Date of Award

May 2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

Committee Member

Robert R Sinclair

Committee Member

Thomas W Britt

Committee Member

Zhou J Chen

Abstract

Job crafting is becoming an increasingly more popular topic in the Industrial-Organizational psychology literature. Job crafting is a proactive behavior in which employees redesign their job using a bottom-up approach so that their perceived job characteristics better align with how they want to perceive the work they do and who they are at work (Tims Bakker, & Derks, 2012; Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001). This study examined the role of job crafting in the Job Demands-Resources model (JD-R model; Bakker & Demerouti, 2001). Job crafting behaviors were included as an outcome of the JD-R model as well as part of a feedback loop in which job crafting initiated more job resources. A reciprocal relationship between work engagement and job crafting was also predicted. A three-wave longitudinal study was conducted among Amazon Mechanical Turkers (MTurkers), and structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. The results did not show the cyclical effects of job crafting in the JD-R model or the reciprocal relationship between work engagement and job crafting. Rather, only the autoregressive paths among the latent variables were significant over time. Additional analyses were conducted testing the same model but only included the seeking resources subscale of job crafting. The findings for the second set of analyses mimicked that of the first and were overall insignificant. The findings of this study provide several theoretical implications, specifically concerning future considerations to improve the study design, as well as practical implications. Future research is needed to provide clarity on the relationships between work-related support resources, work engagement, and job crafting in the JD-R model.

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