Can job crafting reduce job boredom and increase work engagement? A three-year cross-lagged panel study

Lotta Harju, Jari J. Hakanen and Wilmar B. Schaufeli
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Lotta Harju: FIOH - Finnish Institute of Occupational Health of Helsinki, Aalto University
Jari J. Hakanen: FIOH - Finnish Institute of Occupational Health of Helsinki, Helsingin yliopisto = Helsingfors universitet = University of Helsinki
Wilmar B. Schaufeli: KU Leuven - Catholic University of Leuven = Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Universiteit Utrecht / Utrecht University [Utrecht]

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Abstract: Building upon the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, this longitudinal study examined whether job crafting behaviors (i.e. increasing structural and social job resources and increasing challenges) predict less job boredom and more work engagement. We also tested the reverse causation effects of job boredom and work engagement on job crafting and the dynamics between the three job crafting behaviors over time. We employed a two-wave, three-year panel design and included 1630 highly educated Finnish employees from a broad spectrum of occupations in various organizations. Our results indicated that seeking challenges in particular negatively predicted job boredom and positively predicted work engagement. Seeking challenges fueled other job crafting behaviors, which, in their turn, predicted seeking more challenges over time, thus supporting the accumulation of resources. Job boredom negatively predicted increasing structural resources, whereas work engagement positively predicted increasing both structural and social resources. These findings suggest that seeking challenges at work enhances employee work engagement, prevents job boredom, and generates other job crafting behaviors. Conversely, job boredom seems to impede job crafting.

Keywords: job boredom; Work engagement; job crafting; Longitudinal study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-08-01
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Published in Journal of Vocational Behavior, 2016, 95-96, 11-20 p. ⟨10.1016/j.jvb.2016.07.001⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02312426

DOI: 10.1016/j.jvb.2016.07.001

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