) can serve to design job crafting interventions that are likely to be effective to support job crafting and subsequent flow at work because they target the psychosocial mechanisms underlying behaviour formation. Results from our quasi-experimental study show that the intervention was effective in supporting participants’ higher intentions to engage in job crafting compared to the control group, and in promoting weekly flow at work, which eventually prompted subsequent job crafting. Weekly initial and changing intentions were, in turn, both related to post-measures of job crafting. This dissertation contributes to the literature on job crafting and behaviour formation. In our studies, we explored and provided evidence on the role of different behavioural strategies in defining an overall conceptualisation of job crafting. Moreover, we investigated the psychosocial boundaries and processes that contribute to the formation of such a set of behaviours. The validity of such a framework to explain the roles of the antecedents of job crafting then served us to design and test an intervention initiative, which proved be effective to support employees’ behavioural tendencies towards the development of work environments that are auto-generative of resources.

Make It Work: How Cognitive & Behavioural Dynamics Shape Job Crafting

Costantini Arianna
2020-01-01

Abstract

One of the most significant current discussions in work and organisational psychology centres on the ways in which employees can face and adapt to growing levels of uncertainty and complexity in the workplace. In this regard, the construct of job crafting has gain momentum, as it designates a set of employees’ proactive behaviours balancing the job characteristics to allow optimal functioning in dynamic work environments. Despite a common agreement on the nature of job crafting as a bottom-up, self-initiated work redesign behaviour, construct clarification is still needed to advance knowledge on its nomological network. Against this background, this dissertation aimed at deepening knowledge on the structure and behavioural features of job crafting, in order to further investigate the role of employees’ psychosocial beliefs in driving such proactive behaviours, and whether and how intervention initiatives can be used to support them. To reach these aims, we present one theoretical chapter and three empirical contributions, conducted with different research designs. Chapter 2 presents a systematic literature review on the scales developed to measure job crafting and three empirical studies (i.e., cross-sectional, three-wave, and weekly diary) aimed at investigating the validity of a four-dimensional, hierarchical conceptualisation of behavioural job crafting. Our conceptualisation integrates the dimension of optimising job demands as a constituting domain of job crafting and accounts for the hierarchical features that reflect or form an overall job crafting construct. Results showed that a four-factor solution fitted the data well at both the within- and between-level of analysis. Also, these dimensions were relatively stable over time. Moreover, our results provide initial evidence suggesting that overall job crafting may be more strongly characterised by effortful actions to expand the work characteristics rather than to reduce them. In Chapter 3, we adopt a dynamic perspective to the theory of planned behaviour as an overarching theoretical framework allowing us to understand how personal and social beliefs drive behavioural job crafting over time. Assuming a bi-directional perspective, we further propose that previous engagement in job crafting serves to shape the drivers of job crafting behaviours. Results suggest that modelling and initiatives providing employees with the tools and techniques to craft their jobs are critical to stimulating virtuous cycles for job crafting to flourish in the work environment. Chapter 4 and 5 present a theoretical contribution and an intervention study on how the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) can serve to design job crafting interventions that are likely to be effective to support job crafting and subsequent flow at work because they target the psychosocial mechanisms underlying behaviour formation. Results from our quasi-experimental study show that the intervention was effective in supporting participants’ higher intentions to engage in job crafting compared to the control group, and in promoting weekly flow at work, which eventually prompted subsequent job crafting. Weekly initial and changing intentions were, in turn, both related to post-measures of job crafting. This dissertation contributes to the literature on job crafting and behaviour formation. In our studies, we explored and provided evidence on the role of different behavioural strategies in defining an overall conceptualisation of job crafting. Moreover, we investigated the psychosocial boundaries and processes that contribute to the formation of such a set of behaviours. The validity of such a framework to explain the roles of the antecedents of job crafting then served us to design and test an intervention initiative, which proved be effective to support employees’ behavioural tendencies towards the development of work environments that are auto-generative of resources.
2020
Intervention Study; JD-R Theory; Job Crafting; Job Design; Positive Organizational Behaviour; Proactive Behaviours; Quantitative Methods; Social Norms; Theory of Planned Behaviour; Work Engagement
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11562/1017186
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