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Proactive personality, job crafting, and person-environment fit: does job autonomy matter?

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Abstract

Based on the theory of proactive personality, which proposes that proactive individuals are more likely to shape their surroundings to enhance their person-environment fit compared to passive individuals, we developed a model that addresses the mechanism underlying the relationship between proactive personality and person-environment fit. A sample of a three-wave survey collected from 171 employees was used to examine this model. Regression analyses indicated that proactive personality correlated positively with job crafting. Job crafting fully mediated the relationships between proactive personality and person-organization fit, person-group fit, and person-supervisor fit and partially mediated the relationships of proactive personality with person-job fit and person-vocation fit. In addition, job autonomy moderated the proactive personality-job crafting relationship, and this relationship was stronger for employees with high rather than low job autonomy. The moderated mediation analyses further indicated that the indirect effects of proactive personality on person-job fit, person-organization fit, person-group fit, and person-vocation fit via job crafting are stronger for employees with high rather than low job autonomy. These findings have important implications for career development and counseling.

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Data Availability

The data from this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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  1. Department of Business Management, College of Management, National United University, 1 LienDa, Miaoli, 360301, Taiwan

    Pen-Yuan Liao

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  1. Pen-Yuan Liao
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Correspondence to Pen-Yuan Liao.

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Liao, PY. Proactive personality, job crafting, and person-environment fit: does job autonomy matter?. Curr Psychol 42, 18959–18970 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03065-3

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