Personality and boredom at work: the mediating role of job crafting

Abstract

Purpose Boredom at work is associated with negative consequences, therefore it is important to investigate whether employees engage in job crafting behaviors that reduce boredom and what are the individual differences associated with these behaviors. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire study was designed to examine the mediating role of job crafting in the relationship between conscientiousness and emotional stability and boredom among 252 employees (Study 1) and in the relationship between Machiavellianism and psychopathy and boredom among 216 employees (Study 2). Findings The results showed that conscientiousness is negatively related to work-related boredom. This relationship is mediated by job crafting. Neuroticism and psychopathy are positively associated with boredom at work, but these relationships are not mediated by job crafting behaviors. Research limitations/implications The study was based on self-reported measures, which might raise questions of common-method bias, and the research samples contained mostly women and young employees, which raises questions about generalizability of our findings. At the same time, the cross-sectional design does not allow causal inferences. Practical implications Organizations can select employees based on their personality for jobs that predispose to boredom and give them enough autonomy to be able to craft them. Moreover, they can identify employees who need support to manage their boredom and include them in job crafting interventions. Originality/value Traditionally, boredom at work has been considered as resulting from characteristics of tasks and jobs. The findings indicate that some employees can make self-initiated changes to their work in order to reduce their boredom and possibly its negative consequences.

Impact of Perceived Organizational Support, Servant Leadership, Creative Self-Efficacy, and Conscientiousness on Job Boredom Via Job Crafting: A Study on Banking Sector of Pakistan

“…Moreover, conscientious employees seek opportunities and are willing to learn for personal development. These qualities help them in engaging crafting their jobs (Oprea et al, 2019). The finding of positive relation between conscientiousness and job crafting was similar with the past study of (Bell & Njoli, 2016;Rudolph et al, 2017).…”

“…The study of Oprea et al (2019), examined how job crafting can help in lowering job boredom and what role does personality plays. It proposed that a negative relationship exists between conscientiousness and boredom with the mediatory impact of job crafting (challenging demands and increasing structural resources).…”

“…Some researchers found that workplace boredom arises due to monotonous work and it emerges due to the tasks that don't appear to be entertaining and considered ineffective by the employees. According to past study, it is suggested that boredom can be reduced through job crafting (Oprea, Iliescu, Burtăverde, & Dumitrache, 2019). Furthermore, Wrzesniewski and Dutton (2001), were the initiator of the job crafting, which means that employees are said to be job crafters when they actively engage in making changes in their task because they want to align capabilities and their personal need with the job (Ingusci et al, 2019).…”

“…A conscientious person demonstrates willingness towards performing tasks effectively and promptly. Thus, a contribution in literature can likewise be made through investigating the relationship of conscientiousness with job crafting and then how job crafting can mitigate job boredom (Oprea et al, 2019).…”

Linking performance pressure to employee work engagement: the moderating role of emotional stability

“…Unlike other personality traits (e.g. conscientiousness, extraversion), emotional stability is not only more closely associated with job-related aspects of individual behavior (Oprea et al, 2019) but also has stronger ties with individuals' emotional and affective states, such as stress (Alessandri et al, 2018), exhaustion (Liu and Yu, 2019) and subjective wellbeing (Sobol-Kwapinska, 2016). Given that performance pressure may lead to emotion suppression instead of dealing with emotions (Ness et al, 2017), we argue that emotional stability may be more relevant in studying performance pressure and work engagement relationship.…”