Strengths-Based Job Crafting and Employee Creativity: The Role of Job Self-Efficacy and Workplace Status

Abstract

While argued to be fostering creativity, the effect of job crafting on creativity often turned out to be less effective than expected. The reason is that most existing studies focused on the top-down job design interventions. We proposed an elaborated theoretical model to explain the influence of strengths-based job crafting (SJC) on employee creativity (EC). Specifically, we examined the mediating effect of job self-efficacy (JSE) and the moderating effect of workplace status (WP) based on self-affirmation theory. A sample of 480 employees and their supervisors completed a battery of questionnaires. The results revealed that strengths-based job crafting was positively related to employee creativity, with job self-efficacy acting as a mediator for this relationship. Workplace status moderated both the direct and the indirect effects of job self-efficacy. For employees with a higher workplace status, strengths-based job crafting may generate more forces to promote employee creativity. The results suggest that strengths-based job crafting and workplace status can inspire employee creativity through a self-affirmation process.

Effect of workplace status on employees’ creativity from the perspective of expectation identity: a moderated chain double mediation model

“…Existing management researches has recognized the importance of workplace status and creativity from an early stage, but the theoretical and empirical study on workplace status has only begun to emerge in recent years (Blader and Yu, 2017; Sun and Jin, 2021; Djurdjevic et al , 2017). Notably, scholars have not reached a consensus on the relationship between workplace status and creativity (Sun and Jin, 2021; Liu et al , 2020; Yang et al , 2021). Some scholars believe that workplace status has a positive impact on individual creativity, because those with higher status enjoy more advantages and are less constrained.…”

“…The third aspect is workplace reputation, when a member is considered to have more instrumental social value (Leary et al , 2014), he/she is proved to have more reputation. Workplace status reflects people’s basic views and attitudes toward their positions and could have a significant impact on individual psychology, communication mode and behavior (Djurdjevic, 2017; Liu et al , 2020; Yang et al , 2021).…”

“…From the perspective of information resource acquisition, members with higher status in the workplace tend to obtain more non-redundant information (Yang et al, 2021), which makes it easier to determine the rationality and practicality of innovative ideas, ultimately demonstrating higher efficiency in the innovation process. In addition, positive social interaction brought by higher workplace status could promote sharing and communication among members.…”

“…In this process, group members would define and judge the role identity of a member based on value consensus and then form identity cognition about the collective self (Blader and Yu, 2017). Research shows that workplace status plays an important role in self-validation of individuals and in maintenance of group membership, as well as in shaping unique role identity thinking (Yang et al, 2021). In other words, workplace status, as a comprehensive embodiment of social interaction characteristics and instrumental social values of individuals in an organization, represents affirmation and positive evaluation of other members.…”

“…In addition, inconsistent conclusions in theoretical studies remind us that previous studies may have paid too much attention to the instrumental value of workplace status and ignored the basic characteristic that both workplace status and creativity require social interaction, thus lacking attention to the prosocial value of workplace status to individuals. In essence, the emergence of workplace status is to improve the operational efficiency of organizations and teams and make the goals of organizations easier to achieve, rather than to meet the utilitarian needs of individuals (Djurdjevic, 2017; Yang et al , 2021). Therefore, to reveal the relationship between workplace status and employee creativity more accurately, it is necessary to study the mechanism of workplace status from the perspective of prosocial motivation.…”