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Abstract

Executive Summary

Thriving reflects the psychological state of progress, momentum and growth embedded in a collective experience of vitality and learning (Spreitzer et al., 2005). A thriving workforce is critical for organizations to achieve competitive advantage and sustainable performance (Prem et al., 2017). Organizations derive several benefits from a thriving workforce. For instance, thriving alleviates problems such as exhaustion, burnout and absenteeism (Porath et al., 2012) and improves job satisfaction, job performance, organizational commitment (Gerbasi et al., 2015), health (Walumbwa et al., 2018) and well-being. Against this background, this study deploys congruity theory to investigate the role of value congruity (VC) and self-image congruity (SIC) in moderating the relationship between the perceived opportunity to craft (POC) and job crafting (JC) behaviour and, concomitantly, thriving at work (TW). Primary data from a sample of 426 employees formed the basis of empirical testing. The data were gathered using a structured questionnaire. Appropriate statistical procedures, consisting of descriptive and inferential statistical techniques, were used to analyse the data. The validity of the research instrument was examined using factor analysis, and the hypothesized relationships were tested through structural equation modelling. The results indicated that perceived opportunities to craft significantly improve job crafting behaviour and thriving at work. Additionally, value congruity and self-image congruity intensify the positive impact of POC on JC. These results offer a novel insight into the job crafting dynamics and its role in nurturing thriving at work. In light of the results, it is advised that a broader framework must be established instead of devising narrow and rigid boundaries of desired employee behaviour. Within that framework, employees should be offered a generous leeway to express themselves by modifying their tasks, relations and cognitions.

Keywords

Job Crafting Perception Thriving at Work Value Congruity Self-image Congruity Job Crafting Behaviour

In the contemporary knowledge-driven and competitive business environment, a thriving workforce is critical for organizations to achieve competitive advantage and sustainable performance (Prem et al., 2017). Thriving reflects the psychological state of progress, momentum and growth embedded in a collective experience of vitality and learning (Spreitzer et al., 2005). Vitality demonstrates a sense of liveliness and energy at work. It renders people passionate, enthusiastic and excited about their work. Learning captures growth and development at the workplace through acquiring and applying new knowledge. Thus, thriving embraces the affective (vitality) and cognitive (learning) dimensions of psychological functioning. When thriving, individuals seek to improve their task roles by challenging the status quo and pursuing novel opportunities.

Organizations derive several benefits from a thriving workforce. For instance, thriving alleviates problems such as exhaustion, burnout and absenteeism in employees (Porath et al., 2012) besides improving job satisfaction, job performance, organizational commitment (Gerbasi et al., 2015), health (Walumbwa et al., 2018) and well-being (Okros & Virga, 2023). As a result, academic research has called for greater emphasis on investigating the factors that nurture thriving at work. Thriving at work depends on several diverse factors such as personal resources (e.g., knowledge), relational characteristics (e.g., trust and respect), contextual attributes (e.g., decision-making discretion) and agentic work behaviours (e.g., task focus and heedful relating) (Spreitzer et al., 2005).

Recently, certain scholars such as Mansour and Tremblay (2021) and Miraglia et al. (2017) have argued that the conceptualization of agentic work behaviour overlaps with that of job crafting (a self-initiated behaviour of employees to align their job characteristics with their skills, preferences and passions) and, as such, job crafting can operate as a potential driver of thriving at work. Responding to this proposition, Mansour and Tremblay (2021), using a sample of accounting professionals, empirically investigated the driver effect of perceived opportunity to craft on job crafting and thriving at work and found encouraging evidence, thus opening pathways for further exploration in this realm of study.

Notably, to broaden the theoretical insight of the nomological network of job crafting and thriving at work, it is of paramount interest to explore the factors that have a contingent effect on the relationship between perceived opportunities to craft, job crafting behaviour and thriving at work. That would enhance our academic understanding of the antecedents of job crafting and thriving at work and entail several important implications for organizational practice. As a matter of recommendation, Mansour and Tremblay (2021) have also suggested that future researchers investigate the interactive factors of job crafting behaviour and thriving at work.

Building on this agenda, this study adopts the congruity theory perspective to explore two congruities (self-image congruity and value congruity) as the possible boundary conditions that moderate the impact of job crafting perception on job crafting behaviour and thriving at work. Specifically, it is proposed that the greater the congruity between an employee’s beliefs and the organizational image and values, the greater their motivation for agentic behaviours. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the maiden attempt to investigate job crafting and thriving at work from the congruity theory perspective, thereby offering a novel outlook to this research domain.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND: CONGRUITY THEORY

Congruity theory (Osgood & Tannenbaum, 1955) postulates that people tend to exhibit a favourable attitude towards an object if their beliefs align with that of the object/entity. This favourable attitude develops because consistency in the beliefs between an individual and the object/entity reduces cognitive dissonance. Since cognitive dissonance depletes an individual’s psychological resources and drains energy, people are intrinsically wary of holding incongruity between their beliefs and those of a focal object/entity (Lee & Jeong, 2014). Thus, the greater the consistency between the two beliefs, the more favourable the individual’s attitude and behaviour towards the object/entity. Although congruity theory has been used extensively in the consumer behaviour literature to study loyalty, preference (Boksberger et al., 2011), customer engagement (Roy Bhattacharjee et al., 2023) and emotional attachment (Karatepe et al., 2024), it has received surprisingly scant attention in the organizational behaviour domain.

When applied to the organizational behaviour context, congruity theory would imply that employees will display desirable behaviours (e.g., job crafting) if their beliefs align with the organization’s image. Employees hold opinions about themselves, known as self-image, and tend to display behaviours reinforcing their self-image. When employees’ self-image synchronizes with the organization’s image, they experience ‘self-consistency’ (Aaker, 1997). Self-consistency motivates them to show favourable behaviour towards the organization. Self-consistency also makes the work more meaningful by allowing employees to derive a sense of purpose from what they do. It energizes them to act agentically and invest greater effort in their work.

Similarly, values lie at the core of an individual’s psychological self (Wade-Benzoni et al., 2002) and are pivotal to an employee’s cognitive structure. Value congruity reflects the match between an individual’s and their organization’s values (Chatman, 1989). When employees perceive that their organization’s values align with their own, they feel satisfied and motivated, which ultimately translates into superior performance (Lee & Jeong, 2014). Better congruity in the two value systems entices employees to merge wholly with the organizational system. This enhances motivation, commitment and desire to contribute to the organizational goals through improved person–job fit and agentic work behaviours.

Conceptually, job crafting overlaps with the agentic work behaviour paradigm (Mansour & Tremblay, 2021) and, therefore, can be construed as an outcome of self-image and value congruity. Job crafting captures the self-initiated behaviour of employees to align their job characteristics with their skills, preferences and passions. As such, job crafting can be theorized as a conative representation of the psychological state of congruency of self-image and values of an employee and her organization. Therefore, a positive perception of the opportunities to craft job boundaries coupled with consistency in self-image and value structure is expected to generate a synergetic effect that enriches thriving at work through a seamless alignment of idiosyncratic abilities with job requirements.

HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT

Mapping Job Crafting Perception and Behaviour

The work design in modern-day organizations has experienced a significant transformation due to the onset of the fourth Industrial Revolution. Such change carries crucial implications for employee skills, knowledge and behaviour (World Economic Forum, 2017). Further, the contemporary work environment of volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) nature also bestows greater control to employees over their job characteristics. Consequently, the classic top-to-bottom job design approach has been replaced by a dynamic bottom-up and participative ‘job crafting’ (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001) paradigm. Job crafting is a self-initiated behaviour of employees to align their job characteristics with their skills, preferences and passions (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001). It entails active adjustments in the job structure by choosing tasks, negotiating different job content and assigning meaning to tasks (Parker & Ohly, 2008).

Job crafting is the redefining of job boundaries by actively modifying the tasks to be performed (task crafting), the relations to be developed (relational crafting) and the cognitive representation of one’s job (cognitive crafting) (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001). Entrenched in the job demands–resources (JD-R) theory, job crafting is conceptualized by Tims et al. (2012) as a four-dimensional construct consisting of ‘increasing structural job resources (IstJR)’, for example, soliciting greater participation in decision-making; ‘increasing social job resources (IsoJR)’, for example, requesting peer feedback; ‘increasing challenge job demands (IchJD)’, for example, undertaking arduous assignments; and ‘decreasing hindrance job demands (DhdJD)’, for example, tapering role ambiguity.

The literature highlights several significant antecedents and consequences of job crafting. For instance, selfefficacy and proactive personality (personal resources), job autonomy and leadership style (job resources) (Kim et al., 2018), etc. are considered to be the essential drivers of job crafting behaviour. In contrast, work engagement (Zahoor, 2018), in-role performance (Bakker et al., 2012), extra-role performance (Demerouti et al., 2015) and calling orientation (Karatepe & Kim, 2023) are its widely reported consequences. However, the extent to which employees would craft their jobs is contingent upon their perception of the available opportunities for job crafting (Van Wingerden & Niks, 2017; Van Wingerden & Poell, 2017). Employees tend to craft their jobs if they see the possibility of doing so. Perceived opportunity to craft is the employees’ impression of the opportunities to actively modify their job boundaries regarding tasks, relations, cognitions, resources and demands (Van Wingerden & Poell, 2017). ‘The sense of freedom or discretion employees have in what they do in their job and how they do it’ (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001) is known as ‘perceived opportunity to craft’.

Job crafting perception enriches the drive to cultivate social and structural job resources and challenge job demands while restraining the motivation to decrease hindering job demands (Mansour & Tremblay, 2021). Similarly, Van Wingerden et al.’s (2013) qualitative study found that those teachers who participated in the job crafting intervention but still did not craft their job reported that they did not see the opportunity to do that. They felt that their managers’ attitude, the behavioural pattern of the job and the organizational culture did not facilitate job crafting. Contrarily, job boundaries were crafted by those who perceived the possibilities to do so. Recently, Zahoor (2021) has also found convincing evidence for the positive impact of POC on JC in a sample of Indian frontline banking employees.

Based on these arguments, a favourable job crafting perception will nurture job crafting behaviour. The conservation of resources (COR) theory offers a sound elucidation for this relationship. The COR theory (Hobfoll, 1989) argues that resource accumulation initiates a cascading journey wherein ‘initial gains result in future gains’. As such, when employees perceive encouraging opportunities for job crafting, they tend to accumulate further resources by, for example, proactively seeking autonomy in performing challenging tasks, soliciting feedback from co-workers and mitigating hindrances in work performance. Thus, high POC cultivates employees’ personal and job resourcefulness, which nurtures their motivation and thriving at work. Therefore, we hypothesize the following:

H₁: Perceived opportunities to craft positively influence job crafting behaviour.

Mapping Job Crafting and Thriving at Work

‘Individuals might find ways to craft their jobs’ and ‘can become more active agents in shaping the contexts that enable their thriving’ (Spreitzer et al., 2005). Two theoretical underpinnings can help understand this association—COR theory (Hobfoll, 1989) and broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 2001).

The COR theory (Hobfoll, 1989) argues that resources engender resources, thus creating resource caravans that ultimately help individuals derive pleasure from their work and facilitate the realization of goals. This implies that the more resources an employee cultivates, the higher their tendency to cascade and deploy those resources for personal and professional growth. Specifically, resource-rich employees, by expanding their existing resources, can create pathways for enthusiasm and additional learning opportunities (Kira et al., 2010). Similarly, shouldering challenging tasks cultivates knowledge and even facilitates attaining ambitious objectives (LePine et al., 2005). As a result, increasing social and structural resources through job crafting is likely to translate into vitality and learning at the workplace, and embracing challenges fosters personal growth, development and learning, self-efficacy, motivation, engagement and performance (Mansour & Tremblay, 2021).

Additionally, Fredrickson’s (2001) broaden-and-build theory proposes that employees are inherently inclined to broaden their thought–action repertoire to discharge work roles efficiently. Evidence suggests that positive emotions such as happiness, joy, contentment, etc. (Fredrickson, 2001) significantly enhance growth and development prospects. In the present study, increasing resources and challenges and mitigating hindrances would engender positivity and encourage employees to invest greater effort in work (vitality). In the process, the employee advances on the learning curve by acquiring additional skills and knowledge. In the light of these arguments, it is plausible to hypothesize the following:

H_2a: Job crafting behaviour positively influences vitality.

H_2b: Job crafting behaviour positively influences learning.

Additionally, based on the preliminary insight by Mansour and Tremblay (2021), we will also explore the possible mediating linkage of job crafting between perceived opportunities to craft and thriving at work. We argue that POC creates a corridor through JC, which enhances learning and vitality. Put differently, when employees perceive favourable conditions for job crafting, they tend to capitalize on such opportunities for realigning their jobs and skills. This ultimately compounds their resources, makes their work more meaningful, improves hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, and enhances vitality and learning. As such, POC nurtures thriving at work by allowing employees to mobilize their resources, undertake challenges and mitigate hindrances while striving for their well-being and achieving goals. Therefore, the following mediational hypothesis is proposed:

H₃: Job crafting mediates the influence of perceived opportunities to craft on thriving at work.

Moderators

Self-image Congruity and Value Congruity

Job crafting has been studied through several theoretical prisms such as JD-R theory (Tims et al., 2012), COR theory (Mansour & Tremblay, 2021), broaden-and-build theory (Zahoor, 2021), stressor–strain–outcome theory (Zahoor & Siddiqi, 2021), etc. To the best of our knowledge, congruity theory has never been utilized to gain insights into the dynamics of job crafting. Moreover, recent studies (e.g., Mansour & Tremblay, 2021; Van Wingerden & Poell, 2017) have emphasized that future research should investigate the boundary conditions that moderate the relationship between POC, JC and thriving at work. Even though an initial insight into this domain has been offered recently by Zahoor (2021), who reports that the impact of job crafting perception on job crafting behaviour is more robust for proactive employees than reactive ones, the scholarly understanding of this research realm needs improvement. Against this backdrop, we investigate the hitherto unexplored self-image and value congruity as the possible moderating variables that intensify the impact of POC on JC and, subsequently, thriving at work.

Self-image congruity posits that individuals tend to hold specific views about themselves and frequently act in ways that reinforce their self-concept or inch them closer to their ideal selves (Sirgy, 1986). Consequently, employees will likely strengthen the congruity between themselves and the organization’s image, resulting in vitality and learning. Using Hobfoll’s (1989) COR theory argument that individuals create resource caravans, in which one resource cascades into another resource and then another, it is arguable that self-image congruity would create a spillover effect of job requirement–personal skill congruity.

Similarly, the congruity of values between an employee and their organization facilitates extrinsic motivation that drives the achievement of career objectives and intrinsic motivation that renders the work enjoyable. Specifically, intrinsic motivation (Moon et al., 2020) develops meaningfulness and fosters job crafting behaviour and work engagement of employees and, consequently, thriving at work. Congruity of self and values enhances intrinsic motivation and cultivates enthusiasm and passion (Thomas, 2000), leading employees to proactively alter their task, relational and cognitive work boundaries. Employees who experience an enjoyable and satisfying match between their personal and organizational values embrace novel and comprehensive approaches to their work (Lee & Song, 2020). Moreover, work context being crucial for creating a favourable job crafting perception (Tims et al., 2012), the congruity of self and values between the employee and their organization will entail a proactive adjustment of job demands and resources. Consequently, we predict the following:

H_4a: Self-image congruity strengthens the positive impact of perceived opportunities to craft on job crafting behaviour.

H_4b: Value congruity strengthens the positive impact of perceived opportunities to craft on job crafting behaviour.

METHODOLOGY

Data Collection and Sample Demographics

The present study is based on the primary data gathered from a sample of Indian retail banking sector employees located in Jammu and Kashmir. For the sample to be diverse and representative, we used the two-stage quota sampling procedure, carefully considering drawing participants from the urban, semi-urban and rural populace. Accordingly, we first considered Jammu, Srinagar, Anantnag, Baramulla and Rajouri districts of Jammu and Kashmir as different quotas and, subsequently, selected the respondents from each quota on convenience.

A group of students from the Islamic University of Science and Technology were selected to manage the data collection procedure. They were briefed and trained about the purpose of the research, confidentiality of information and other relevant issues regarding data gathering. The students visited the respondents at their workplaces and solicited data after explaining the idea behind the study. The branch manager’s permission was sought before approaching the respondents.

We collected data using a paper questionnaire with two sections. Section I comprised demographic questions such as age, gender and work experience, and Section II contained structured, close-ended Likert-type questions on the variables of interest. The Likert scale continuum ranged from 1 to 5 (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree).

We distributed 576 questionnaires, of which 315 were returned (initial response rate = 54.69%). Consequently, we initiated a follow-up call and received an additional 122 questionnaires, bringing the total to 437 (final response rate = 75.87%). After discarding the incomplete and inconsistent ones, 426 questionnaires were found suitable and thus retained for final analysis. The final sample comprised 231 males (54.22%) and 195 females (45.77%). The average age of the final sample was 41.08 years, and the average work experience was 11.32 years.

Measures

Well-established scales adopted from the existing scholarship in this study area were deployed to measure the constructs. Necessary alterations were incorporated to suit the study context.

Specifically, five items developed by Van Wingerden and Niks (2017) were used to gauge perceived opportunities to craft. Tims et al.’s (2012) second-order 21-item scale measured job crafting. It consists of four sub-scales—‘increasing structural job resources’ (five items), ‘increasing social job resources’ (five items), ‘increasing challenge job demands’ (five items) and ‘decreasing hindrance job demands’ (six items). Ten items developed by Porath et al. (2012) were adopted to capture thriving at work (five items for learning and vitality each). Self-image congruity items were adopted from Gabisch and Gwebu’s (2011) study, and value congruity was measured using three items from Jung and Avolio’s (2000) study.

DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

We used the two-step structural equation modelling approach to arrive at the results. First, we constructed an outer model and tested it using confirmatory factor analysis and other relevant tools. Second, we constructed and tested the structural model using path analysis. We analysed the data using the SPSS and AMOS software packages.

Composite reliability values were used to assess the measuring instrument’s reliability; factor loadings and average variance extracted (AVE) were used to evaluate convergent validity; HTMT ratios were calculated to test divergent validity, and nomological validity was examined through inter-construct correlations. We also tested the data for common method bias using Harman’s single-factor test (Podsakoff et al., 2003). The single factor extracted accounted for 32.17% (<50%) of the variance, indicating that the common method bias is not a concern.

Outer Model

The measurement model, constructed in AMOS, fitted satisfactorily with the data (χ² = 213.68, p < .05, GFI = 0.94, AGFI = 0.91, CFI = 0.92, RMSEA = 0.046). Although the p value is significant, the other goodness-of-fit indices reflect that the proposed factor structure reasonably explains the observed covariance matrix of latent constructs. The results of the outer model indicated that the standardized factor loadings of all the observed items are above the threshold of 0.70 (Hair et al., 2019), suggesting satisfactory convergent validity. Additionally, the average variance extracted for all the constructs is more than 0.50 (Hair et al., 2019), corroborating the convergent validity of the instrument (Table 1).

Table 1:

Inter-construct Correlations, Reliability and Average Variance Extracted.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1. POC	(0.63)
2. IstJR	0.31	(0.59)
3. IsoJR	0.34	0.36	(0.57)
4. IchJD	0.38	0.35	0.31	(0.61)
5. DhdJD	0.26	0.39	0.29	0.23	(0.70)
6. Vit	0.41	0.42	0.33	0.21	0.20	(0.66)
7. Learn	0.31	0.41	0.36	0.25	0.23	0.41	(0.68)
8. VC	0.13	0.39	0.27	0.40	0.31	0.36	0.39	(0.59)
9. SIC	0.11	0.42	0.29	0.41	0.34	0.37	0.36	0.46	(0.66)
10. CR	0.71	0.74	0.86	0.83	0.80	0.79	0.88	0.77	0.87

Notes: POC, perceived opportunity to craft; IsrJR, increasing structural job resources; IsoJR, increasing social job resources; IchJD, increasing challenge job demands; DhdJD, decreasing hindrance job demands; Vit, vitality; Learn, learning; VC, value congruity; SIC, self-image congruity; CR, construct reliability.

Figures along the diagonal in parenthesis are AVE values.

Regarding discriminant validity, the HTMT ratios are within the acceptable upper limit of 0.85 (Henseler et al., 2015), indicating that the constructs are divergent enough to be considered separate variables in the nomological network (Table 2). Finally, the scale’s nomological validity is established through the inter-construct correlations, which appositely reflect the underlying theoretical linkages between the constructs (Table 1).

Table 2:

HTMT Ratios of Divergent Validity.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
1. POC
2. IstJR	0.216
3. IsoJR	0.124	0.219
4. IchJD	0.237	0.230	0.338
5. DhdJD	0.310	0.309	0.506	0.543
6. Vit	0.306	0.411	0.517	0.561	0.213
7. Learn	0.371	0.426	0.601	0.610	0.265	0.179
8. VC	0.408	0.513	0.413	0.417	0.377	0.186	0.271
9. SIC	0.263	0.227	0.212	0.304	0.381	0.289	0.309	0.143

Note: POC, perceived opportunity to craft; IsrJR, increasing structural job resources; IsoJR, increasing social job resources; IchJD, increasing challenge job demands; DhdJD, decreasing hindrance job demands; Vit, vitality; Learn, learning; VC, value congruity; SIC, self-image congruity.

Figure 1:

Note: IstJr, increasing structural job resources; IsoJR, increasing social job resources; IchJD, increasing challenge job demands; DhdJD, decreasing hindrance job demands.

Structural Model and Hypothesis Testing

To investigate the impact of the predictor variables on the outcome variables (as reflected in Figure 1), we constructed a structural model to estimate the path coefficients. The model fit indices indicated that the hypothesized model fitted with the observed data (χ² = 127.54, p > .05, GFI = 0.95, AGFI = 0.92, CFI = 0.94, RMSEA = 0.050). The standardized beta estimates indicated supportive evidence for the hypothesized relationships.

Specifically, job crafting behaviour is significantly enhanced by a favourable perception of the crafting opportunities (β = 0.386, p < .01). Also, the more the employees engage in job crafting, the more it improves their learning (β = 0.293, p < .01) and vitality (β = 0.281, p < .01). The results also suggest that the relationship between job crafting perception and thriving at work is partially explained by the mediating effect of job crafting behaviour (indirect effect = 0.138, p < .05; direct effect = 0.216, p < .01) (see Table 3). Thus, employees who perceive that they can craft their jobs tend to thrive by actually crafting their jobs. These findings indicate that hypotheses H₁, H_2a, H_2b and H₃ can be safely accepted.

Table 3:

Main and Mediating Effects.

Path	Direct Effect	Indirect Effect	Total Effect	Remark
POC → JC	0.386*	–	0.386*	–
JC → Vit	0.281*	–	0.281*	–
JC → Learn	0.293*	–	0.293*	–
POC → JC → TW	0.216*	0.138**	0.354*	Partial mediation

Notes: *p < .01, **p < .05.

POC, perceived opportunities to craft; JC, job crafting; Vit, vitality; Learn, learning; TW, thriving at work.

Interactive Effects

To investigate the role of value congruity and self-image congruity as moderators in the POC–JC linkage, we created two interaction terms between the predictor variable and each moderating variable: (a) POC and VC and (b) POC and SIC. Then, the outcome variable (JC) was regressed on each interaction variable separately to analyse the moderation effects. As can be seen from Table 4, both the moderators (VC and SIC) significantly strengthen the impact of POC on JC. The combined effect of POC and VC on JC is β = 0.197, p < .05, and that of POC and SIC on JC is β = 0.184, p < .05. Both estimates are significant at a 5% significance level. Thus, H_4a and H_4b can be accepted.

Table 4:

Results of Moderation Analysis.

Path	Model I	Model II	Model III
POC → JC	0.316*	0.307*	0.301*
VC → JC		0.244*	0.216*
POC × VC → JC			0.197**
POC → JC	0.316*	0.302*	0.301*
SIC → JC		0.258*	0.223*
POC × SIC → JC			0.184**

Notes: *p < .01, **p < .05.

POC, perceived opportunity to craft; JC, job crafting; VC, value congruity; SIC, self-image congruity.

Moderated Interactive Effects

The results of the structural model revealed that value congruity and self-image congruity significantly moderate the positive impact of POC on JC, which in turn enhances thriving at work. To further analyse the importance of congruity for job crafting and thriving at work, we followed the moderated moderation approach suggested by Yang and Peterson (2004) by dichotomizing the sample on the level of job crafting perception. One group consisted of participants whose POC scores were above the average value, and the other included those with POC scores less than or equal to the mean. Then, a multigroup moderation analysis was performed with the interaction terms as predictors, job crafting as the outcome and the two groups as categorical moderators. The results (shown in Table 5) indicate that the difference between the beta estimates across the two groups is insignificant for both value congruity and self-image congruity, indicating that the moderation by VC and SIC is consistent across high and low levels of POC.

Table 5:

Results of Moderated Moderation Analysis.

Path	POC		t-score	Sig.
Path	>Mean	≤Mean	t-score	Sig.
POC × VC → JC	0.199**	0.194**	1.239	> 0.05
POC × SIC → JC	0.181**	0.186**	1.417	> 0.05

Notes: **p < .05.

POC, perceived opportunity to craft; JC, job crafting; VC, value congruity; SIC, self-image congruity.

DISCUSSION

In the organizational context, an employee’s job crafting behaviour is determined by their perception of the possibilities available to engage in job crafting (Mansour & Tremblay, 2021; Van Wingerden & Poell, 2017). This association is more robust for proactive employees than for reactive ones (Zahoor, 2021). What remained to be known is whether any other boundary conditions impact the POC–JC association. We addressed this issue in the current research by deploying the congruity theory paradigm to explore the interactive role of value congruity and self-image congruity in catalysing the impact of POC on JC. Secondarily, we also examined how employees’ thriving at the workplace, captured through their vitality and learning, is shaped by their job crafting behaviour. That is, do employees nurture their vitality and learning by (a) increasing their structural and social resources, (b) embracing the new challenging roles that demand straining effort but generate satisfaction once accomplished or (c) mitigating hindrances in the way of enhancing engagement and delivering superior work performance?

The results were encouraging for both primary and secondary objectives. Empirical support was found for all the hypotheses, indicating that the perception of job crafting opportunities significantly enhances employees’ job crafting behaviour, ultimately improving their vitality and learning. This finding aligns with the earlier study by Mansour and Tremblay (2021). The positive association between POC and JC corroborates previous research works, such as those of Zahoor (2021) and Van Wingerden and Poell (2017). Most importantly, we also observed that the impact of POC on JC is strengthened in the presence of self-image congruity and value congruity. This finding is novel to the job crafting literature and holds important practical implications besides enriching our academic understanding of the job crafting paradigm.

Employees need to be energetic and consistently learning to deliver satisfactory customer service. Employees’ physical, social and psychological resources are vital during service interactions. However, the myriad of taxing work challenges and stressful job demands employees face severely damage their vitality, engagement and, ultimately, performance. Persistent stress and exhaustion even lead to withdrawal behaviour, which is detrimental to the employee and the organization. As a result, employees tend to continuously explore ways that prevent exhaustion and burnout while ensuring growth, learning and thriving. The present study found that via job crafting, employees can accumulate social and structural resources that would enhance their vitality and learning and help them stay energetic at work.

Regarding the role of challenging tasks, routinization (i.e., lack of variety in work) sets in exhaustion and, consequently, withdrawal behaviour (Deery et al., 2002). Employees who take on challenging tasks prevent monotony and its adverse effects such as demotivation, laziness and disengagement. Individuals who challenge themselves through job crafting stay engaged and perform better than their counterparts (Bakker et al., 2012). They exhibit superior in-role performance (Bakker et al., 2012) and extra-role behaviours (Demerouti et al., 2015), which nurture a culture of organizational citizenship behaviour and its accompanying benefits at the workplace.

THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTION

The study complements the existing literature by (a) highlighting the role of self-image and value congruity in enhancing the job crafting behaviour of employees, (b) examining the effect of job crafting perception and behaviour in nurturing the learning and vitality of employees at the workplace and (c) emphasizing the mediating mechanism of job crafting behaviour to explain the passageway through which the perceived opportunities to craft affect the thriving of employees.

To the best of our knowledge, this study is the maiden attempt to examine the antecedents (perceived opportunities to craft) and consequences (thriving at work) of job crafting behaviour from the congruity theory prism. While job crafting has been previously studied using the JD-R theory (Tims et al., 2012), COR theory (Mansour & Tremblay, 2021), broaden-and-build theory (Zahoor, 2021) and stressor–strain–outcome theory (Zahoor & Siddiqi, 2021) as the theoretical bedrocks, congruity theory has, somehow, eluded the attention of scholars. As such, the current research offers a fresh perspective on the job crafting research that has been unfamiliar to date. Given that we detected a significant positive association of value congruity and self-image congruity of employees with their job crafting behaviour, the present study has meaningfully incremented the theoretical insights of the precursors of job crafting behaviour.

Second, sustainable organizations endure adverse economic situations and can engender satisfactory performance on the triple bottom line of economic, environmental and human dimensions (Spreitzer et al., 2012). However, unlike the economic and environmental aspects, the role of the human dimension in fostering sustainability has been sparsely studied (Spreitzer et al., 2012). Consequently, we tried to fill this gap by examining the factors contributing to human resource development in business organizations by enhancing their vitality and learning at the workplace. Towards that end, we conceptualized job crafting perception and behaviour as the possible antecedents of employees’ thriving and found promising evidence. We selected job crafting as the predictor of thriving because it was recently flagged as a significant factor that enhances learning and vitality (Mansour & Tremblay, 2021). Therefore, we deemed it pertinent to cross-validate these findings in a different context to generate a sound basis for generalizing results and advancing theory.

Finally, the extent to which job crafting behaviour is shaped by the perception of the latitude to craft the job has been the focus of researchers in recent times (e.g., Mansour & Tremblay, 2021; Van Wingerden & Poell, 2017). However, only a few empirical investigations have been carried out to validate the impact of POC on JC (e.g., Mansour & Tremblay, 2021; Zahoor, 2021). Against this backdrop, this study’s findings are a step towards bolstering the empirical validation of the conceptual association between job crafting perception and behaviour, thus highlighting the relevance of contextual factors in shaping job crafting behaviour. As research is scarce on the organizational role in facilitating job crafting behaviour (Van Wingerden & Niks, 2017), the present study is a stepping-stone that can afford further research in this direction to expand our understanding of the role of managerial intervention in nurturing job crafting culture in organizations.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

In addition to the theoretical advancement of job crafting and thriving at work research streams, this study’s findings have several important implications for practice.

We identified job crafting of frontline banking employees as a significant driver of their learning and vitality. Thus, for business managers to ensure that their workforce is consistently energetic and on an upward learning trajectory, job crafting must be supported, encouraged and, perhaps, rewarded. A vibrant and learning workforce is particularly indispensable under the current VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) work environment and the challenges of the fourth Industrial Revolution. It is, therefore, advised that instead of devising narrow and rigid boundaries of desired employee behaviour, a broader framework for performance must be established. Within that framework, employees should be offered a generous leeway to express themselves by modifying their tasks, relations and cognitions. Proper alignment of skills and tasks will engender several desirable consequences at the individual and organizational levels (e.g., engagement, motivation, learning, vitality, etc.). After all, in the contemporary dynamic business landscape, personal responsibility and performance are valued more than inflexible job descriptions (Van Wingerden & Poell, 2017).

However, focusing managerial attention directly on job crafting would not be prudent if employees’ perception of the job crafting opportunities is low (Van Wingerden & Niks, 2017). Therefore, appropriate interventions must be designed to cultivate a favourable perception among the employees about the organizational commitment towards job crafting behaviour. This might include institutionalizing a formal reward mechanism for job crafting akin to the regular performance assessment. Just like the performance of employees is measured and rewarded in organizations, so must be their job crafting behaviour. It would create a motivating perception of job crafting opportunities and nurture a proactive culture of job crafting behaviour.

Moreover, offering employees opportunities for professional development, fostering a sense of agency in their work and providing (constructive) feedback on their job crafting efforts favourably affect their job crafting perception (Wrzesniewski, 2003). When employees realize that they have reasonable autonomy to discharge their work roles and their creativity is appreciated, it motivates them to be proactive at work. The beneficial effects of job crafting can be harvested through employee learning and vitality if organization-level measures are directed at fostering the self-image and value congruity of the employees. Human resource managers are advised to use advanced data generation and management technologies (e.g., Big Data) to capture employee-specific information that would help foster employee–organization congruity and its ensuing benefits.

Congruency between employees and the organization also serves as a competitive advantage by enhancing employee commitment and citizenship behaviour. As espoused in the resource-based view of the firm (Wernerfelt, 1984), an enriching and enduring bond between the employees and the organization renders the human resource valuable, rare, costly to imitate and non-substitutable (VRIN) (Barney, 1991), thereby facilitating competitive advantage. Therefore, human resource managers are recommended to enhance interactivity with the employees (e.g., using organization-specific chatrooms and institutionalizing grapevine communication, etc.) that would generate valuable and customized information for better employee management, person–job fit and learning environment.

The findings of this study can also be embedded into the organizational selection and recruitment procedure. Specifically, a website is the first interface between an organization and its prospective employees. Therefore, managerial intervention is recommended to vividly showcase organizational values and beliefs on the organization’s website. It will attract a talent pool whose self-concept will be strengthened by the fulfilling experience of congruity between the self and the organization. Their sense of belonging will foster commitment and motivation for learning and growth, leading to personal and organizational development.

LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

Despite affording a few worthwhile contributions to the extant literature, our study is open to limitations. First, we used cross-sectional data and, therefore, cannot claim causality between the constructs examined in the study. Longitudinal studies may be conducted to generate robust insights into the dynamics of job crafting, congruity and thriving at work. Second, we examined only two moderating variables, namely self-image congruity and value congruity. This leaves scope for investigation of other boundary conditions that could catalyse/inhibit the impact of POC on JC, like resilience, autonomy, self-efficacy, resourcefulness, etc. Third, our study sample was limited to the banking sector. Therefore, the study must be replicated in other sectors to validate the findings. Finally, we investigated job crafting as a precursor to thriving at work. Job crafting is conceptualized as an enactment of personality. As dispositional traits are crucial for learning and vitality, it would be interesting to explore whether idiosyncratic personality dispositions of employees, like proactive personality, can explain variance in their thriving.

Footnotes

DECLARATION OF CONFLICTING INTERESTS

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

FUNDING

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

ORCID ID

Adil Zahoor

Adil Zahoor is an assistant professor at the Department of Management Studies, Islamic University of Science and Technology, Jammu and Kashmir, India. He completed his BBA and MBA from the University of Kashmir and also holds a PhD from the same university. He was a gold medallist at the undergraduate as well as postgraduate levels and is also UGC NET-JRF qualified. His research papers have been published in journals such as the International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers, Journal of Contemporary Marketing Science, Decision, Vision: The Journal of Business Perspective and Business Perspectives and Research, among others.

e-mail: adylzahoor7@gmail.com

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Nurturing Job Crafting Behaviour and Thriving at Work: A Congruity Theory Perspective

Abstract

Executive Summary

Keywords

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND: CONGRUITY THEORY

HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT

Mapping Job Crafting Perception and Behaviour

Mapping Job Crafting and Thriving at Work

Moderators

Self-image Congruity and Value Congruity

METHODOLOGY

Data Collection and Sample Demographics

Measures

DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

Outer Model

Inter-construct Correlations, Reliability and Average Variance Extracted.

HTMT Ratios of Divergent Validity.

Structural Model and Hypothesis Testing

Main and Mediating Effects.

Interactive Effects

Results of Moderation Analysis.

Moderated Interactive Effects

Results of Moderated Moderation Analysis.

DISCUSSION

THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTION

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

Footnotes

DECLARATION OF CONFLICTING INTERESTS

FUNDING

ORCID ID

References