Interactive effects of approach and avoidance job crafting in explaining weekly variations in work performance and employability

Meta-analyses on job crafting reveal that while approach-oriented job crafting (e.g., increasing job resources or challenging job demands) relates positively to employee performance, avoidance-oriented job crafting (e.g., decreasing hindering job demands) has either non-significant or negative implications for employee functioning. However, the joint effects of approach and avoidance job crafting remain an underdeveloped area of research. We administered a three-week diary survey among 87 employees to test interaction effects of approach and avoidance job crafting on employee (other-referenced and past-referenced) work performance and employability. Results revealed that decreasing hindering job demands related positively to other-referenced performance when increasing social job resources was higher than employees’ average, and to past-referenced performance when increasing structural job resources was higher than employees’ average. Also, decreasing hindering job demands related negatively with employability only at lower levels of increasing challenging job demands, while the relationship was non-significant at higher levels of increasing challenging demands. These results indicate that considering job crafting strategies in tandem adds to our understanding of their role for employee functioning.