Changing the Situation or Changing Oneself? A Model of Task and Cognitive Job Crafting

Proactive workplace behavior is currently a topic of significant interest. Particular influential, the construct of job crafting describes self-initiated and autonomously enacted physical and cognitive changes in work boundaries. In this study, the analysis of covariance structures in employee survey data (N = 1196) is used to model individual, interpersonal, and organizational antecedents and psychological outcomes of situation-directed (task) and self-directed (cognitive) job crafting. Confirmed as shared antecedents were individual growth need strength and intellectually stimulating transformational leader behavior. Situational constraints appeared to trigger active coping, manifesting in self-enacted task adjustments, but did not lead to increased cognitive reframing or sensemaking attempts. Different motivational implications of the two types of crafting under study were captured with the multidimensional construct of psychological empowerment. Task crafting related primarily to the control-oriented empowerment dimensions of self-determination and impact. In contrast, cognitive crafting was associated predominantly with person-oriented aspects of meaning and competence. New contributions to the literature include the framing of job crafting as self-empowerment and the differentiation between situation-directed and self-directed modes. Limitations arise from cross-sectional self-report data, ad hoc scale development, and exclusion of relational crafting. Implications for work motivation and well-being are discussed.