The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of job crafting on change-oriented behavior in the mediating role of work engagement. In order to achieve such study agenda, the foremost issue would be to firstly examine whether job crafting has a...
The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of job crafting on change-oriented behavior in the mediating role of work engagement. In order to achieve such study agenda, the foremost issue would be to firstly examine whether job crafting has an impact on change-oriented behavior, followed by whether job crafting has an effect on work engagement. Also, it will question whether work engagement has an influence on change-oriented behavior. Lastly, whether or not work engagement mediates between job crafting and change-oriented behavior would be investigated.
In order to solve such research problems, we set job crafting as an inde-pendent variable, and change-oriented behavior as a dependent variable and finally work engagement as a mediator variable. As for the measurement tool, followings were used on each topic; on job crafting, Petrou et al.(2012)’s measurement tool was used and on change-oriented behavior, Griffin, Neal, & Parker(2007)’s individual task adaptivity and individual task proactivity tool were applied. Lastly, on work engagement, we used UWES-9(Dutch Utrecht Work Engagement Scale) developed by Schaufeli, Bakker, & Sa-lanova(2006). The subjects of the research are employees working in automo-bile and automobile components manufacturing companies and final 459 samples were used in our analysis. SPSS 20.0 and AMOS 21.0 statistical program were utilized for data analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, re-search model verification, mediating effect verification were carried out.
Here are the illustrations of the research results. Firstly, seeking re-sources and reducing demands of the job crafting three behaviors have a sig-nificantly positive effect on adaptive behavior while seeking challenges turned out to have no significant effect on it. Although seeking resources have a significantly positive effect on proactive behavior, seeking challenges and reducing demands showed no significant effect. Secondly, seeking re-sources and seeking challenges have a positive effect on work engagement, but reducing demands do not have a positive effect on work engagement.
Thirdly, work engagement has a positive effect on change-oriented be-havior. Fourth, work engagement mediates the relations between seeking re-sources, seeking challenges and change-oriented behaviors. However, it is proved that work engagement does not mediate the relations between reduc-ing demands and change-oriented behavior. Especially, work engagement proves to accomplish a perfect mediation between the relations of seeking challenges and change-oriented behavior.
The result of the study can provide the practical implication in the suc-ceeding manner. Firstly, employees can participate in the changing process within an organization by altering individual job characteristics through job crafting, overcoming the management-oriented top-down method’s limita-tions on change and maintenance, which will in turn increase the effective-ness of the organization’s changes. Secondly, we can utilize job crafting strategy as a catalyst to the employees’ work engagement. It is important to have the management and HRD practitioners encourage employees to seek psychological, social, physical resources within themselves instead of from their superiors or colleagues whilst creating a work environment that enables such attempts. Thirdly, there is a need to design the intervention and envi-ronment to improve work engagement so that the employees do not to take change as something negative, but rather as a challenge to enhance individual competence.
Based on the research result and implication of this study, following sug-gestions could be made. To begin with, the study used self-reported data thus may be affected in the direction that is taken socially desirable. There-fore in the future, additional research assessed by the superior is required. Secondly, job crafting of reducing demands behavior did not get consistent research result through preceding research. In prospect, there would be need to suggest reliable research results through continued and in-depth study and reconsider the generalization of this research result. Thirdly, to study a clear conceptualization and influence of job crafting, following up research on job crafting and result variable in the perspective of ‘meaning and identity of work’ should be proceeded. Fourthly, by expanding and diversifying the ap-plicable organization’s business type, size, job, we need to empirically prove whether the difference of relations between job crafting and result variables exists.
key words: job crafting, change-oriented behavior, adaptive behavior, proactive behavior, work engagement