How control and commitment HR practices influence employee job crafting

Abstract

PurposeBased on the socioemotional selectivity theory, this study aims to explore the differential influences of control and commitment human resource (HR) practices on employee job crafting as well as the mediating role of occupational future time perspective (OFTP).Design/methodology/approachThis study used a two-wave design to survey 53 HR managers and 339 employees of 53 Chinese firms. The hypotheses were tested by conducting multilevel structural equation modeling in Mplus 7.4.FindingsThe results show that control HR practices are negatively related to job crafting, while commitment HR practices are positively related to job crafting. Further, control HR practices are negatively associated with the remaining opportunities dimension of OFTP, whereas commitment HR practices are positively associated with remaining opportunities. However, both types of HR practices have no significant relationship with the remaining time dimension of OFTP. Finally, remaining opportunities mediate the relationships between both types of HR practices and job crafting.Practical implicationsManagers should be aware of how to promote or inhibit employee job crafting by implementing different HR practices.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the job crafting research by demonstrating that the relationship between HR practices and job crafting depends on the type of HR practices in use, as well as contributing to OFTP research by showing that different types of HR practices have differential relationships with the remaining opportunities dimension of OFTP.

Stimulating Job Crafting Behaviors of Older Workers: the Influence of Opportunity-Enhancing Human Resource Practices and Psychological Empowerment

“…This finding suggests that changes in opportunity-enhancing HR practices only lead to changes in job crafting behaviour when older workers experience changes in their psychological empowerment. Although this differs from earlier findings (e.g., Hu et al, 2020;Meijerink et al, 2018;Tuan, 2017) demonstrating a direct positive association between HR practices and job crafting, those studies focused on inter-individual differences, whereas we focus on intra-individual changes. Hence, these previous studies show that employees who are offered more HR practices engage in more job crafting behaviour compared to employees who are offered less HR practices.…”

“…Although job crafting behaviour is bottom-up and self-initiated behaviour, earlier studies found that organizations can trigger job crafting behaviour, for example, by offering flexibility HR practices (i.e., resource and coordination flexibility; Tuan, 2017;Wright & Snell, 1998) or high-commitment HR practices (Hu et al, 2020;Meijerink et al, 2018). We extend this stream of research and propose that opportunity-enhancing HR practices will stimulate older workers' engagement in job crafting behaviour.…”

“…(1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). Given the importance of role flexibility in opportunity-enhancing HR practices, we added an additional item on role flexibility: "Tasks and responsibilities of employees are flexibly defined" based on Hu et al (2020). Cronbach's alpha was good at both time points (T1: ɑ = .92; T2: ɑ = .94).…”

“…Since previous studies suggest that these crafting activities are associated with person-job fit, work engagement, and job performance among others (e.g., D.T.A.M. Kooij et al, 2017;Hu et al, 2020), they might help in extending the working lives of these older workers. Hence, to deal with worker shortages due to workforce ageing and to make sure that older workers remain engaged and productive, organizations could consider implementing and communicating opportunity-enhancing HR practices (i.e., autonomy, job rotation and flexible work assignments, broadly designed jobs, role flexibility, decentralized decision-making, participation in decision-making, suggestions systems, and information sharing; Prieto & Pilar Pérez, 2012) to their older workers.…”

“…Although job crafting behaviour is self-initiated by employees, Wrzesniewski and Dutton (2001) argued that organizations can trigger job crafting behaviour and called for future research on how organizational practices directly and indirectly encourage job crafting behaviour. Three recent empirical studies have revealed that HR practices can positively affect job crafting behaviours (Hu et al, 2020;Meijerink et al, 2018;Tuan, 2017). However, studies on whether and, in particular, on why HR practices influence job crafting behaviour are scarce (e.g., Tuan, 2017).…”