Philipp Wolfgang Lichtenthaler and Andrea Fischbach
The purpose of this paper is to examine how promotion- and prevention-focussed job crafting impacts the motivation of older employees to continue working beyond retirement age…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how promotion- and prevention-focussed job crafting impacts the motivation of older employees to continue working beyond retirement age. The authors hypothesized that promotion-focussed job crafting (i.e. increasing social and structural job resources, and challenging job demands) relates positively and prevention-focussed job crafting (i.e. decreasing hindering job demands) relates negatively with motivation to continue working after reaching the official retirement age, and that these relationships are sequential mediated by work sense of coherence and burnout.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from 229 older employees (mean age=55.77) were analyzed using structural equation modeling.
Findings
Promotion-focussed job crafting was positively and prevention-focussed job crafting was negatively related with employees’ work sense of coherence, which was predictive of employees’ burnout, which in turn was predictive of motivation to continue working beyond retirement age.
Research limitations/implications
Despite the cross-sectional study design, the results unfold how promotion- and prevention-focussed job crafting are related with motivation to continue working beyond retirement age through work sense of coherence and burnout.
Practical implications
Given today’s aging and shrinking workforce, older employees working beyond their official retirement age are a necessity for organizations’ functional capability. The results suggest that organizations should encourage employees’ promotion-focussed job crafting and limit prevention-focussed job crafting. Promotion-focussed job crafting facilitates employees’ work sense of coherence, which keeps them healthy and motivates older employees to continue working beyond retirement age.
Originality/value
This study adds to the literatures on job crafting and motivation to continue working beyond retirement age and explicates intervening processes in this relationship.
Details
Keywords
Philipp Wolfgang Lichtenthaler and Andrea Fischbach
The purpose of this paper is to integrate the effects of top-down leadership and employees’ bottom-up job crafting behaviors on employee health and performance. The authors…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to integrate the effects of top-down leadership and employees’ bottom-up job crafting behaviors on employee health and performance. The authors expected that employees’ promotion- and prevention-focused job crafting act as intervening mechanisms linking top-down employee-oriented leadership with employee health and performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Multi-source data were collected among n=117 independent employee-leader dyads.
Findings
Promotion-focused job crafting was positively and prevention-focused job crafting was negatively related to employees’ health and performance. Employee-oriented leadership was positively related to promotion-focused job crafting but unrelated to prevention-focused job crafting. Employee-oriented leadership was indirectly related to health and performance through promotion-focused job crafting. Moreover, promotion-focused job crafting had the strongest positive impact on adaptive performance, followed by proactive and then task performance, while prevention-focused job crafting had the strongest negative impact on task performance followed by proactive and then adaptive performance.
Research limitations/implications
Despite the cross-sectional study design, results reveal how employee-oriented leadership is related to employee health and performance through promotion-focused job crafting.
Practical implications
Organizations need employee-oriented leaders, who facilitate promotion-focused job crafting, which helps employees to perform well while staying well.
Originality/value
This study adds to the literatures on job crafting, leadership, and employee health and performance by explicating intervening processes in these relationships. It adds to research on the extended job demands-resources job crafting model by showing, that promotion- and prevention-focused job crafting has different relationships with antecedents (i.e. leadership) and outcomes (i.e. health and performance).