Productive and counterproductive job crafting : a daily diary study

Evangelia DEMEROUTI, Arnold B. BAKKER, Jonathon R. B. HALBESLEBEN

Research output: Journal PublicationsJournal Article (refereed)peer-review

178 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The present study aims to uncover the way daily job crafting influences daily job performance (i.e., task performance, altruism, and counterproductive work behavior). Job crafting was conceptualized as "seeking resources," "seeking challenges," and "reducing demands" and viewed as strategies individuals use to optimize their job characteristics. We hypothesized that daily job crafting relates to daily job demands and resources (work pressure and autonomy), which consequently relate to daily work engagement and exhaustion and ultimately to job performance. A sample of 95 employees filled in a quantitative diary for 5 consecutive working days (n occasions = 475). We predicted and found that daily seeking resources was positively associated with daily task performance because daily autonomy and work engagement increased. In contrast, daily reducing demands was detrimental for daily task performance and altruism, because employees lower their daily workload and consequently their engagement and exhaustion, respectively. Only daily seeking challenges was positively (rather than negatively) associated with daily counterproductive behavior. We conclude that employee job crafting can have both beneficial and detrimental effects on job performance.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)457-469
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Occupational Health Psychology
Volume20
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2015

Bibliographical note

Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 20(4) of Journal of Occupational Health Psychology (see record 2015-44183-001). There was an error in the results. In the Results section, under the subheading Testing Hypotheses, the parenthetical text referring to “lower bound and upper bound” for reducing demands to work engagement through workload in the second paragraph and for reducing demands on task performance through day-level workload and work engagement in the sixth paragraph respectively should have read as follows: (lower bound = -.040 to upper bound = -.002)] The present study aims to uncover the way daily job crafting influences daily job performance (i.e., task performance, altruism, and counterproductive work behavior). Job crafting was conceptualized as “seeking resources,” “seeking challenges,” and “reducing demands” and viewed as strategies individuals use to optimize their job characteristics. We hypothesized that daily job crafting relates to daily job demands and resources (work pressure and autonomy), which consequently relate to daily work engagement and exhaustion and ultimately to job performance. A sample of 95 employees filled in a quantitative diary for 5 consecutive working days (n occasions = 475). We predicted and found that daily seeking resources was positively associated with daily task performance because daily autonomy and work engagement increased. In contrast, daily reducing demands was detrimental for daily task performance and altruism, because employees lower their daily workload and consequently their engagement and exhaustion, respectively. Only daily seeking challenges was positively (rather than negatively) associated with daily counterproductive behavior. We conclude that employee job crafting can have both beneficial and detrimental effects on job performance.

Keywords

  • counterproductive work behavior
  • exhaustion
  • job crafting
  • task performance
  • work engagement

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