The Impact Mechanism Of Job Characteristics On Job Crafting-a Research Based On The Three-dimensional JD-R Model

Work design is one of the most important topic in management.A well-designed job not only helps to improve employees' well-being,but also helps to achieve organizational goals.With the increased flexibility of work arrangements and the blurring of work boundaries,it is increasingly difficult for the top-down work design led by the organization to adapt to the changing work environment.Organizations hope that employees can take the initiative to make changes to their job,so that they can serve the organizational goals.Besides,with the constant awakening of employees' personal consciousness,employees gradually realize that they can proatively change their job(ie,job crafting)to achieve high person-job fit and enhance personal happiness.The concept of job crafting provides a new research perspective for work design theory.Outcomes of job crafting have been extensively studied,but its antecedents have received little attention.In addition,the existing research shows that the job characteristics are important factors affecting employees' job crafting,and the three-dimensional JD-R work feature model comprehensively summarizes the job characteristics in the work environment.Hence,based on the three-dimensional JD-R model,the antecedents of job crafting and their impact mechanisms are explored in this study.Through a survey of 319 employees,conclusions are drawed as follows:(1)Different job characteristics in the three-dimensional JD-R model impact different kinds of job crafting differently.Specifically,on the one hand,challenging job demands positively affect expansion job crafting;hindering job demands negatively affect expansion job crafting,job resources positively affect expansion job crafting.on the other hand,challenging job demands negatively affect contraction job crafting;hindering job demands positively affect contaction job crafting,job resources negatively affect contraction job crafting.(2)Different types of job characteristics have different effects on the level of employee engagement.Specifically,the challenging job demands positively affect the employee's work engagement,hindering job demands negatively affect the employee's work engagement,and the job resources positively affect the employee's work engagement.(3)Work engagement positively affects employees' expansion job crafting,and negatively affects employees' contraction job crafting.(4)The influence of different job characteristics on different job crafting behaviors are mediated by work engagement.(5)self-efficacy moderates the influence of work engagement on expansion job crafting.Theoretically,job crafting is divided into expansion job crafting and contraction job crafting according to its orientation in this study,which provides a new theoretical perspective for analyzing employees' job crafting behavior.In addition,based on the three-dimensional JD-R job characteristics model,the effects of different types of job characteristics(challenging job demands,hindering job demands and job resources)on work engagement and job crafting are explored,which not only helps to further understand the three-dimensional structure of the JD-R model,but also enriches the research results on the the antecedents of job crafting and their impact mechanisms.Practically,the following management implications are proposed: firstly,the organization should minimize the job demands that prevent employees from completing their work smoothly,and provide employees with the necessary decision latitude and social support.In this way,employees will increase their work engagement and in turn carry out expansion job crafting.Besides,the organization should actively create challenging job demands for employees,which makes employees feel the meaning of work and increase their work engagement,and then guide them to expand the boundary of their work tasks and relationship at work.Lastly,the organization should foster employees' self-efficacy and enhance employees' self-confidence so that they can take on more responsibility in a challenging work environment.