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How different forms of job crafting relate to job satisfaction: The role of person-job fit and age

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Abstract

The purpose of our research is to explore the role of different job crafting strategies on employees’ person-job fit and job satisfaction within the background of the changing nature and demands of jobs. By integrating the original conceptualization of job crafting and job demands-resources theory, we examine whether three dimensions of job crafting (i.e., task, relational, and cognitive crafting) foster job satisfaction via perceived person-job fit and how employees’ age moderates these mediated relationships. Using a sample of 379 Chinese employees from diverse industries and occupations, the findings indicated that person-job fit mediated the relationships between all three forms of job crafting and job satisfaction. Moreover, the relationships of task and relational crafting with person-job fit were stronger among younger employees, and the relationship of cognitive crafting with person-job fit was stronger among older employees. Employees’ age further moderated the indirect effects of the three forms of job crafting on job satisfaction via person-job fit. We provide insights into how organizations can help employees of all ages benefit from utilizing different job crafting strategies, and discuss future directions for job crafting research.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

This manuscript is an original work that has not been submitted to nor published anywhere else. All authors have read and approved the paper and have met the criteria for authorship.

Funding

This research was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (71910107003; 71871209).

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  1. School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China, 96 Jinzhai Road, Baohe District, Hefei, China

    Junyi Li, Hui Yang, Qingxiong Weng & Linna Zhu

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  1. Junyi Li
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Contributions

Literature investigation, data collection and analysis were performed by Junyi Li, Hui Yang, and Linna Zhu. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Junyi Li and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. During the revision process, Junyi Li was responsible for the revisions of the introduction, theory, and discussion sections. Hui yang was responsible for the revisions of the theory and hypothesis sections. Qiongxiong Weng was responsible for the revisions of the method section. Linna Zhu was responsible for polishing the language. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hui Yang.

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Li, J., Yang, H., Weng, Q. et al. How different forms of job crafting relate to job satisfaction: The role of person-job fit and age. Curr Psychol 42, 11155–11169 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02390-3

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