The usefulness of job crafting: A study on the relationships between regulatory focus, job crafting, career competencies and positive work outcomes.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between regulatory focus, job crafting, work engagement and perceived employability. In addition, it was expected that career competencies would moderate relationships between job crafting, work engagement and perceived employability. Data were gathered using an online survey on social media and among candidates of a consultancy bureau in the life sciences (N = 441). As hypothesized, promotion focus was positively related to crafting structural resources and challenges and social resources. Crafting hindering demands was negatively related to promotion focus and positively related to prevention focus. Furthermore, crafting resources and challenging demands were positively related to work engagement and perceived employability. Moderation effects of career competencies were found for perceived employability, but not for work engagement. The findings suggest that job crafting could be beneficial and has implications for management practice and future research.