Does job crafting affect employee outcomes via job characteristics? A meta-analytic test of a key job crafting mechanism

Job crafting refers to the self-initiated work behaviours employees use to change their job characteristics. According to job design theory, these crafting-induced changes in job characteristics should impact employee outcomes. Job characteristics can therefore be proposed as a key mechanism through which job crafting affects employee outcomes and we present cross-sectional meta-analytic structural equation modelling of this key mechanism (K = 58 independent samples, N = 20,347 employees). Results show significant indirect effects between task resource crafting and employee outcomes (well-being and positive job attitudes) via task resources, and significant indirect effects between social job crafting and employee outcomes (well-being and positive job attitudes) via social resources. Results also indicated that challenge and hindrance demand crafting increase job strain via increases in job demand. Overall, our findings indicate that job characteristics are an important job crafting mechanism, that employees may have difficulty in crafting job demands in ways that produce beneficial outcomes, and that future research needs to consider simultaneously the range of mechanisms through which job crafting affects outcomes.