Job Crafting as a Mediator Between Work Autonomy, Skill Utilization, and Enhanced Employee Performance in Dynamic Work Settings

Abstract

In the current fast-growing organizational climates, it takes more than conventional job design processes to maintain a stable worker performance. This research focuses on the mediating effect of job crafting amid work autonomy, utilization of skills, and employee performance in changing jobs environments. Based on the Job Demands -Resources (JD-R) model and the Self-Determination Theory (SDT), a cross-sectional survey on 300 employees in the IT, healthcare, banking, and telecommunications industries, operating in Pakistan, was carried out. SEM could not support the hypothesis since both work autonomy and skill use have positive impacts on employee performance, however, these effects are strengthened through the exercising of craft by an employee. Mediation analysis through bootstrapping sheds further light on the fact that job crafting played a partial mediating role in these two relationships; demonstrating that job crafting is core to the conversion of job resources into adaptive performance outcomes. The results indicate that autonomy and the ability to utilize skills support their employees in redesigning their jobs, their relationships and the way they perceive themselves but it is proactive job crafting that tends to transfer these assets into long-term performance in turbulent and unpredictable environments. Our research contributes to the growing literature on proactive work behaviors by demonstrating that job crafting is an important organizational resilience and adaptive change strategy in changing and turbulent environments, as well as being a personal change agent in helping individuals to bring aspects of their person to congruency with their work.