Cognitive job crafting: A new and promising method to redesign your job A study examining the relationship between cognitive job crafting, authenticity, and employee well-being

Abstract

The present study has explored the association between cognitive job crafting, authenticity, and employee well-being (i.e., high levels of work engagement and low levels of burnout). In addition, the added value of cognitive job crafting was examined, over and above the contribution of behavioral job crafting. Data were collected among 249 participants, 113 men (45.4%) and 136 women (54.6%). The vast majority of the participants were recruited using the database of Derks & Derks B.V., a consultancy agency for recruitment, selection and assessment, with its focus on the life science industry. The direct effects in this study were examined using simple and multiple regression analyses with bootstrapping (5000 samples). The mediation effects were examined using the PROCESS macro with bootstrapping (5000 samples, Hayes, 2013). Two dimensions of cognitive job crafting were found, namely organization-focused cognitive job crafting and self-focused cognitive job crafting. The results showed that organization-focused cognitive job crafting had added value in predicting employee well-being, over and above the contribution of behavioral job crafting. This relationship was partially being mediated by authenticity. This study adds to the existing literature, underlining the relevance of cognitive job crafting and the importance of further exploring its effects.