Unraveling the power of leisure crafting for unengaged employees: Implications for creativity and meaning at work

Drawing on enrichment theory and the identity-based integrative crafting model, the present paper explores the impact of leisure crafting on creativity and meaning at work using both the compensation and the spillover perspectives. We hypothesized that leisure crafting relates to employee creativity, particularly when employees experience low work engagement; and that leisure crafting predicts meaning at work via employee creativity, particularly for employees with low work engagement. We also expected that cognitive developmental and affective leisure-to-work enrichment acts as the mediator in the link between leisure crafting and creativity. Study 1, a three-wave survey study with 1-week time intervals among 191 employees confirmed that the indirect effect of leisure crafting on meaning at work via creativity is stronger among employees reporting low work engagement. Study 2, a follow-up study of a similar design among 421 employees revealed that leisure crafting leads to creativity via cognitive developmental resources and that leisure crafting leads to creativity via affective resources for employees who report low levels of work engagement. Our findings highlight that leisure crafting possesses the inherent capacity to enhance meaning at work through employee creativity (spillover), especially for those employees who experience a lack of fulfillment at work (compensation). We also refine work-life enrichment theories by uncovering that leisure crafting may enrich work via different pathways for different employees.