Crafting Jobs for Occupational Satisfaction and Innovation among Manufacturing Workers Facing the COVID-19 Crisis

Tianzhou Ren, Lele Cao and Tachia Chin
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Tianzhou Ren: School of Management, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310023, China
Lele Cao: School of Management, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310023, China
Tachia Chin: School of Management, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310023, China

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 11, 1-12

Abstract: China’s manufacturing employees are confronted with unprecedent occupational and innovation challenges caused by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis coupled with the pressure of being replaced by digital technologies. To gain a better understanding of the rising occupational uncertainty during this critical time, based on the job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, we examined the associations of employees’ job crafting behaviors (JCB) with their occupational satisfaction and innovation workplace behavior (IWB), as well as the mediating effect of work engagement on the above relationships. The final usable data were obtained from the formal survey of 311 employees of six manufacturing companies that have returned to work amid COVID-19. Structural equation modelling was adopted to analyze the data. Results show that employees’ JCB strengthens their occupational satisfaction and IWB via work engagement. Theoretically, our research enriches the existing body of knowledge about JCB from a cross-disciplinary angle integrating the perspectives of career and psychology. Practically, we offer valuable first-hand evidence about how manufacturing employees conducted JCB to re-orient their careers and to innovate in the face of the high unemployment situation.

Keywords: COVID-19; job crafting; occupational satisfaction; innovation; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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