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The relationship between leadership and approach and avoidance job crafting

Sanchez Diez, M.L. (2020) The relationship between leadership and approach and avoidance job crafting.

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Abstract:As big corporates are often considered as hierarchical and bureaucratic organizations, employees often feel that they are not in control of their jobs and are not sure which added value they deliver. Especially in fast-growing companies, employees may feel lost as the organization is changing every day. The process of job crafting could tackle this problem by giving employees the opportunity to craft their jobs to their own preferences, competences and interests. As the role of the supervisor is crucial in the job crafting process, it is important to investigate how leaders affect the approach and avoidance job crafting process of employees. Once there is a better understanding of the influence of leadership on the different job crafting processes, middle managers can establish a more sustainable work environment which improves the overall well-being of employees. However, research is still lacking answers on the role of the supervisor and their influences the job crafting activities on the employee. Therefore, this study is the first qualitative study that provides insight on how leadership influences the job crafting activities of their employees. The aim of this study is to gain more insight on how job crafting activities are influenced by leadership. In order to investigate this, semi-structured interviews were held among 19 middle managers in a fast growing corporate organization. These middle managers were asked questions about their overall experience of their current position as a middle manager, how they make changes in their role as middle manager, how they perceived their own leadership and how the leadership of their supervisors influences their work. Results show middle managers experience both approach and avoidance job crafting in all three levels of task, relational and cognitive crafting. An interesting contribution to the literature is that approach and avoidance crafting are two interdependent variables which is not stated in literature before. Also, cognitive job crafting plays a crucial role in the overall experience of the work of the middle managers. Furthermore, the results show that trust and encouragement are two general instruments in leadership in order to engage employees in job crafting activities on task, relational and cognitive level. Besides, middle managers get different needs from their leader as they are getting more experience with the job. Based on the results of this first qualitative research regarding the influence of leadership on job crafting activities, practical implications and future research are provided. Keywords: approach and avoidance job crafting, leadership, self-leadership
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:05 communication studies
Programme:Communication Studies MSc (60713)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/80546
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